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Bizeebee

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Everything posted by Bizeebee

  1. Not yet, I'm guessing that steroids will be next, but I'm hesitant to start them if we are dealing with a bacterial overgrowth. No, we've done a few short courses of metronidazole in the past, but for the time being we're just on the Tylan. We haven't really discussed doing a stool culture yet, that seems like the logical step to definitively diagnose a bacterial overgrowth and determine the best way to treat.
  2. Well, at the time of that post the internist thought the malabsorption issue was a protein sensitivity, so we went on the hydrolyzed food and folate/cobalamin supplement, did that for 3 months and then took him off the supplement and tested again. He failed the challenge (his folate and cobalamin levels were still low), and his stool had gotten worse as the three months went on. With that we've sort of ruled out this being a food sensitivity, at least to any animal protein. About a month ago (same time as the folate/cobalamin challenge), we did another abdominal ultrasound and it showed the expected inflammation in the small intestine. This was not as visible the first time (March) so clearly it's getting worse, not better. The suspicion now is that he has a bacterial overgrowth causing the ibs/ibd type symptoms, so now he's been on Tylan powder, the folate/cobalamin supplement and the hydrolyzed food (plus twice daily gabapentin) for almost a month. We're pretty frustrated that we aren't seeing any changes/improvements in his stool or constant hunger (especially while on this special/expensive/annoyingly low-calorie food) So, I've just been trying to dive into the forum here to look for IBS/IBD stuff, but there's a lot. Our vet has mentioned a scope and biopsy, but I'm honestly not thrilled at that prospect if there's other tests that could be done before something where we have to put him under and stab him
  3. I see you haven't posted a follow up, but we're sort of in the midst of this same process (not quite to the steroid stage yet), and I'd like to know what those tests showed and how your pup is doing?
  4. This is tough, on the one hand it's awesome that he brought it back to you (rather than running off somewhere to eat it) and awesome that he easily dropped it - those are both things I'd want to encourage, but then you get into "am i reinforcing the hunting behavior?" Our first hound caught his first and only bunny just a few months before he went over the bridge, and it was tough finding anything good enough to trade up with to get it away from him. We'd never needed or trained "drop it" with him prior, and it came back to bite us that night. Our current hound has a kill count of 5 (we have a fenced in yard, but it's not rabbit proof yet) and thank god, someone at the adoption kennel had worked on "drop" with him while he waited for us. So we have a much easier time getting it away from him, but still not as easy as you it sounds like! I do think you need to realistically be ready for this, especially if you let him off lead. I, personally, don't have much sympathy for the critters but I would worry about all the things that can happen when an off leash dog takes off after something. And if he gets a hold of something like a raccoon you're going to have a whole other problem.
  5. The regular Quest (without the Plus) is just moxidectin, and it alone doesn't really do it for an active infection - I believe it's method of action is only effective against the larval leak, not live, adult worms. The protocols that seem to be working include a moxidectin (Advantage Multi or Coraxis) with some combo of Drontal Plus/Strongid/Panacur. Any new owner should definitely check out the facebook group and/or the larger hookworm thread on here.
  6. I would just echo what's already been said, as far as brand recommendations and hook protocols to look up; but when it comes to food please check out the Nutritionally Mediated Dilate Cardiomyopathy group on facebook, or read up on a lot of the same stuff here: https://taurinedcm.org/ Purina and Iams are both great recs as far as avoiding DCM risks, and Olewo carrots had helped us a lot during the hookworm protocol poops.
  7. While this is 100% true, I do think that just for safety reasons you should put a significant focus on training your dog to be able to go up and down the stairs. In an emergency (especially one that is not at your own house), you may not be able to carry your dog up or down to get out of a dangerous situation. You also sort of shoot yourself in the foot as far as your pool of eligible hound-sitters.
