cgs

Didn't give Percy Heartgard in October and everything was fine. Went back to it this month, so we'll see in the next week or so how things are. The vet said it could be the Heartgard. In the meantime, he's been on the Hills diet and now gets Basmati rice twice a day as well, which seems to be the secret to good poop. We tried brown rice, white rice, uncle ben's rice, but basmati is the winner.

Just looked back at my first post and it wasn't until the end of July that he had a problem, so that would be a month after Heartgard, not a week to 10 days. Still, I'll go back to Advantage Multi next month. I still have some left.

Started him on the Hills food 4 days ago--just a quarter scoop on top of white rice. (Normal meal is 2 scoops each meal). Things were going well until today, when he started doing that squatting and trying to poop thing again. That hasn't happened since the original vet visit. He's had some diarrhea since then but not the weird squatting and not being able to poop thing that the vet said was inflammation. *sigh* This seems like a longshot, but the first episode of this was a couple weeks after his first ever Heartgard does. Prior to that, we'd been using Advantage Multi. So that was in July. Next Heartgard dose in August but by then he was on bland diet and medicine. His poop had gotten better, but then worse again about 10 days later. Now he got his Sept dose and here we are again, a week to 10 days later. The delayed onset makes me think it's not Heartgard, but I think I'll go back to Advantage in October. For now, back on chicken and rice, still giving flagyl intermittently--once or twice a week. Going to look into Tylan, which a friend uses for her dogs that had chronic diarrhea that they couldn't figure out. I need to find some other food though. He was on chicken and rice for a month and I feel like we were starving him. He didn't have as much energy on his morning walk and started looking for dinner by 4pm. Once he had just a little bit of kibble, he wasn't looking for dinner until the usual time of 5:30 or 6.

I called the vet and they suggested Hills prescription diet i/d for sensitive stomachs so I guess we'll try that, but I feel like it's more than just a sensitive stomach.

I may add in Olewo carrots, but I don't think this is just an issue of food, even though I started it with a question of food. Maybe it is colitis and I do need to keep him on flagyl a lot longer and frequently.

He's still having streaming poop issues. My daughter had a bad accident and was in the hospital, so I dropped off this thread and we've just been trying to feed Percy chicken and rice with a little kibble until we can deal with whatever his issue is. I got a bag of the Purina and have been giving less than one cup with chicken/rice, but my husband who walks him in the morning said his poop is really bad. So just chicken and rice. No idea when I'm going to get back to the vet. Maybe I can just call and explain that I don't have time to bring him in because when I'm not working, I'm driving an hour to visit my daughter in the hospital. (She had a bad head injury and will be ok, but it's going to be a long road.)

Had to google congee, so no, I've never seen my MIL make that. I'm not sure we're in dire straits here with flagyl or anything really wrong. Before I took him to the vet, he'd been doing that crouching, but not pooping thing. He hasn't done that again. He just had one bout of diarrhea one morning (after a first poop that was ok), and that was it. He'd had the flagyl daily for about a week, then was off it for over a week (maybe 10 days) before the diarrhea. He's been fine, so we'll see how the next few days go. Just made another huge pot of rice.

Definitely skipping the fruit, lol. He would always get a really gurgly stomach with that. Do other people have trouble with fruit? It was just a guess mostly, based on when he was fine on IAMS green bag until they added fruit. Then I looked back at the other foods we had tried and they all had fruit. And my husband's family is from Guam--we have a rice cooker, lol. His parents served rice at every meal, including breakfast. I've never made rice in a pot on the stove in my life. The vet did say that some people keep their dogs on flagyl once a week or so, or just every now and then (not completely sure what she said about that, but I got the impression it could be a regular supplement kind of thing.)

