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Padfootx13

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Posts posted by Padfootx13

    I Think He Has Worms Again...

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Yes! This is exactly what we're going through. Like never really having perfect bouncy poo's, always soft to an extent-and then random runs, and mucous.

    I'm going to save this and do your plan with the re-dosing after 21 days, then again after 3 months.

    Thank you for this! I'm happy you guys finally got relief.

     

    I thought it sounded really similar! It's so frustrating, but eventually you will find what works. I hope that our regiment works for you! FWIW, we go to a vet in Holliston that is really familiar with former racing greyhounds and their deworming needs after the track.

     

     

    Yep. Sentinel protects against worms.

     

    FWIW, it is probably not possible to eradicate the hooks at this point. The idea is to get rid of any heavy parasite load in her gut and then prevent that from reoccurring. A couple of types of worms, including hooks encyst in other organs of the body and dewormers aren't capable of eliminating those cysts. For hooks a common location is the lungs. So the larvae emerge from the cyst, the dog coughs it up and then swallows it and the larvae then develops into the adult worm and attaches to the intestine, which is what causes the GI symptoms you see. The deworming medication added to certain heartworm preventatives is intended to kill those adult worms before they can cause illness. But again, they're not getting at the existing cysts or the larvae as they migrate.

     

    My personal feeling (and this has changed over time because I generally like to avoid giving my dogs chemicals unnecessarily) is that dogs that have had a positive result for hooks or other worms that work this way, especially when the hooks weren't eradicated easily or the dog came off of the track with them (meaning they probably had the infestation for a long period of time) should remain on a Heartworm preventative with additional dewormer (like Sentinel) year round regardless of winter months where the risk of heartworm disease is low simply because it will hopefully be effective at keeping the worms at bay if there are cysts in other organs and hopefully preventing needing multiple rounds of dewormer like Panacur in the future. Like I said, FWIW. :P

     

    I didn't realize this! It sounds like great advice. Your method sounds like a great idea, we will definitely look into Sentinel if Padfoot has another recurrence.

    I Think He Has Worms Again...

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Your experience sounds really similar to ours (minus the poop-eating), so I would say it's likely that the one round here and there didn't get the hookworms completely out.

     

    When we adopted our boy he had been treated for hookworm with one 3 day dose of panacur. He never really had good solid poops until about 3 months later, when we switched him to a lower fat content food with beef. Since he had several negative fecals despite runny poops the vet thought it could be related to diet or poultry protein. His poops were always hit-or-miss and would be solid for a while then every so often it would be soft. And always negative fecals.

     

    Fast forward to about 8 months after we adopted him. We moved, switched vets, and one day he had a little bit of blood in one stool and it was mucous-y, so we sent in another fecal and it was positive for hookworm AND whipworm. We treated him one 3 day dose of panacur, then again 21 days later for 3 days, then again 3 months later for 3 days. That finally knocked it out and he has had solid poops since. Our new vet thinks that they were there the whole time but because we never caught the fecal at the right time with shed eggs in the poop, they weren't detected.

     

    Good luck! Worms are a pain to deal with, but hopefully with rigorous treatment Fusion (and you) will get some relief!

    Highly Selective Dog-Chasing

    in Training and Behavior discussion

    Posted

    Hi Rotifera (as an aside- is your name referencing the Phylum? if so, that is awesome!)

     

    We have a greyhound that is definitely not dog park material. I realize that for some greyhounds it works, but ours will do the same as your dog. If the dog is only running away from him, he "flips a switch" so to speak and will essentially run them down. It only took one time of him doing that for us to realize we needed to keep him out of that environment. It only takes one time for something to happen, and after all we want to set our dogs up to succeed.

     

    2 months isn't very long to be used to playing with toys, etc. so I would keep trying and he may get the hang of it. It took a few months but now our GH likes to play fetch with large stuffy toys.

     

    The other thing I will recommend, if you haven't tried already, is a flirt pole. It's essentially a large cat-toy that has a toy or other item tied on the end of a piece of rope or bungee (something with some give) and that is attached to a stick. We made ours by taking a small diameter piece of PVC and threading a nylon rope with some give through it to make a length of about 5 feet on the end and then tied a toy with no stuffing to it. Hopefully that makes sense.

     

    Our boy will chase that like no-ones business even though he will not run all out with just us or a toy alone. We take that into an empty dog park and he will go to town.

     

    Just a suggestion if you want to get him to exercise sans other dogs :)

    New Adopters - First Full Day At Home

    in Training and Behavior discussion

    Posted · Edited by Padfootx13

    Hi there! Congratulations on finally getting Dobby home! :)

     

    Sounds like things are going well so far. Give him some time to acclimate to a new life. Even though was fostered and lived in a home before, this is a whole new family, house, schedule to get used to. Give him some time, lots of patience and understanding, and he will settle in time.

