MattB

I'd welcome that but even with all the doors open they won't sleep downstairs unless I go with them :s

Thank you for these - I've been putting blankets on them at bedtime - this doesn't seem to make a difference but perhaps some PJs would be better. We always used to close the bedroom door but this doesn't seem to help either. Interesting re: noice, perhaps that's it, I also wondered (but realised I didn't mention above) if it's neighbours waking them up - this would account for why they don't hear them downstairs (neighbours bedrooms are other side of the wall to ours). I can try turning off some electrical devices. We've got a CO detector so I hope that all is ok in that regard.

After weeks of terrible night's sleep I am exhausted and looking for ideas. We've always let or two hounds sleep in our room and have gotten on fine but I've usually been woken up early when they think it's time for breakfast. This was OK but in the last month or two they've started waking up and crying frantically every couple of hours. If I ignore them one starts to bark so I always let them out in the yard. Sometimes they go to the toilet and sometimes they don't. In an effort for my partner to get some sleep I changed to the spare room, the hounds sleep with my partner but come and wake me up regularly. So I moved downstairs to the floor... Both dogs sleep right through without fail. 8hrs without moving. So I'm on the floor in the lounge with the dogs on the sofas, not ideal long term but we're all getting more sleep than we have been. I'm wondering if there's something upstairs that is happening to wake them? We have a bed that is a bit creaky, that's my only thought - any suggestions?

I've experienced this with all four of our hounds. They love their ears rubbed but will yelp sometimes even with very little pressure. They also push their ears hard against me when I'm rubbing. Charlie also likes the milking action. I've found all of the hounds get a fair bit of wax in their ears which they have all loved to have cleaned with cotton buds and wet wipes.

Thanks all I watched a video and I didn't think it sounded like the dog I saw with laryngeal paralysis I don't think but I should have videoed Daisy to compare. The vet reckons possibly asthma, there was no gag reflex and as it is a fairly recent development has suggested keeping an eye on it for a while and trying an inhaler if it continues.

My 7yo girl Daisy is going to the vets tomorrow - originally to talk about ongoing arthritis management however recently she's started coughing and wheezing quite badly after running. She's always coughed a little bit after running and I'd put this down to fitness but mentioned this to the vet on several occasions. She has a mild heart murmur, it was emphasised by one vet that they have a scale and it had the lowest score they have, this wasn't picked up by the next vet but I mentioned it and they said we would monitor it at 6 monthly visits. I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on this - I suppose the two could be unrelated. Would getting very out of breath be normal for a dog of this age? We do all our walks on the leash and, although we have two walks a day, Daisy runs around quite rarely and then it's usually laps of a relatively small back garden. After running she's always panted heavily for a long time.

This might sound odd and i could be wrong buy I have a grey with sleep startle but on our bed it's like he is in a different mode where he doesn't sleep as deeply out expects to be woken up. His sleep startle while still not gone completely is much better than when he arrived.

Thanks GeorgeofNE I think that's a nice way to look at it. It would have been helpful for me to be more specific - Previcox (227mg) daily but I'm not sure if the plan would be to continue with that medication/dosage or change.

Daisy has arthritis, recently confirmed by x-ray. Currently she's on a month's worth of pain meds and we'll see how she goes after that. I've got her on some joint aid supplements and will go back to the vet at the end of the month to talk about long term management. We took her off the meds for a week (i.e. 2 weeks on, one week off, 2 weeks on) and I couldn't really see a difference. Daisy runs around like mad in the garden, demands (!) walks and, with or without meds, I've seen a very occasional limp (on the same hard ground) which I'm not even sure if I'm imagining. Anyway my query was about exercise. We're on-leash all the time as we live in a built up area and Daisy is nervous and highly prey driven so we're only off-leash in enclosed spaces which are hard to come by. From what I understand gently exercise is important and much better than vigorous exercise. However I'm wondering whether the occasional opportunity to run is detrimental? We have previously hired a field and we're visiting my mum at the weekend who has some enclosed space which Daisy loves to run around. But at the same time I don't want to do anything that's going to speed up any damage to her joints. So I will discuss pain management with the vet at our next appointment but I'd really appreciate people's thoughts on the best way for Daisy to be exercising.

I muzzle but due to waiting room mainly. After a few visits I feel confident they're OK with the vet but I'm wary of the narrow busy waiting room and other dogs.

Thanks John, I read that article. Do you know what I should be looking for with the toothpaste?

