NewGrey2017

That is the protocol we used. I'll retest for hooks in January. He was clean April, May, June. My opinion is the breed has a sensitive digestive tract and mine has an even greater sensitivity. Good luck to you.

My boy had hookworms and constant diarrhea. We used a combination of metronidazole, forti flora and olewo carrots. He has remained on the olewo carrots and forti flora for the past year. He now detests the carrots, but we mix them in anyway. I think it has been a combination of the products and simply time to heal a bad gut. He poops about 4-5 times a day, but stays at his racing weight, so we're not overfeeding. He just...likes to poop? In order, they go: Morning - 1. Great 2. Good Evening 3. Good 4. Soft 5. Gross! I would not use the Olewo carrots exclusively as a de-wormer. It took 4 tries with actual de-wormers for us to get a clean report. But I think they are a great product and would highly recommend them.

We got the dog in October of 2017, so probably about January of this year. I will say my dog threw up the Drontal on more than one occasion. We adjusted it to give the Advantix on a Monday and then break the Drontal into 3 halves (1.5 was a dose) and spread that out over a Tuesday. But if the prison protocol is more effective than I'd go with that.

I'll repost the protocol we used that our vet got from Ohio State. This was the email from OSU to our vet: We have had success using monthly topical Advantage Multi, followed by within 24 hrs an appropriate dose of Drontal Plus. Not sure why it works. We used 6 greyhounds, one with >1 yr history of hooks. In several dogs it took up to 3 months for them to go negative whereas others went negative (no ova detected) sooner. At least twice over the 9 month trial, a two owners did not follow the 30 day/monthly dosing and their dogs went positive again. We hope to get this work published as we have just finished the clinical trial. The dogs will remain on the Advantage Multi without the Drontal Plus to see if we can keep them negative. It's in this thread several times, but it did work for us. Our hound is due for a recheck of his thyroid and some other work in January, so I'll probably get the fecal check at that time as well. He hasn't been tested since spring. He has been on Advantage Multi for almost 10 months, so I'll post the results in this topic when I find out.

Mine had no accidents the first week we had him, then I he began to have some "on-purposes" after that. He is a male and was marking is my guess. The best advice is not to take your eyes off him. When he gets up, keep an eye on him to see what he's up to. We would yell NO and take him outside immediately. Took a week or so. I have holes in the blinds and a big one in the TV remote. They eventually figure out what's what. Just keep saying NO and provide an alternative. Soft toys have a 10 minute lifespan when they enter the house. 5 if they have a squeaker. Buy the tougher ones. Mine resource guarded for the first 9 months. It has improved a lot as trust builds, but you never want to fully trust them. We taught him to do the "touch" training and that is as far as we got. The combination of stubborn greyhound and lazy owner has stalled his tricks at one.

We used chicken placed one step out of reach. I was behind him with my shoulder on his butt moving each foot one at a time. Took about 2 days. Down was easier, just grab the collar and go. Keep him between you and the wall/rail. Now if I'm walking up and on the 10th of 12 steps and the dog starts, he still gets to the top before me. Funny thing, he never went down the basement stairs for months until one day we realized we never taught him. It never occurred to us that you had to teach him different stairs differently. That only took about an hour.....and now I think, "Why did I teach him the basement stairs?" Patience + Incentive = Success You'll get there.

Mine threw up when I gave both on same day. Had trouble keeping Drontal down.

Ours had hooks at a 3+ level for the first 4 months we had him. His stomach was a mess. We were food switchers and I think we did him a disservice while trying to help him. For the past 5 months or so, we've fed him Iams Green Bag Mini chunks, a small amount of Iams canned, Olewo carrots (he now hates these and tries to leave them) and one packet of Forti Flora with breakfast. He eats around 6:30AM and 5:00PM. He has been a constant 73 lbs (1 lb over racing weight). When we got him he was 64 and dropped to 62. The vet told me "the hookworms are stealing his protein." To get rid of hooks, we followed this protocol, which our vet got from the greyhound program at Ohio State. This was the email from OSU to our vet: We have had success using monthly topical Advantage Multi, followed by within 24 hrs an appropriate dose of Drontal Plus. Not sure why it works. We used 6 greyhounds, one with >1 yr history of hooks. In several dogs it took up to 3 months for them to go negative whereas others went negative (no ova detected) sooner. At least twice over the 9 month trial, a two owners did not follow the 30 day/monthly dosing and their dogs went positive again. We hope to get this work published as we have just finished the clinical trial. The dogs will remain on the Advantage Multi without the Drontal Plus to see if we can keep them negative. We got 3 negative fecal checks in a row after that protocol and we continue to have him on Advantage Multi. I'll probably get another check in January. The gurgling noise also happens to my dog. It is usually in the morning and he goes and eats grass too. They are a sensitive stomach breed. Mine still throws up here and there and has the occasional bout of diarrhea, but nothing like those first 5 months we had him. I think feeding him the same thing for months has paid off. My advice would be: Less is more. Cut back on everything until the hookworms are gone. Pick a dry food and stick with it and don't add too much in. You'll never know what worked or what made it worse. If you want to add anything, the Olewo Carrots are the only thing I'm positive helped my dog. He hates them, but we sneak them in there. Good luck.