     

    Also, I would second putting the bed in your bedroom if the crate doesn't fit. We use a crate for the daytime but have never done so for the nighttime. Padfoot wouldn't be able to settle without being in the same room sleeping as us at night. We closed off the door so that he couldn't explore/pee on things but he settled on his bed and (mostly) slept through the night. I would say for that first week we had a moderate amount of whining and then that was it.

    Some Questions Before I Take The Plunge

    in Training and Behavior discussion

    Posted

    Our greyhound was my first dog and my husband's first dog as an adult. We didn't expect to adopt one, we didn't go through a specific Greyhound rescue, and it was fine. Use common sense and look up stuff here or in the excellent books recommended above if you have questions. When we were ready to adopt another dog (about 8 months later) we went through a specific Galgo rescue, had done a lot of research on the dogs and knew what to expect.

     

    Don't overthink it. There is a lot of information to get wrapped up in.

    We still use crates for our boys when we are gone for work days. It keeps them safe when we aren't home and they settle down well in them (better than when they are left out). Some dogs like them some don't, so you may end up getting a crate and not needing it. You can try to borrow one. We knew we would crate initially when we were gone for work so we wanted our first greyhound to stay out of the crate for the evening. We got a bed for him and he has slept there every night since we adopted him over a year ago. Our second sleeps on another bed on the other side of our bed. The crate is usually best placed in a central area of the living space if possible. That can help with them knowing you are really gone and not just in another area of the house.

    I would be worried about leaving access to the basement at all times just in case he is not the best stair climber. If you can manage it, don't just leave him alone for a full work day all at once, try going out and doing a few errands on that time that you have off to help him adjust to the setup you will have when he is gone and a routine for when you leave. You may want to get a dog walker at first if you are gone for a full work day.

    Like I said, there is a lot of information to get wrapped up in. There isn't really one answer for everything, each dog is a little unique in their own way and they will develop more personality the longer you have them. Our boy loved stuffies to begin with (first thing he did when we brought him home was run into our bedroom and grab a stuffed animal) but didn't learn to fetch until several months in. They are smart. Now he loves to run after stuffed animals and he will bring them back to you and push it towards you to throw again.

    Enjoy the trial and error process at the beginning and congratulations on wanting to take the plunge!

    First Time Pet Owners - Starter List Of Things To Have At Home For A G

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    So glad to see you on here! Maybe some time after you have settled in with your new dog we will see you on a walk or we could get together for a play date.

     

    I always love to see other Harry Potter named hounds, though I'm sure the other 6 names you have will be perfect too :)

     

    Christine, the trainer, is great with greyhounds. She is also a huge proponent of getting them to be therapy dogs (if they have the right personality, of course).

    First Time Pet Owners - Starter List Of Things To Have At Home For A G

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted · Edited by Padfootx13

    Thanks, MaryJane!

     

    Own a couple of books on greys now and Greyhound adventures was teh group that we went on a walk with to see greyhounds with their parents :-) such an awesome group to work with.

    Welcome! Everything will be fine, you sound really prepared! Enjoy your time of getting to know your pup and all the excitement leading up to it!!

     

    Just another note to add...If you are interested in doing training, there is a great Greyhounds Only obedience class through Especially for Pets in Westborough. We love the trainer and she was actually one of our references when we adopted our galgo. :)

     

    Are you by chance the couple that we met on the walk at Worlds End?

    Barking When Waking Up

    in Training and Behavior discussion

    Posted · Edited by Padfootx13

    It definitely seems more instinctual. Sometimes we are in the room with him, but most often he does it after falling asleep in a room by himself. Can they sleep startle themselves awake? It does seem to make sense, since he acts like something happened to cause him to run out of the room and start barking.

    Most of the time we can calm him down with pets and talking sweetly to him but sometimes even after he's stopped he will run off and start to bark again. He does take a while to wake up completely under most normal circumstances though.

    Barking When Waking Up

    in Training and Behavior discussion

    Posted

    So this is more behavioral but I'm curious if anyone has any experience with this.

     

    We find that Lupin barks about 5-6 times a week for a couple minutes at a time. We knew he would, being a galgo, and it doesn't bother us, but the circumstances when he barks are a little odd to us. It's almost always right after he wakes up and there never seems to be a reason. He will wake up from what appears to be a dead sleep and run into another room then start barking. We used to think that he heard something, but it has happened on several occasions where absolutely nothing (that we could hear) changed. We keep our window shades closed at night so he can't see out of them, and he doesn't seem to have a target that he is barking AT.

     

    Is it possible he is waking up from bad dreams or nervous that he fell asleep in a room we weren't and thinks he's alone?

     

    Again, it's not something that we need to fix, just something that we are curious about.

     

    He is adapting QUITE well :)

     

    Photoon8-16-14at1144PM_zps4cc99640.jpg

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