JJ Grey - might be completely unrelated but has anyone checked Jay Jay's neck/back - my dad's (non gh) has hurt his back and is complaining similarly with stairs - might well be completely irrelevant to your situation but it's just happened so thought I'd mention. moofie - thanks for that I've not heard of a sports vet. Daisy's doing well at the moment having stopped the meds for a few days. We think (and I've just posted a thread asking for advice) that her cracked paws may be contributing so are trying hard to get on top of these. If we end up going back to the vets I'll ask about cartrophen definitely, not hear of that before.

Before we took her to the vet I think she'd limped slightly on grass but currently I haven't seen her limping at all on grass.

Hi, I'd really appreciate your opinions on this picture of Daisy's paw. I'd previously posted that we took Daisy to the vet to the vet about a limp. An x-ray revealed arthritis and we were given a month's worth of pain meds which we were told to try for two weeks then stop then start again if necessary. I have done this and I'm honestly not sure if they are making a difference. With and without her tablets there is the occasional limp for a couple of steps. The vet did say that Daisy's feet were cracked and we could try shoes but we didn't discuss this as a cause of limping (as I was so concerned about osteo we got x-rays done). However I'm wondering if it's Daisy's paws that are causing her discomfort - when the limping occurs seems to be very specific to particular surfaces, on pavement she's fine but then we pass over some rougher tarmac which sometimes causes the limp, also some gravel. On grass Daisy is her usual self, zoomies, pulling on the lead, pouncing on our other hound. I've got paw creams and wax and I've bought some shoes for Daisy's front paws but I thought it would be good to post a pic of her paws - to me these look like they're really dry and cracked - is this the case? Are these likely to be painful? I've just got our other hound as a reference point who has much smoother pads. Any thoughts much appreciated. Hope you can see this image -->

I'd posted previously about this and Daisy is very well at the moment but again I'm just seeking advice from other greyhound parents (after coming away from the vets a bit unclear) Brief history - Daisy started limping, we took her to vets and she was booked in for an x-ray, while we waited we were given 7 days worth of Previcox (227mg) = no more limping. The x-rays showed some arthritis and we were given 30 days worth of Previcox (227mg) again and have seen no limping for the last 2 weeks. The vet said that we could try stopping the tablets after 2 weeks (stopping them for a week). I'm just wondering what the aim of this is? If I stop after 2 weeks and Daisy is no longer limping do we carry on as we were unmedicated? (I've added joint supplement as suggested by the vet) or is it important that we give her a whole month's worth of medication? I'm wondering what our plan longer term should be? I'm presuming we wouldn't expect to be using this doseage of this medication permanently?

Thank you so much. Yes it has made my Christmas. Daisy and us have many more adventures planned for the new year

We're back post surgery and I'm relieved - very clear x-rays looked at by vet + specialist and couldn't see any signs of osteo. Daisy has worse arthritis than expected for a dog her age affecting the elbow and wrist so we're going back next week to talk about management - I'll have thoroughly checked this forum prior to this! I know arthritis isn't great but more manageable than alternatives. Re: suspicious lump, this was a cyst which has now been squeezed - they think it might come back but definitely isn't anything to worry about. Three teeth extracted and a lovely set of white teeth After spending a week thinking of nothing else I'm very happy. Daisy is sleeping and has a rumbling tummy so I'm going to make her something bland soon. Took her in the garden on a lead for a wee and she was eager to check out the bushes where she saw a cat a few days ago. Thanks so much everyone for your advice, it means a lot.

We picked up the scaredest dog I'd ever seen just over a year ago and it took a long time, we're still making progress so I'd echo what everyone said about time as much of this, I feel, has been down to Daisy learning to trust. Some things that seemed to help in our situation: Plus one for the walks - Daisy always liked walking and, while she wouldn't let me stroke her in the house she was happy for me to occasionally stroke her out on a walk. Also encountering different people, different noises seemed to get gradually easier (at the start if a car was parked in an unusual place we had difficulty walking past it.) After sleeping downstairs for a few weeks I carried Daisy upstairs one evening and she seemed to prefer sleeping with us and this seemed to be a turning point in her confidence growing (she learned stairs quite quickly after that). We had a behaviourist at our house, for the other hound who is/was leash reactive. Daisy used to shake violently when someone came to the house so me or my gf would sit next to her and hug her/stroke her/give her treats. In our minds we were reassuring her that everything was ok and we thought that we were reinforcing the idea that people visited and nice things happened. The behaviourist said 'please leave her alone, you're rewarding nervous behaviour', I don't know if this was correct but we left her alone and she stopped shaking and seemed to relax. It didn't feel like it was a nice thing to do intuitively but we've stopped the constant reassuring (in a human way) to giving her exposure to the situation and letting her decide e.g. whether she'll stay in the room or go elsewhere. She'll sometimes disappear upstairs for a while but will often come down and sit with visitors after they've been in the house for a while but in her own time - if that makes sense!?