Thanks, those don't have fruit so I might try one of them. He does well on chicken, so I'd like to stick with that. Those do have higher protein, which I thought was usually not as good for greyhounds. Thanks for the advice on Kirkland. I haven't paid attention to the dog food issues, but was looking at one of the Kirkland grain-free ones simply because it didn't have fruit. I guess I'll stay away from that now. The Purina food is a little bit more than Eukanuba, but not a huge amount more. And I can get some today. Always a bonus if they sell it in stores. I have a Petsmart a mile from my house. As for poop, Percy had gotten to a point where he'd poop 3 times on his morning walk and sometimes once on his afternoon/evening walk, but not always. Rarely in the yard anymore. So the poop was good. I don't want him to be pooping more. The higher protein worries. me, so we'll see.

I don't know if this is a food issue or not. We've had Percy for 1.5 years. He's supposedly hookworm-free now, but even when he had hooks, his poop was under control (after the first few months.) He's been on Eukanuba large breed chicken for a very long time. At the end of July, we were halfway through a bag of food when he started crouching to poop, but nothing would come out. That night, he was up every 20 minutes to go out, trying to poop. Every now and then, a liquid stream of poop would come out. Vet said no blockage, but probably inflammation. He went on an antibiotic, flagyl (or whatever it's called) and bland diet (chicken and rice) for a week and he was better after a few days. About 10 days later, he had another bout of diarrhea in the morning. So back on chicken and rice with a dose of flagyl and the next day he was fine. I'm keeping him on chicken and rice a bit longer. My husband is convinced he needs new food. I'm not (yet) convinced of that. Maybe it's a bad bag, but he was fine on it for half the bag. Then fine again for 10 days before he had trouble again. Did anything change with Eukanuba or has anyone else had trouble recently? And what food is working for your hound? Percy seems to not do well if there's any fruit added. He was on IAMS green bag (I think that's the one?) and then they changed the formula and it was not good. I need another food with no fruit. Preferably something not too expensive. I wanted to put him back on Kirkland because it's so much cheaper, but I think it has fruit. I may try anyway just to see. We had him on that for a while early on, but everything was a mess early on, so who knows.

Good thing my husband has been walking Percy at around 6am since January. He was fine with 10 degrees, but can't seem to handle mid-upper 60s and today was a total "Nope" when I tried to get him out around 1pm. I miss my mid-day walk. At least my little dog was willing to go today. Sometimes she won't go either.

Percy now believes it is hot outside mid-day even when it's not. I have to shove him out the door and when he realizes it's not that hot, he happily trots along. Sometimes it's borderline--I think it's not hot and he thinks it is hot. In that case, we don't get very far before he stops and wants to turn around to go home.

When he goes out, we're usually right there. But since he's decided to stay out a while and lie down on the deck, I go upstairs to my computer and check out the window periodically, but forgot about him one day. He wasn't outside for hours or anything like that, but was out longer than he wanted to be and he was hot. I can set a timer on my phone to check him, but I think a doorbell is a good option if I can find one he'll use.

If I forget about Percy (really only happened once for longer than a few minutes) he'll go back down to the yard and try to entertain himself and then try standing at the door again. But mostly he just stands there, almost with his forehead against the door, eternally optimistic.

Thanks, yes, I'd seen that one. I think I may just need to order one or two and see how they are. Just seems like Percy's nose is just really mushy and might be hard to press the button. There are others that come with 2 transmitters--it would be handy to have one inside also--and are cheaper. But this one might be best for his nose. I guess I'll read up a bit more on all of them. Do other people's greys bark to come in? Percy will whine when he thinks it's dinner time, he'll bark out the window at other dogs, but it just somehow doesn't occur to him to use his words to come in.