Mine did the "3AM bark like a lunatic" routine until his hookworms were gone. Now we've graduated to, "Are you going to get up or what?"

My greyhound is going through similar. I second the recommendation to get the thyroid checked. Mine is hypothyroid and we are still adjusting the medicine after 3 months.

@macoduck - Thanks. I will look into those. Funny thing, thunder doesn't seem to phase him and he breezed through the 4th of July. @Neylasmom - Thanks. I sent you a PM. FYI - Vet sent Clomicalm to our human pharmacy and it was $370 for 30 days worth. Gulp. So we declined and I'm working with the vet to find an alternative we can afford.

@greysmom - Thanks. He has an XL Kong and he loves it, mainly because it probably tastes like peanut butter by now. He plays with it most nights tossing it in the air and letting it bounce. One day he's going to break the TV screen. He has a puzzle toy, but although he knows there is food in there, he mainly picks it up in his mouth and tosses it. I think it frustrates him. He loves his crate and I've been hesitant to use that as a safe space mainly because I don't want him to change his view of it. We bought a 4' gate for our bedroom (also his bedroom) and I may try that first. He associates that bed with sleeping.

We have discontinued with the behaviorist. They looked at him for 30 minutes and made this recommendation. There was no counter conditioning provided. That came "later" but the initial visit was $545. Not sure I could afford "later". We recently met a neighbor who went to the same group and we both agreed that they were expensive but not helpful. They tried Prozac and their dog became extremely aggressive. Their vet gave them Clomicalm and they said he is like a new dog. I'm trying to do the least harm to our dog. We had the MSU test done April 27th. He has been on the thyroid meds since about May 5th. The vet has been checking his T4 and upping the dosage as we go. On the visit last Saturday, I said we can't go any higher. The vet contacted MSU who said to cut the dosage in half and test his TSH in a few weeks. To paraphrase, too many things "stick" to the T4 in greyhounds for the results to be reliable in a vacuum. Thanks to all for the comments and suggestions. It has been a tough nine months but we remain hopeful. One more question: We have been working with a few behavioral people and our adoption group and ALL of them say to lock him upstairs when we are having people over. (This assumes we know when people are coming over.) They recommend giving him a "chew". I used to give my golden retriever rawhide 20 years ago, but we stopped because he would get very possessive of it and I also read it was terrible for dogs. What do people give their greyhounds that they enjoy and takes them an hour or so to devour?

Yes. We did the 5 panel evaluation at Michigan State. He is hypothyroid. Below is their interpretation. He is on Soloxine and we continue to monkey with the dosage after each blood test. He was at 1.6mg per day, up from 1.2, but we are dropping to .8mg per day. Yesterday he was beyond hyper. Today, he has barely moved, ate grass and not interested in food. Each day is an adventure. "The positive autoantibody results are a marker for lymphocytic thyroiditis. This dog also has a positive T3 autoantibody result. The T3 autoantibody interferes with assay of T3 (false decrease) and free T3 (false increase), so those measured concentrations are not accurate. The combination of low thyroid concentrations, elevation of thyroid stimulating hormone, and positive autoantibody results confirms a diagnosis of hypothyroidism due to lymphocytic thyroiditis. Oral administration of thyroxine is indicated with a follow-up evaluation of the clinical response. Results as these occur in greyhounds but are uncommon. Has there also been weight gain? I was interested to see the description of aggression in the history. Changes in mentation can be a manifestation of hypothyroidism in some dogs. I would appreciate hearing whether or not there is a resolution of the signs of aggression with thyroid supplementation."

Separation anxiety, fear anxiety, general anxiety.....my anxiety. He wants to fight any German Shepherd/or similar sized dog but is terrified of Dachshunds and smaller. He barks in our face every night from 6-9PM. He has bitten me several times, once hard enough to draw blood. He tries to attack many people who enter the house. Some he doesn't care about, but we never know. He wants to kill his reflection in the glass door to the deck. He cries if we go to the bathroom. It's not one specific thing, it's many. We went to a DVM behaviorist who took one look at him and declared him highly stressed. They wanted to give him strong doses of Prozac or similar. We have a neighbor whose aggressive dog became super aggressive on Prozac. Clomicalm worked for them. I want to reduce his stress, but do him the least amount of harm possible. This drug seemed to be a good starting place. It was noted in the I'll Be Home Soon book that we bought.

