MerseyGrey

Buddy only sits if he wants his chest rubbing

May I direct you to Izzy and Finn’s Hound Boutique for some cute Christmas coats…it’s cold up north! (Felicity also makes collars, regular coats, tank tops, pyjamas and waterproof coats)

Happy 12 1/2 young man! I also love a spinning hound - I’ve only seen Buddy do it once. It fills me with joy. I also loved that when you close the video, lots of Logan pictures popped up

Very snazzy! She wears it well

Sending good thoughts and best wishes your way. They are a worry when they are being enigmatic

I can imagine the scream of frustration clearly… Wait until she does it in a strangers gate while you’re out walking

Does she walk in a straight line until you look up, distracted by something, and then she decides to cut in front of you without warning? The result is then either 1) you knee her in the ribs and she lets out the scream of death, making everyone look at you because you’ve hurt your dog YOU MONSTER or 2) she cowers away from you dramatically making everyone look at you because you’re such a harsh pawrent YOU MONSTER

Yes, he managed to get to get BBC4 with them . He hasn’t seen the lovely Kitty for a while, but we bumped into her parents when they had just got back from the vets . He was exceptionally cute with Kitty’s mum and went up to give her some cuddles, resting his chin on her hip. Even if he didn’t know why she was sad, it seemed like he knew that she needed a bit of greyhound love

Willa: ‘maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam! Tell Doolin to move his big head!’

I looked up cold laser treatment….not sure about the dog but I think this would work for me! It sounds like it would be very effective! Buddy has been on YuMove virtually since we have had him, as he was nearly 8 then. I will look into the Canine Prime. I haven’t heard of Adequan so I’ll look that up too. It’s only two days since his first Librela injection, and it’s a little bit like we have the old Buddy back. I’ve just come back from his walk and have struggled to keep up with him! He’s on paracetamol and codeine which could account for it, but I’ve heard that Librela gives them a new lease of life - Kitty, Buddy’s girlfriend who sadly went to the bridge last week, was on it and her parents swore that they got another year of quality life with her which they didn’t think she would have. I’m going to celebrate by getting him a new t-shirt (and maybe a snood), and he can have a couple more rabbit ears too which will be more up his steeet

Yeah, with Buddy, it’s the stinkier the better . They are dried hairy rabbits ears and I have just bought 2kg of them because he loves them so much. They are also meant to be very good natural wormers as well as helping with acid reflux - Buddy gets this clicking throat thing every now and then and a few people on here suggested it might be reflux related, and the vet thought this might be the case too. We gave him omeprazole but he was sick on those tablets so discontinued them. Buddy seems to be happy with rabbit ears as the replacement. And as a side note, the hair acts as a binder on the way out so if your pooch has soft poops, hairy ears help you to pick it up a little easier

Thank you, I will look into this and ask when we go next month

We have one dazed and confused pupper! He’s back home and is not really going for his tea but has accepted a rabbit ear - it must be his lucky day as he got a double ear out of the box. It’s pretty good news all round - his lower limb joints and bones are all in good condition for an older gentleman. His blood levels are all reading as those of a healthy dog. The only thing that flagged up was some white areas on three or four of his lower back vertebrae - she said that this indicates that there is some arthritis here with new bone formation, and that new bone is causing those vertebrae to fuse. This could cause him discomfort, or they could be pinching small nerves which could account for the transient symptoms we have seen as well as the change in his movements. He had his first Librela injection and has paracetamol/codiene painkillers until that kicks in. He can currently be found staring into space and leaning on Dan for some cuddles. He is being super cute. Yes @ramonaghan we are very relieved!

Well, I don’t think that ours are related directly but there are some connections - Buddy’s great-granddad on his maternal side was Head Honcho (who has an asterisk by his name - not sure why), and his sire was Droopys Maldini (granddad is also Droopys Kewell so he is a cousin of Nate’s!) Buddy himself is an Essex boy who ran all his races in Romford. He is on Greyhound Data as Buddy Molly, and there are a couple of his races that you can view through there if you are so inclined. I’ve just had a quick look at Cara’s tree and we have lots of common names in there!

And if she was requesting a massage, how could you refuse that face?