  8. I agree with clepto here - it sounds like none of your three vets are particularly grey-savvy, and maybe not very savvy in general if they can't deign to look over previous records before seeing your dog (instead you having to go through everything every time you see a different person). If it was me I'd probably be finding a different clinic, maybe someone from your adoption group can refer you to a vet or clinic that is more grey-savvy. That said, your original vet(s) aren't completely nutso, hooks (esp the ones out of FL) do recur and can cause the issues you are seeing - BUT the damage they cause can cause the upper GI flare ups that are basically IBD - which could be helped greatly by hypo food in tandem with hook treatment. First step is probably a new fecal, it shouldn't be an expensive test and hopefully doesn't even require your dog going in. That way you know for sure, for sure that hooks(or other parasites) are not the problem. Once you know it's not hooks I'd move on to a more specialist/savvy vet and go down the pancreatitis/EPI/malabsorption testing (all blood I believe) route. You'll learn a lot from those tests and any vet worth their salt will advise medication/diet changes to move your dog in the right direction.
  9. With 10 extra pounds on her you probably don't need to worry too much about whether she's eating every meal (as long as she's staying hydrated); is the Cerenia working to keep the nausea/vomiting to a minimum? Has the diarrhea stopped? If you're continuing to have both upper and lower GI issues with her, I'm surprised your vet hasn't recommended a hydrolized/hypoallergenic food (not the same as i/d) just to try to reset her system with something that shouldn't irritate it. You might ask about that (there are wet formulas). Did they run an EPI or malabsorption blood tests? At any point did they have you fast her and do a rice/protein diet for a few days? Did that calm things down? Are you in sort of a "wait and see" period with your vet as far as these digestive things go? We're in the middle of the lengthy process of diagnosing some yet unknown small intestine "thing" so I know the struggle of waiting, but I'd hope that if this not eating/vomiting has been going on since Jan that your vet would be pushing you toward scoping the stomach or trying some meds to rule out various stomach/upper intestinal things. With our experience with an ongoing (neverending ) diagnostic process one thing I definitely recommend anyone do is keep a journal of everything that's been done with the vet and notable things that may have happened at home. Accidents/food changes/life events/weather shifts anything worth noting, is well, worth noting. And try to acquaint yourself with everything your vet has done, and why (even if you have to call and ask them - any decent vet will be glad to talk through it), up to this point and jot down things you have read or heard about to ask them about moving forward. It's a lot of digest but it makes getting through the process, and feeling the teensy bit more in control of it, a lot easier.
  10. My guess (since it does not seem medical or like an urgent bathroom need) is that it's growing in frequency because you're doing what she wants when she does it - come downstairs! We have had to take the hard ass approach with whining (as we let some bad habits form when we thought we had a medical issue), if she's not actually needing to go, let her whine it out - and call her to come upstairs We had at least one foster figure out stairs pretty quickly upon realizing she had to come up in order to sleep with the pack. And work on stairs. Dumb question - was she not fostered? Did they not teach stairs there? 8 months seems like a long time for a young hound (assuming she's young - if she's old I'd worry about joint pain maybe being the cause) to not learn stairs. If the stairs are carpeted, my next thought would be - are both landings also carpeted? Is it a tight space she comes up to or down to? Is there stuff in the way? Our former grey acted like he wouldn't fit between furniture that was clearly wide enough for him to fit between. Are there weird reflections she could be seeing, or is it very dark on the stairs? We've taught fosters and our own dogs to go up using pepperoni (or other delicious treats) on each step, placed far enough apart that they can't just reach with their giraffe necks to get them. Going down we'll hold their collar/harness and guide them very slowly, moving legs one by one if necessary. Lots of support and praise along the way. Is there another place you could go with wider and maybe shorter stairs to practice? You might also need to employ some OTC calming techniques/supplements if her aversion gives her anxiety.
  11. Back to the vet (probably a different one) for sure. Are these issues only on the "front end"? Or are you seeing bowel movement symptoms as well? Our former grey was a bile barfer with a poor appetite who also needed his meals broken into 3per day, but after a two week course of omeprazole (with the ok of our vet) his flare ups would die down a lot. But, he definitely was not as bad as this sounds. Something for nausea seems past due in this case. As far as food, I'm also a broken record for people to educate themselves on DCM and choose a food according to those recommendations. 10lbs is a lot, and definitely for a grey. I'd start to worry about her cardiac and joint health, generally, with that kind of weight gain. If you feel the multiple feedings are absolutely necessary you should really cut down on the calories per feeding - whether that means less volume of a high calorie food, or switching to a lower calorie food so you can give the same amount. Honestly, this is weird and sounds mental to me. Like at some point someone threw a metal bowl full of kibble at her while in her kennel or something similarly scary (who knows). Previous comments are correct, there's no rule that a dog has to eat dry kibble (though it does help keep their teeth cleaner), but once the underlying issue is dealt with 1)this fear might abate 2)you may be able to work with some behavioral guidance on lessening this aversion if it doesn't. How are her teeth? Obviously there is more going on than just teeth, but it is possible that the dry food hurts her mouth and she knows she doesn't want that.
