BauersMom

I'd do the standard glucosamine/chondroitin sulfate supps. The young ones bounce back a lot better than the older dogs from broken hocks (well, for normal breaks that is... those that are really bad will be bad regardless of age). Good luck.

I highly recommend Dr. Sisson at Angell Memorial in Boston. I don't know that he'll be able to see you sooner, but he was great to work with.

I can certainly ask over on GG, but I'm not a regular user. If snowjay is willing... I've asked just about every trainer I know. One suggested a calcium supplement - which we added. Another one suggested (as did Lynn I think?) that her previously-broken hock might have tilted her gait off enough to mess up everything else. Re: Firing... my vet didn't feel comfortable with it. He's greyhound savvy, but just not that familiar with it. At this point if we go that route I'd probably have to go up to Raynham to do it. Which is fine... I just don't know any track vets and would have to work out the logistics there. Ivy should have come with a "defective toe" label.

To update... We took LynnM's advice and leash walked her from June when this first happened to this week - in total 6 months. Supplemented with SP ligaplex, chrondroitin and glucosamine... And tonight... she dislocated another toe. At this point, it seems like we have no choice but to leash walk her only. P.S. We ditched the therapaws because she was constantly trying to get out of them. I don't recall the size we bought. Edit to add: This time was the THIRD time for the inside front toe... the only toe that's seen multiple dislocations. Is it worth having it removed?? She's already missing a toe on the OTHER front foot...

You must have been posting at the same time I was writing my first response... because I didn't see those pics initially. The hardest part now will be keeping her away from the wound. My Bauer ripped his drains out TWICE... talk about frustrating...Ugh! What we found that worked was a kid-sized turtleneck. Covered the wounds enough to keep him away from them, but also allowed enough air in for things to heal. Hugs to you and Grace.

I'm sorry, I've been there and know how horrible a feeling it is. The thing I tell people over and over is that it happens FAST - faster than you can react. Anyone who thinks they can interfere before some damage is done is fooling themselves. And ANY dog can attack another dog at ANY point - sometimes even if they've been living together for years... They're dogs, it happens. I have dogs that for sure can't be outside together unmuzzled. And sometimes I don't want to track down the muzzles and deal with that - so I let them "take turns" out in the yard. One goes out, another comes in, second comes in and the third goes out... NEVER is there more than one dog outside unmuzzled. Ever. Period. Sorry things had to get learned the hard way.

It might be something like a staph infection, ringworm or mange...or even a thyroid issue. Is he losing hair or do the hairless spots seem to be getting worse/bigger? How is he doing otherwise?

Happy Birthday sweet Lady!

I had a foster with a similar problem. The vet had us use a topical steroidal spray for hers (it was likely an allergy) but it also had a very bitter taste - solved two problems at once, sorta thing. Maybe check with the vet for something similar? I don't know if you'd want to use something like bitter apple spray, because it could likely sting and maybe interfere with the skin healing - though that's just a guess. With the foster it was a viscious cycle - irritation, licking, more irration, more licking. The key is to interrupt that cycle so things can heal... and in some cases that might mean something like a cone if nothing else works! Good luck.

Sounds like they were scuffling over a rawhide? If so, the fix is to separate when treats are given out (our guys are either in their crates or babygated in separate rooms), or to supervise closely. Never leave chew treats out, even if they've lost interest - you never know if they will decide to be interested later and get defensive about it. Food is probably the #1 reason for dog fights. Sorry you had to learn that lesson the hard way. But with a little change of routine, I have no doubt you'll be able to avoid it in the future.

Well, obviously! But it's not like mouse brains from mice treated with sodium sulfadiazine are something raw folks are feeding, either. The other abstract states only one of the 3 isolates they were looking at survived, so I'm not about to make decisions based on either source, I'd actually like to see studies of food-grade meat in a domestic situation and the outcomes there.

And here's an article that states Neospora were viable after cryofreezing to -60C. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-3395...%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W Tissue cysts were preserved with 7.5% dimethyl sulfoxide in horse serum at -60 C. After thawing, bradyzoites were digested in an acid/pepsin solution and placed onto Vero cell cultures. Neospora caninum tachyzoites were recovered from cell cultures, indicating that bradyzoites retained viability after concentration and cryopreservation. Separated tissue cysts ranged in diameter from 107 mm to 15 mm (average = 31 mm), and the average bradyzoite dimensions were 2 x 7.5 mm. These methods make it possible to store viable N. caninum tissue cysts for oral-infectivity trials and other studies. Without seeing the full text, however, it's hard to say what the studies actually mean. Neither case is actually examining neospora in cattle or in freezing of food meat, either.