I just had another quick thought. I'm trying to stop thinking the worst - however one think I was wondering after reading some other posts on this page: If they do an x-ray and saw something suspicious - would the next thing to do a biopsy? As Daisy would already be under GA would/could this be done there and then? Is this something I should speak to the vet about prior to the surgery? I've found out that we have a consultation with the vet when we drop Daisy off in the morning. On another note Daisy hasn't limped since we left the vets - she is taking the pain meds as prescribed but yesterday I got home and I couldn't stop her from doing laps of the garden and jumping on our other hound. I see why people advised to get an x-ray asap - it's all I can think about now.

After thinking about it, I probably got a little hysterical about it. They're a nice practice and they've got Daisy's notes. I'm worrying about the lump now too!

Thanks NeylasMom, You are right - we'll do everything at once. On reflection we will keep out appointment for next week as we have some time off before Christmas (my gf approaches Christmas with to-do lists and Gantt charts so we're fairly on track with everything). Yes re: NSAIDs the vet said the same that this won't help diagnostically - just that he thought it would help initially. I guess we'll reassess meds after the x-rays.

Thanks so much for all your replies - we're back from our appointment: A very difficult consultation as the vet, although lovely, was Italian and we struggled to understand each other at times. He said he specialises in oncology and sadly himself has a dog with osteo at the moment. The vet spent a long time manipulating Daisy's leg (watched my video and agrees it's the front right) with no pain reaction at all. He said he's fairly certain it's arthritis but also her pads are quite dry and cracked which could also be causing it. He agreed the best thing to do was x-ray. What has complicated things a little further is that the vet found a lump (I've been to see two different vets about this and the first one said leave it a while and the second said she wouldn't remove it as it was a wart) which he said he's concerned about which can be removed at the same time as her dental. We've got 7 days worth of NSAIDs. The plan was to carry out Daisy's dental next Tuesday, remove the lump and take x-rays which I was happy with. When I got back I rang to double check that we were booked in for everything but they said that the vet we saw today couldn't do the whole lot until after Christmas. So I've provisionally booked in with a different vet which I feel less happy about after spending such a long time speaking to this gentleman. What I'm wondering now is if it would be better to have an x-ray prior to a dental and lumpectomy? Would the outcome make any difference? I think I'm catastrophizing again! (Daisy is a spook so I'd thought the less visits to the vet the better). So is my current plan - Next Weds we have dental, lump removal and x-ray done all at once with whichever vet is on at the time - a reasonable one? And lastly - the vet suggested some boots to walk in to help with the dry cracked pads - can anyone recommend some of these?

Thank you - added to my list. Does a positive response to NSAIDs negate the need for an x-ray or should arthritis also be diagnosed through x-ray? i.e. would a reasonable thing to do to try NSAIDs for a week or so and if no improvement then book in for an x-ray after that? I noticed today that when Daisy does her stretches (the down-dog yoga one) there is an audible click which sounds like it's coming from one of her shoulders. Only a couple of hours before our appt. Not much luck filming her limping so far, have got a little bit on camera phone I think - since I've started obsessing about Daisy limping it has become hard to tell when she's limping and when she's not.

Although I know about Lymes disease I've never thought about ticks causing something like this - Daisy has had a couple of ticks when she's visited my mum in the countryside, lots of sheep and deer - I'll mention this to the vet though I'm not sure if it's different in the UK. I'd say yes to more on hard surfaces - I've tried squeezing each pad and no reaction at all but I'll try looking with a flashlight - thank you.

Thank you I really appreciate all these responses, it's nice to have people understand my anxiety. I'll get started on my list. Great idea about the video - don't know why that never crossed my mind! Re: joint supplements, not currently, we used joint aid since we got our hounds then suddenly they refused to eat their food if we added it. I've just ordered another brand to give that a try. I will certainly keep you posted.