4leggedclover

I'm pretty embarrassed about this late response, but thank you so much for your detailed reply. Her vet thinks it's most likely corns, although I'm not sure if he examined her spine since we are not present for the visit due to covid. He's not terribly impressed with her symptoms and did not recommend imaging. At any rate, the limp waxes and wanes week by week, and does not seem to be interfering with her daily activities. We've continued to give her supplements although we know it's more of a placebo for the humans. Thank you again for all your advice.

Hi all, Hope you're staying safe. I found a small 4-5mm black lump surrounding by flat, red skin on the right "armpit"/inner front leg of my 9 year old girl, Clover the other day. No idea where it came from. It does not seem to be painful, but looks like it had been bleeding on and off as there was dried crusted blood on her belly. I called her vet office who does not have any appointments with the greyhound-savvy vet for another week and a half. The dread and anticipation is killing me - does this look like it could be dermal hemangiosarcoma? Thanks in advance.

Hello all, was wondering if anyone has any similar experiences and insight on what my 8 year old girl Clover's problem could be. About 3 years ago she developed a corn on her back left leg. She has the classic limping on hard surfaces that improves on soft surfaces. We had it hulled a few times but it always came back faster and more painful so we ended up getting her a Therapaw which worked great. She now only uses the Therapaw on and off whenever we plan on a longer walk (40+ minutes) or when she seems to be limping more than usual. In the last year or so, in addition to the mild limping, the same back left hip/thigh muscles and knee that her corn is on has been shaking and almost appears unstable when she walks. She adjusts her standing position to put less weight on the corn/shaking leg and recently we noticed that the toes on that paw appear angled strangely in different directions, not symmetric compared to the back right leg. Once about 6 months ago, that leg actually collapsed under her while she walked - she was able to get back up and it never collapsed again, but the shaky thigh continues, mostly on the second half of her daily walks. The vet has examined on all of her joints, none of which appear abnormal or painful except for on the toes on the paw with the corn, which she withdraws from touch. The vet believes she may have arthritis of the opposite back right leg, but that seems odd to me as the back right leg seems fine. Clover of course doesn't limp or shake at the vet for them to examine since she doesn't limp when she is stressed out or excited. It doesn't seem like Caprofen or a 2 month regimen of glucosamine and chondroitin have helped the limping or shaking. That leg has never appeared red or swollen and has never had any major injury that we're aware of. She still likes to zoomie around the house a few times a week and always starts her 3x daily walks with a fast trot until about halfway through when she seems to get tired and starts lagging behind me, shaking/limping more. I'm wondering if she has some muscle strain or atrophy from not putting as much weight on that leg, or a possible tendon or ligamentous injury? Possibly a spine/nerve thing? What do xrays cost on average? I have been quoted about 300 for the xray it self and the interpretation for a hip xray alone. Also, does anyone have a recommended veterinary orthopedist in the Atlanta area? Thanks in advance

The vet called today and said her fecal was negative, but they did not tell me what they tested for. What should be checked in a fecal exam? I'm guessing worms and giardia? I'll call back tomorrow and ask what they looked for to double check. I'm not sure the testing was done in house or if it was a send-out.

We have the Vetriscience brand probiotic. Not sure if it did much for her even when she didn't have diarrhea but she's getting it once a day regardless. We found the old bag of Olewo carrots from years ago from her first bout of colitis/gastroenteritis/hookworm and have been using that which has firmed up her poop to toothpaste texture, but still nowhere near the solid, small poops she had before this current illness. I suspect the underlying diarrhea is still there, but the carrots are just doing their job of bulking and firming it up. We're 6 days into the metronidazole now on ground beef and rice diet (she refused the plain rice so we caved and added a bit of ground beef to it just so she'd get to eat something each day) and seems to be behaving perfectly normally other than the less than ideal poops which is exactly what happened with her chicken intolerance/allergy. I'm trying to decide what protein to try her on next if the poops don't get better with ground beef in another 2 days. I'm open to trying fish, but the Salmon version of Tylee's is more expensive than the beef which would not be cost effective in the long run especially since the salmon Tylee's only has 170 calories per scoop compared to the beef which is 270 calories per scoop. I'm not sure if turkey will "cross react" with chicken, and pork seems to be fairly high in fat. Fingers crossed we don't have to get into the less common proteins like duck/rabbit/etc.

No pain according the vet on Wednesday, and seemingly no severe discomfort we can notice at home. Fecal was negative according to the vet when they notified us with the results today. We're 6 days into the metronidazole now and she still has large toothpaste textured stools with Olewo carrots added to her rice and ground beef diet. She refused to eat any rice without the ground beef so we caved and have been giving her about a half cup of cooked ground beef with the rice. She's behaving otherwise perfectly normally, which makes me extra paranoid that she has developed some sort of beef intolerance/allergy. This is almost exactly how her chicken intolerance/allergy occurred - she had a bout of colitis/gastroenteritis and terrible diarrhea so we dutifully fed her a bland diet of boiled chicken and rice for weeks waiting for it to clear up. She pretty much behaved normally during that time except for the liquid/pudding stools. We randomly ran out of chicken one day and decided to cook up a package of ground beef we happened to have, and the liquid/pudding stool turned mostly solid pretty much within a day. From then on, we only fed her beef, and now this new bout of colitis/diarrhea which won't stop even after a full 5 day course of metronidazole and bland beef and rice diet...