  12. Our first grey was a much stinkier guy than our new one, even though the new one is loves be outside and is not good at bathing himself I honestly wonder if Bismarck (new grey) not being a big licker and his excellent teeth/breath are the reasons he's not that stinky. Our former grey (Dawkins) had bad teeth, bad breath, and licked/cleaned himself as you expect a dog would do [omg we're trying to sleep, stop licking!]. I'm thinking those bad breath germs getting spread all over his body might have had something to do with it. Biz needs a bath on occasion, but smells nice a lot of the time (he's very pleasant to breathe in). Does Lola smell like yeast/bread/beer? How are her teeth/breath? It all comes down to the flora on their bodies, I'm guessing. We would use an oatmeal type shampoo on Dawkins and a diluted apple cider vinegar spritz at the end of a bath, and that would keep him less stinky the longest.
  13. Definitely time for a check up - don't let anyone tell you boy dogs don't get UTIs - they do. Can you set up some kind of camera to watch him during the day? We use the free app Manything and an old smart phone. It might be good to see what he does before the accidents happen - is it clearly marking a previously peed upon spot? Is he doing his "tell" that you'd see and react to if you were there? Does he not realize it is happening?
  14. You're very fortunate to have those kinds of choices; most of us in the US know that in our work culture, it's hard enough getting time off to take care of your own mental health issues, much less the sudden onset mental health issues of a pet [which was the case here]. And millions of us live in rural areas where the nearest doggy day care is at least an hour away, one way, not to mention the cost of such a luxury. So let's leave the judgment of those less fortunate than you for a more appropriate place and chat more about your experience with SA. How long did it take for your dog to improve on meds and with alone training? How did that improvement look; did it just extend the time before the anxiety kicked in, or did the actual anxiety seem to get less intense when it occurred? Was your dog ever able to come off the medicine? How long did that take? How would you approach continued alone training (we assume he'd had some previously, as he improved dramatically upon settling in here), when his anxiety seems to flare up at unpredictable and inconsistent intervals? For example, he is happy to nap all morning (5 hours) until I'm home for lunch, but will often get a bit whiny again sometime before we come home, only 3 hours later.
  15. There’s a free app called Manything that you can download to your iPad and be able to watch her live from another device. You can even talk through it, though who knows if that helps 😊
  16. I'm hoping to hear from some owners who've managed/treated/"beat" separation anxiety and can give us some perspective. I've read a lot about it, but have not really had first hand experience until this foster dog. I'd like to get my head wrapped around it a bit better, so we can do a better job at letting our adoption group and potential adopters know what this pup will likely need. We've had this 5yo hound for about a month now, he was surrendered by his owner (she'd had him for about a year) because he had developed separation anxiety - which manifested as howling/crying and chewing the entire time she would be gone at her new job. She made the tough, but probably right, choice, to surrender him. His first few days with us were rough, we were not aware of his SA when we agreed to take him on (we both work). Even though we have another hound, he cried and howled most of those first few days and had an accident or two during that time. But he seemed to adjust relatively quickly (our schedule is very consistent) and the crying during the day has decreased dramatically, but not completely. I can monitor them with a nanny cam while I'm at work, he makes it through the morning but then then the whining/crying starts up again after I've come home and left after their lunch time turn out. It doesn't start until after I've been gone a while and doesn't seem to be triggered by anything I can see/hear. He came to us on 80mg daily of Clomicalm, and had been on it for at least a month at that point (so it has now been another month). My understanding is that it should be well established in his system by now. I'm less sure about whether it works, mostly because we didn't experience what he was like before he started taking it, but also because he still does whine intermittently throughout the afternoon. If the medicine was working, would he still be whining/crying? Is 8 weeks long enough to know if it's working? Should we try splitting the dose - currently we give it all at breakfast, would it make sense to give half at breakfast and the other half at lunch time? Or does this mean he would maybe be better served by a different drug? With SA is there a certain amount of crying/distress that you just have to be ok with? There are 10 more days until the next adoption event, where he will hopefully find his forever home, but until then is there anything we should be trying to get him past this plateau point? Or, should we think of this plateau as success?