All - Considering asking vet for a clomicalm prescription. Would be very interested in hearing from those who have used this. Specifically: Why did you use it? What dosage? What was the outcome? Were there any side effects? Thanks so much.

Glad to hear things are moving in a positive direction. It won't be a fast process, but there will be moments that make it worth it. We have had ours 9 months and we are still working through a lot of issues. Reading some of the stories on this forum helped me to realize our situation was not unique. Hope you continue to have success.

When you recondition your reaction to the growl, you will see it as a good thing. It is a warning before a bite. I wish mine would growl more honestly, as he tends to combine the growl with the lunge. The other thing you may want to do is contact your adoption group. Mine paid for me to do a phone consult with a behaviorist. One of the suggestions was to stop petting him for 10 days. The theory was to make him miss being pet. This lasted about 3 days, but we modified it to only petting him when he comes to you.

Yes, this. Mine was very positive for hookworm which is true of many new adoptees these days. He acted as if he was starving until we got these cleared up.

Our greyhound will growl/snap/lunge also. He has bitten my face hard enough to draw blood. He despises my son's girlfriend to the point where we can't have them in the same room. She has 3 dogs and a cat and we think it may be the scent. A couple things I'd suggest that have helped us: 1. Get a more thorough check up. Ours, it turned out, had a heavy hookworm infestation. This took months to clear up. After that, very expensive blood work revealed he is hypothyroid, so he's on meds for that as well. Point being, if your dog doesn't feel well, it could be part of his issue. 2. Don't pet him when he's laying down. Let him come to you for now. When you know him better you can explore what he will tolerate in terms of petting, but err on the side of caution. Mine is at the point where he will paw you if he wants more, but if he doesn't, time to move on. 3. Exercise him, often. Lately mine is so wound up in the evening I have to take him in the yard and run him (this is after 3 miles of walking). This week it has rained too much and evenings are not fun because he does his laps on the hardwood floor. But he will finally settle down when he's tired. 4. Keep him off furniture and don't let him lay in the same spot if it isn't his spot. Ours got very territorial of a spot on the living room carpet. We had to block access to it. Finally, (and I remind myself of this after every incident,) if the dog wanted to kill you, you'd know. He is just telling you that something is bothering him. When these moments occur, I leave the room and he usually follows with what I assume is his version of an apology. Hang in there and best of luck.

It took from November through March to clear my dog from hookworms. Once they were gone, he began to sleep through the night.

We have a similar issue. Mine is very resource focused and will growl/lunge/snap at you if you are near him when he values something. It began about the 5-6 week mark also. If she doesn't keep after you after the first growl or snap, it is probably fear based aggression or perhaps there is a resource she values and she is telling you you're too close to it. A couple things: - If she is growling, don't correct it. You want the growl as a warning to give you time to get away from the situation. - Don't touch her when she's in "her space". - Mine will growl and bark if you read your phone also. I believe it is a plea for attention. This is usually followed by him stealing a shoe, hat or couch pillow. - I'd recommend taking her to your vet and getting blood work done and poop checked. If she has something medically wrong, it could be affecting her mental state. We had a five panel thyroid run and evaluated by MSU, as well as a lot of other blood tests. It turned out that he was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. He's on thyro-tabs and we're still working out the correct dosage. Ask your vet for a behaviorist recommendation. - If you read around this website, your dog is new and if she hasn't been checked for hookworms/parasites, do that immediately. It seems every new dog adopted has these. Mine did and it was 4 months to clear that up. - Our dog HATES my son's girlfriend. She is nothing but nice to him, but for some reason he does not care for any of my kids' friends. We have them enter with treats and start tossing them to him when they come in. He still gets agitated when the treats run out, but at least it gets people in the door. Good luck. Hang in there.

The test for my dog came back 1.8 on an acceptable range of 0.5 - 1.6 ml/dL. That was considered high, but not high enough that I'm going to do anything about it. I'd call your vet and ask what the acceptable range is. They are obviously not using the same scale as my vet or your dog would be critical. From discussion with my vet, creatinine is an indicator for kidney issues.

We need to lobby Costco to switch to the mini-chunks. I miss the early 70's where we fed our schnauzer Alpo, table scraps and leftover bones. That dog essentially ate garbage and lived until he was 15, happy as a clam. My dad even gave him beer on Fridays and Saturdays. Ignorance really was bliss.

We are feeding IAMs green bag currently and interestingly enough, if we feed him the large breed variety, he has a lot of diarrhea. But if we feed him the mini-chunks, he does better. I'm not sure he'll ever do great. I've started adding back the Olewo carrots and I was able to pick up yesterday, which is a vast improvement from the past couple weeks. I just think he has an easier time eating and digesting the smaller pieces. Stinks because Costco carries the large breed version much cheaper than I pay for the mini-chunks.