Hi again, I couldn’t figure out how to edit my original post but wanted to give an update. Wednesday - horrible liquid stools in the morning. Fed her a mix of rice and Tylees. Began giving her a 500mg metronidazole pill I had leftover from prior bouts of gastroenteritis. Took her back to the vet in the afternoon who confirmed her behavior was fine, and prescribed a course of 250mg metronidazole twice a day. She does not have another poop for the rest of the day and eats her bland rice and cooked ground beef dinner normally. Thursday - things are looking up. She has small dry pellet poops in the morning. She eats her rice and Tylees mix and metronidazole with no issues. Thursday afternoon poop is large and toothpaste like. She eats rice and Tylees for dinner and metronidazole with no issues. Friday - pudding-textured poops. No blood or vomiting. Still behaving normally, and eating rice and Tylees mix with a 250mg metronidazole for breakfast and dinner. We start feeding her a probiotic pill. Saturday - liquid brown stools again. She starts eating grass. Stopped the Tylees and fed her a mix of ground beef and rice for breakfast with metronidazole. Took a stool sample to the vet and are still waiting for results. Offered her rice only for dinner, which she refused because she’s a carnivore. Still having nasty liquid brown stools, no blood. Chewy tells us again that no one else is having a problem with the Tylees food. She seemed like she was on the verge of recovering for 2 day before getting horrific liquid diarrhea again on Saturday. She has not missed a course of metronidazole. I am thinking of fasting her completely until the diarrhea stops and then slowly reintroducing cooked beef and rice, although I’m extremely paranoid now that she has developed some sort of beef intolerance/allergy similar to how she could no longer eat chicken after a prolonged bout of gastroenteritis when we first got her. Should I try a different protein like pork when we restart her on food? I also looked up on the Merck manuals and saw that a dog her weight should be getting 44mg/kg of metronidazole, which is about 1000mg a day - is 250mg twice a day as the vet prescribed being underdosed? We are so worried as the metronidazole seemed to be helping and then her diarrhea worsened. Does she have pancreatitis?? What are we missing?? Again, any advice greatly appreciated!

True, I’m starting to wonder if she picked something up while at the vet from another sick dog. We always wipe her paws and butt whenever she comes back inside from being outside/pooping. I guess we should start wiping her face/nose too. I’ll do anything to try to prevent her from getting sick again. That first year of constant chronic blood tinged diarrhea was so miserable for everyone.

Hi all, I’ve had my almost 8 year girl for 3 years now, and she had been doing exceptionally well for the last 2 years after the initial one year battle with chronic persistent hookworm, chicken allergy/intolerance, and gastroenteritis. For the last two years, we had her eating beef Tylee’s with weekly yak stick treats, special meals of fully cooked ground beef one weekend a month, and religiously fed her Interceptor Plus for heart worm and hookworm prevention each month. She was happy and healthy until this past weekend. The only things I can think of that happened was: On Saturday, we took her to the vet for her annual physical, and she received the DAPP distemper, adenovirus, parainfluenza, and parvovirus vaccine as well as the rabies vaccine, both of which she was due for according to vet records. We fed her out of a new bag of her regular beef Tylee’s food for breakfast and dinner on Saturday. This food has never been recalled to my knowledge, and I just contacted Chewy today to ask if they had any reports of a recall or illness from the food, which they said they had not. We fed her cooked ground beef and cooked green beans as she had been eating once a month for the past 2 years on Sunday, April 28. I know there is a ground beef recall, but this was human grade, grass fed ground beef that was fully cooked, and my husband and I ourselves ate ground beef from the same batch earlier in the week. We also fed her a yaky stick, also from Chewy which she has had weekly for the last year or two from a new bag. Chewy has no reports of any illness from the yaky sticks when I called today. She is mostly an indoor dog and is taken out for walks 3 times a day around our neighborhood on leash, and rarely even meets other dogs on leash. Nothing about her walking or exposures changed this weekend. On Monday, she began having horrific liquid brown stools. Thankfully no blood and no vomiting and she still is behaving normally with normal appetite, but the she messed the house which she has only ever done once before when she was severely ill with gastroenteritis and hookworm. We thought perhaps the hookworm was back and fed her the Interceptor Plus 2 days earlier than we normally would have (May 1). We also started feeding her plain white rice mixed with Tylees. On Tuesday, she is alternating between liquid and pudding-textured light brown stools. No blood, no vomiting, still behaving seemingly normally. We continue to feed her rice and Tylees and hope the hookworm meds kick in soon. This morning on Wednesday, horrific liquid stools again, and hesitated to eat her rice and Tylees. No blood, and no vomiting. I am a healthcare worker and it pains me to even consider this, but I’m baffled that her Tylees, ground beef, or yaky stick could have made her sick. We have never missed a dose of Interceptor Plus, so I don’t know why her hookworm would be back, and the nature of her stool was much more mucousy and orange/yellow when she had hookworm with occasional tinges of blood. Could my girl be having a reaction to the vaccines she received on Saturday? The diarrhea started 48 hours after her vaccines which doesn’t seem to fit a normal vaccine reaction timeframe, but this is the only thing I can think of that was different about this weekend. Is the DAPP vaccine a killed or live vaccine? Could a live vaccine give a dog parvovirus? I will be taking her back to the vet today or tomorrow who is going to prescribe a course of metronidazole but would appreciate any other insight anyone might have. Thanks in advance!