  17. This isn't necessarily going to help you now, but did your adoption group not ask about your stairs situation? If they knew you were on the third floor then the foster home should have absolutely done more work on stairs than it sounds like they have done. Whether it was a failure to train or failure to communicate, someone failed you and your dog during this process, and your group should be aware so they can prevent it from happening again. I'd cut out the rich stuff in the kong and basically treat this like potty training. If she's going inside and not wanting to be outside then I'd say back to basics - super rewarding for pottying outside, correction inside when you catch it, etc. And get her as empty as possible (multiple trips) before you leave. It is such early days, it's too soon to know whether it's really separation anxiety, and too soon (in my personal opinion) to consider bringing in another dog to "fix" the problems. They all need time to settle in and most do without the need for a friend.
  18. Definitely. We've had a couple of bounces come through as fosters who couldn't be crated, and ours wasn't either, so the only safe way for them to hang out together while we were at work is with muzzles. They don't love it, but it's been totally fine.
  19. sounds like you've got a free range beef buffet ripe for the eating!
  20. It depends a bit on how rural you are, too. Wouldn't be a bad idea to contact your non-emergency police line, or animal control, if your neighbor dogs are consistently unsupervised and running around willy nilly through yards. If nothing else, that starts a paper trail of the issues, so that if something ever did happen at least it would be documented that those dogs were a problem. If you have a Ring or Nest (or similar) doorbell camera any footage from that would be helpful to save somewhere too.
  21. Will she still drink water? If you use a box grater on a chunk of ginger and then squeeze the grated bits you can get a decent amount of "juice" and see if she'll still drink water with just a little of it in there.
  22. Maybe ask about an anti-inflammatory that would work in the gut? Obviously some anti-inflammatory drugs are bad for the gut, but can they all be? This is totally anecdotal, but the last time I got the stomach flu I had horrible nausea but we didn't have anything but the "natural" Dramamine in the house - which is basically powdered ginger I think. It shockingly did work, so you might ask your vet about otc things that might work for the nausea - especially if she's now/still throwing up while on the other meds.
  23. If the vomiting/regurgitating seems random I would try keeping a journal of the events - writing down when she vomits, and what she was doing right before, how many hours since she'd eaten, since the last incident, really any details you can remember. A pattern might reveal itself once you can look at the details en masse.
  24. I would definitely exhaust options for checking for a foreign body - as KF said. And wrack your brain for what may have been happening right before the vomiting started up again again after 3 months of not. If you and the vet feel pretty confident that she didn't ingest anything weird, then well, I have a few questions: What kind of vomit are you seeing? Whole or mostly whole kibble pieces? Water/mucus? Bile? Partially digested combo of food/liquid? What kind of volume of vomit are you seeing? What percentage would you say she's actually absorbing (and pooping out) versus vomiting? When does the vomiting happen? Is it consistently before or after meals, after activity, etc? Does she act like she feels like absolute crap after vomiting? Or does she just go about her day like nothing happened? I'm not a vet, but I'd also be wary of continuing antibiotics without a culture result (or something data-driven) that made me confident that a bug was the problem. Is there anti-nausea medication the vet could recommend - I vaguely remember that Dramamine might actually be ok for dogs (check on that though)? Our previous grey would do more than his fair share of vomiting, usually of the bile/water/whole kibble variety, and we came to the conclusion that it was a reflux-type issue. We split his food into three meals a day instead of two, so that his tummy wasn't as empty overnight, and did a few 2week courses of omeprazole (Prilosec) when it seemed like he was having a flare up. That helped cut down on the vomiting quite a lot. This is totally left field, but has your vet checked her ears for infection/injury? One other thing I can think that would cause nausea/vomiting, that doesn't have a microbial component, is that your dog could have bad vertigo - which could be caused by ear infection (or other, more rare issues). I don't know what antibiotics she's been on, but at least according to my vet, there are definitely different ABs for different things. So just because she's been on AB for her gut doesn't mean they'd kill bugs somewhere else, like the ears.
  25. It's kind of a bummer, if this is the study I think it is, they actually wanted specific breeds only and greyhounds were not one of them
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