BauersMom
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Posts posted by BauersMom
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Never used pain meds for the boys. Sometimes on the grils. The boys if it's a simple neuter act like nothing happened.
Wow--kinda old school thinking. There has been a ton of research (U Penn) that's clearly shows that dogs recover so much faster with proper pain mangement.
Link?
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If it was a spay, I would say stay on it. But with neuters, honestly, we don't push the pain meds and use them only when needed. I personally wouldn't give them pain meds if they were acting normally, but that's just me.
Here too. I've never had a male given 5 days of pain meds for a neuter!It just occured to me that I have had a male given pain meds for 4-5 days after a neuter (as needed) if they were a cryptorchid and the vet had to go "jewel hunting"...but that would be pretty obvious from the surgery scar.
We had two siblings recently that were both bilateral crypts and what a massive incision. Holy toledo.
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If it was a spay, I would say stay on it. But with neuters, honestly, we don't push the pain meds and use them only when needed. I personally wouldn't give them pain meds if they were acting normally, but that's just me.
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Here's my point from an earlier thread about the same thing. The important thing is to find the RIGHT diagnosis... not settle for the quick and easy "T4 is low"... Knowing what I know now, I really do think that maybe if we had actually looked for the real reason for his symptoms, I would have found out that he had a deadly cancer and handled things differently. The soloxine grew back his hair and made him not so lethargic... but if I had to do it all over again, I would not have settled on the thyroid diagnosis without exhausting other diagnoses and certainly would not have stopped at seeing a "low T4" only number.
Just my experience.
I know we discussed things earlier in PMs but don't completely rule out hypothyroidism yet. The bloodwork for me was also normal for a Greyhound but it doesn't mean that he couldn't be hypothyroid. Not every dog with hypothyroidism has an elevated TSH. One of the biggest things that I see as a difference between your hound and so many others that I read about on GT that are diagnosed is that your hound actually has signs that could be attributable to hypothyroidism. The derm vet should have been able to give you a pretty good opinion on if that was likely or not.I AGREE. I would not rule out hypothyroid and would keep him on the meds to see how he does. If it the meds work, IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY!!!!!
Well, it DOES matter what the numbers say, to a point.
I could give any healthy dog a supplement of soloxine and probably see improvement in hair growth, stamina... because that's what the drug does. But why give a dog not hypothyroid something it doesn't need?
Bauer was diagnosed hypothyroid, and ended up dying shortly after of hemangiosarcoma. His numbers weren't super low, but we saw what we thought were some 'symptoms' - lethargy, etc. I can't help but think now that the low thyroid was only a symptom of the cancer - and while the soloxine made him feel bettern on some counts, it did nothing for the ACTUAL problem. Had we really paid attention to his numbers, instead of finding something that worked for some symptoms, we might have dug a little deeper and found the real cause.
What I'm saying is that soloxine will cause certain results that will make people think it is "working". But that's NOT a real indication that the dog needs the medication in all cases. Which is why hypothyroidism is so difficult to diagnose and treat.
I'd say in Monty's case, given everything, there's a good chance he is hypothyroid, but it always helps to rule out any other possibility.
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Just for clarification, bleach is already a 5% solution in water. So 50/50 isn't like 50% water... more like 98% water... you can cut it down, but I would doubt the % dilution makes any difference at that point. But I could be wrong.
And I had giardia with my senior gal. We treated all 5 dogs, and I picked up the yard as I normally would. I have an acre fenced, I wasn't about to go out there with a bleach bottle and hunt down everything.
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Also - it seems really, really odd that a dog on soloxine would have a lower T4 than before they were supplemented.
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Personally, I don't think supplementation is necessary. A true hypothyroid dog's TSH would be sky high. Anytime you supplement with Soloxine they will feel better but, that doesn't necessarily mean that the supplementation is indicated. I would hold off on the Soloxine. You could ask Dr Dodds for her opinion--she's always so helpful.
I agree. The TSH is more indicative than the T4, which is almost always low.
If the dog is not symptomatic and the TSH isn't showing a problem, I don't think there's a real benefit to putting them on meds.
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I'm so sorry. Godspeed Cora.
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So glad to see the improvement in your foster boy. Here is something interesting - we first fostered Bump when he came off the track and he had medical issues. After having to work hard at nursing him back to health (last Jan), we couldn't just let this guy be adopted out, after all, we doted on him so much he became part of the fabric of our family in no time. Maybe the same will happen to Hunter?
I'd love to keep Hunter. Heck, I'd love to keep all my fosters!