Freezing is NOT an effective way to kill off most bugs. In fact, there was a large salmonella breakout a few years back from ice cream! http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?c...st_uids=8609944 The only one that can be affected by freezing is trichinosis found in pork, but that has been largely eliminated in US food sources.

A T4 test without the full panel is really meaningless. The vet might have said "free" T4, not 3T4, and in that case, they still need the rest of the panel (TSH, etc) before making a call. Well, except that you'd be dosing a dog with thyroid supplement who doesn't need it. That's significant. Dogs will react to thyroid treatment because the effect of the supplement causes changes, regardless to they NEED it or not. I wouldn't recommend someone put their dogs on any meds unless there was a medical reason for it, and certainly I wouldn't recommend thyroid supplement for the sole reason of behavior modification when there are medicines (and other nonmedical methods altogether) out there for that use. Treating the symptom and treating the cause are two different things, and if the thyroid is low because something else is going on, then it's better to keep digging and find the cause.

I went to the VCA in CA and always had the same vet, and they were probably one of my favorite vets I've had over the years. I was always impressed with the service. My only complaint is that they were always booked solid. I know people who use a VCA here locally, and again, have seen the same vet for 10+ years (or so they tell me). And I just remembered that our group uses an ortho at a VCA hospital for the broken legged dogs too. She's excellent.

Oh Kim, I'm so sorry! I know how much you loved your kitties, and I have no doubt that you did the right by them. Sending hugs.

My two chatters will do that when they are excited. Sometimes it results in full teeth chattering, sometimes they just tremble their jaw. I've never actually heard of a weak jaw? I'm sure it happens... but at 7, I'd hesitate to assume it's age related.

Actually, it's pretty common around here to go to TBD when a dog presents with a limp. Unfortunately, when you live in this part of the world, it's standard to know several people whose dogs were limping and had a Lyme diagnosis. I think the wait and see with pain meds is fairly standard protocol. I wouldn't jump to full blown x-rays etc, until the "easy" stuff has been ruled out like strain, etc.

I would definitely take her to a vet for an evaluation. Even if it's "just" dislocated, she may need to be splinted - which is sometimes very necessary for things to heal properly. If it doesn't heal, you could be facing a situation where the toe becomes constant problem. Even if the vet can't do anything for it, they can at least get her some pain meds!

We had that once and it was only on one side - turned out to be his tonsils! Yes, dogs have tonsils and yes they get infected too. It was a relatively easy treatment - they put in a drain and a round of ATBs.

Yeah, I was just going to ask how a 3 year shot becomes MORE frequent when there's a bad reaction? If anything, I'd go to yearly titers if my guys ever had a bad reaction to a vaccine. I certainly wouldn't want to give them shots more often? Unless I'm missing something? having had some experience with this, what the vet is likely doing with the shots is one shot every year, so they are still getting the shots on a three year cycle, its just a different shot each year to prevent a reaction. My cat would get distemper one year, rabies the next, etc etc. I understand that, but not spacing it out every few WEEKS, as it sounds like.

Yeah, I was just going to ask how a 3 year shot becomes MORE frequent when there's a bad reaction? If anything, I'd go to yearly titers if my guys ever had a bad reaction to a vaccine. I certainly wouldn't want to give them shots more often? Unless I'm missing something?

I know LadyChester's Lady was diagnosed with pancreatitis at one point - and she would have 'flare ups' occasionally, but I certainly don't remember her having to go into the vet for regular shots?

We had the professionals come out today, I didn't want to mess around (or just stung again ) They sprayed the nests, and we'll be leash walking until the coast is clear.

That's what my dad said (when in trouble, call dad, right?). He said if we tried to do it ourselves, to only approach at night. The problem is that our yard is close to an acre fenced... and of course the nest we hit is in the way back, where we'd never be able to see anything in the pitch black anyway, even with a flashlight! I'll leash walk the dogs for now, until we can find a solution.