Hmm, I think the problem with wireless would be that it would ring anytime one of us humans went in or out. And I'd need one with a very short narrow range or it would get every bird, squirrel and maybe humans in the yard behind us. I might be able to put a doorbell button on the ground--some people do do that. But I'm not even sure Percy would get the hang of it. He literally doesn't not lift his paws. I mean, he *can*, he just...doesn't. DH can't get him to "shake". With the leash we have (harnesslead--see other thread about harnesses), the way we put it on him is to slip it over his head and then he has to step through a large loop. We have the loop pretty much on the ground and we still have to lift his paws for him. He doesn't just do it the way our little dog will. But I could try. I guess the thing I'm really wondering is how much pressure it takes to press the button. I need one with very little pressure needed for either nose or paw. 90% of the time, Percy goes out and comes back in shortly and we're there and can hear him come back up on the deck and we let him in. But every now and then, on a nice day, he'll lie down on a towel on the deck and stay out there a while and then I forget about him. He doesn't wine or bark, both of which he's perfectly capable of doing. But those days with that kind of weather are rare here, so we get by ok. It would just be nice to have a doorbell for him. Maybe I'll just ask the various manufacturers how much pressure is needed to push the button.

My guess is heat also. Percy's been having trouble mid-day and yesterday refused to even go out the door, even though it wasn't that hot. He has a cooling coat, which helps, especially because he's black. He has this one: https://www.cleanrun.com/product/k9_cool_dog_cooling_coats/index.cfm He's also shedding a lot, so I"m hoping he tolerates the heat better as more of his winter fur comes off and he gets acclimated.

I do have those inside, but they won't work outside. I need something I'll be able to hear from anywhere in the house. As it is, I wouldn't even hear the inside bells if I weren't nearby, but he's typically wherever I am, so if I'm upstairs, he's with me and when I go downstairs, that's when he'd go out if he wanted to.

We have a fenced yard and when Percy goes out and wants to come back in, he just stands at the back door, waiting patiently for it to magically open. He won't bark. We just have to notice him. I want to get one of those wireless doorbells for dogs, so he can ring it to come in. I got one that wasn't *specifically* for dogs, but it said you could use it for your dog, but the button was too hard for Percy to push with his nose. I mean, his nose is pretty mushy if you press on it, so I need something that doesn't require a lot of pressure. I think a lot of dogs paw at the doorbell button, but Percy always keeps all four feet on the ground. (My husband has tried to teach him to shake, but he really doesn't. Since he doesn't ever sit, he just never lifts a paw.) So it has to be easy to press with his nose. Anyone have one of these? It's a mystery to me why he's learned from our little dog Lulu that it's a great idea to bark out the window at passing dogs, but hasn't learned to bark to come in like she does.

We use http://www.harnesslead.com/ on the recommendation of someone here. Love it. I had tried some other harness, but always felt like I didn't have control or like the buckles might break, even though I knew they probably wouldn't. With the harnesslead, I feel totally secure. And where he used to lunge at something, now he'll just do a little dolphin jump in place, so he's not pulling me. (And with training, he's getting better at not reacting to other dogs to begin with.) If I need to get him to *come on already* when he's busy sniffing, I'll give him a tug at his house collar, rather than pull the harnesslead, which will tighten around him too much.

Wow, was she sleepwalking/running/jumping??

I tried to vacuum Percy. He was having none of it.

Thanks. I ordered a furminator type of thing and maybe I'll get a zoom groom too. The furminator will come today, so I'll see what that does first. A bath will make him shed more? I was thinking of a bath to get some of the fur off. How do you guys bathe your greyhounds? We can't get Percy in the tub, so we've only bathed him once and did it outside on a hot day last year. We got Percy a year ago February and I don't think his coat was this thick last year. I noticed this winter that his head was really thick and velvety and the fur around his thighs was really thick. I don't recall that from last year.

Does anyone have a brush or tool they like to help with shedding? Percy is so hot now that the weather has warmed up and I keep brushing him to help the shedding along so he can be more comfortable. But the brush I have isn't very good and I get more off just running my hand down his back. I looked at various curry combs, brushes, shedding tools, etc, but with his thin coat (even though it's thicker for winter) and thin skin, I don't know what will work without either injuring him or making him uncomfortable.

Yeah, ew, no thanks.