But, he deserves a home without two broodies constantly hen-pecking him.
He's going to make someone a great pet. He's your typical big, goofy, loveable greyhound male. Not so much in the brains department, but sweet as all heck.
Here's another video, from a few days after we brought him home.
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Here we are about 3 weeks post episode...
Hunter leaving Tufts, his weight entirely being supported by my husband...
Hunter last weekend:
He still is a little unwieldy with his back legs not always doing what he wants them to do... but what an improvement!
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Well. We went back in for another set of X-rays after her round of pred and there are NO spots on her lungs.
BUT, her lungs do appear to have fluid and her heart is slightly enlarged (but you know, with greyhounds, that can be a subjective thing...). So we're going to schedule an echo and see if this is some sort of beginning stage heart disease.
So we still have some investigating to do, but it's no longer looking quite so grim.
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Unfortunately, places like condo yards can be a great place to get worms. That, plus the fact that panacur helped, might be at least part of the problem. Organisms like coccidia or giardia can be negative in fecals, too.
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What I've used in the past was a piece of stocking or nylons - cut at both ends. I'm not sure that will work in your case though. Can the damaged ear be covered? If so, you can cut a hole for the good ear and use it as an 'anchor'.
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I have had one dog that never gets totally firm on rice. I have never had a dog who can eat cooked potato (except potato chips) without getting incredible blowout diarrhea.
That's the exact opposite of my experience.
I always have good luck with potato (or sweet potato) and rice just goes right through them!But, a good point to go super simple and eliminate anything that may cause GI upset
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My broodie was spayed at 10. She did very well.
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Try eliminating the white rice all together. Even though he does well on it sometimes, it can cause problems.
A course of flagyl is also a good suggestion.
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What are you giving as the bland diet?
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Our group just placed two of his brothers!
congrats!
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Thanks all. Yesterday she didn't cough at all but then today she had a few coughing bouts. So it's not getting better but it's definitely not getting worse either.
I'm having her x-rays looked at by OSU and have an appt to have her seen by the other vet at the practice next week.
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Thanks all. No real improvement today, in fact her cough seems a little worse.
I will ask about the fungal possibility and am working on getting the x-rays to OSU.And just because she's too cute to not share:
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Princess had chest x-rays done because she's been coughing for the last few days. X-rays shows several small "spots", no bigger than a pencil eraser at this point.
We're doing a short course of prednisone, but the vet is very concerned that it's early stage cancer.
Does anyone have any experience with lung tumors/cancer being the primary cancer, and not a metastasis from osteo and such?
Is there something else that we should be considering in the diagnosis?
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P.m. me your address. I have a specialty sling (that means expensive -- it's GANs) I can let you use.
btw - acupuncture will help.
Thank you!!
We already do acupuncture for one of my seniors, so I will totally bring him.
We just got him home. He's totally unwieldy on his feet, and once he gets going, it's like steering 80 lbs of drunkenness. He has problems getting up and stable, but when he starts walking, watch out.
The official paperwork says "FCE or concussive disk", but that the treatment for both is essentially the same. The MRI found "Focal T11-12 intramedullary hyperintensity, non-compressive myelopathy". So I guess bright spot on the MRI, no compression of the spine?
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Thank you all!
I went back and looked at Cora's story. Pretty amazing.
My foster is about 80 pounds. Luckily we are set up with no stairs, but I've still got to figure out how to get him support without killing me in the process.
Do you think that harness plus a sling for his back end is a possibility?
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My foster suffered a "spinal stroke" last night and lost complete use of his back legs. Got him to the e-vet who gave him steroids and morphine, and I got him into Tufts today.
MRI showed that he has an embolism - about mid-back. He still has deep pain senses and some minor motor skills, so the vet is very positive about his prognosis.
Has anyone dealt with this sort of rehab before? I don't know if it's the same as FCE, which I did see a bunch of GT posts on - but in those cases, it all seemed one sided. He has total loss on both back legs. So I guess I don't know if we're facing FCE or a different type of stroke or what or if it even matters.
The vet will call me at 10am tomorrow to let me know if we can take him home, and I'm working on my list of questions to ask (when I got the call that he was going to recover, the only thing I could think of was "hooray!").
I'm not exactly sure what it is we're in for... he's only been here 2 weeks to boot. Poor guy.
Here too. I've never had a male given 5 days of pain meds for a neuter!
Pooing On Leash
in Training and Behavior discussion
Posted
Try a longer leash - chances are she likes her "privacy". It's pretty common, but does take some time for them to get in the habit!