Thank you all for your well-wishes…it seems that they have paid off . We are yet to pick him up but the vet’s initial thoughts are that it is most likely his hips as she manipulated his legs and this is where she got the most resistance- from Buddy, I think (this is second hand from Dan, who took him in). They did an x-ray to be sure, so we will get more news when we go to pick him up. She has suggested that she will start treating him with anti-inflammatories, although we are going to have to ask for an alternative to loxicom as we had him on that for a few days earlier in the year. We under-dosed him but after a few days, he had bloody diarrhoea so I think we will be best to avoid that as a long term solution. We have talked to them briefly about Librela / bedinvetmab, which sounds like it can be pretty miraculous for older dogs with arthritis, but it will mean hauling him to the vet once a month. We’ll chat about that when we pick him up too. Dan walked Buddy this morning and said he was incredibly lively on his walk and he did their short loop at speed. When I left for work this morning, I got the cold shoulder from The Budster as his breakfast was not ready waiting for him when he returned from his walk. I wonder if he’ll be pleased to see me when we pick him up? I shall be very pleased to see him, regardless!

Thank you…we’ve just had our evening stroll and you wouldn’t know that there was anything wrong with him earlier, finishing with him standing over me for belly rubs before bed. He’s an enigma to me . I will let you know how tomorrow goes

So…recently we posted the attached video of Buddy joining the Lambchop club. It was taken on the Saturday morning, and on the Sunday afternoon following, we took him out for a short walk and his back legs gave way. We couldn’t find a suitable reason for it (he had stumbled after standing on a bramble with his front feet), and so Dan went home to get the car and we drove Buddy home. He had trouble sitting down in the car too. When we got him home, he had the same trouble supporting his back end. It seemed that his back right leg was giving him trouble and his left leg wasn’t strong enough to support him. But, within five minutes, he was asking to go into the garden and running around and tossing his toys into the air. He is moving differently - he seems a bit more stiff around the hips and he can’t quite get into the bowdown hound position that he normally achieves when he stretches. We contacted the vet and we had an appointment for this coming Friday. Tonight, he had an episode where he wouldn’t put weight on that back right leg again after a toilet trip in the garden - no vigorous activity involved. Again, he couldn’t get himself into a comfortable lying down position as I tried to get him to take the weight off. He was pacing and limping, and if he brushed that foot on anything, he made tiny whimpers, and his body was shaking so I think it must have been painful for him. When I got him to lie down, we sat together for an hour or so, with him demanding cuddles and pawing at me for more strokes. When I got up to make tea, he followed me out to the kitchen, and trotted to the front door to greet his dad after work. We took him out for a short walk as he wouldn’t poop in the garden, and he seems to be fine again - no limping, no weakness and no obvious pain. He wanted to go further than we would let him. I’ve brought his vet appointment forwards and have booked him in for an x-ray tomorrow morning at 9am. On Sunday, I thought that this might be related to his hips but this evening I think it’s much lower down his leg. I think the front of his foot looks a bit swollen and wondered if he has twisted or sprained his ankle or similar, but Dan doesn’t think that it is swollen. I know that at nearly 12 years old cancer is a big worry. Could this kind of intermittent limping and accompanying pain be explained by something like arthritis or am I being ridiculously optimistic? His nails look intact, I can’t find anything stuck in his foot and he doesn’t have corns. He’s happy for me to touch his leg and foot this evening, but was less so this afternoon. I suppose I would just like to know that there are a million other things that this could be including just accepting that my boy is an old man . I don’t think I’m over-reacting with the X-ray and I suppose I would like to know that I’m not being a drama queen too.

No, I’m not. GreyTalk was my first venture onto social media, and then I created an Instagram account solely to post photos of Buddy on GreyTalk (and it’s a bit addictive so no more social media for me!)

I got it wrong, it’s flappitypuffing, and I stole it from someone else too

Is it a yawnscream? Buddy does that but I find it quite cute so I’m not sure it can be the same noise. Other than that, I think his noises are pretty standard greyhound noises, including the flappitypuffity that his lips do when he sighs

‘It wasn’t me…’

He was a true gentleman!

We did it last year. We started out at the back of the pack but by the end of the walk we were at the front, with no snarking from The Budster. The boy’s a born winner