BauersMom

Yep, everyone's had their dose of benadryl. I had actually run out a while back and JUST picked up some more, thankfully! I swear I still hear one buzzing around, but I can't find it.

Oh good Lord, the picture of the underground nest just about made me faint. Gah!!

We just had a rather horrifying experience out in the yard... one dog stuck her nose in a yellowjacket's nest in the ground. You can imagine what happened next. Luckily I was out there with them but I couldn't pull the little off of them fast enough! Everyone's got at least one bite. Two questions: 1) Should I just go ahead and give some benadryl "just in case"? Two of the dogs are seniors, and I'd rather not give them anything they don't need... but at the same time, they got it worse than the youngin'. 2) Anyone ever had experience in getting RID of an underground yellowjacket's nest (possibly nests)? I've been finding this little holes in our yard, and until tonight didn't realize what they were... we have at least a half dozen possible nests in the yard (probably not all of the active... but still). Hopefully that's the end of the excitement for tonight.

There was some good advice in this thread from a while ago: http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php?showtopic=170595&hl= The longer you can let her rehab the toe, the better. Typically, Ivy's been splinted or soft wrapped for a minimum 4 weeks, then we leash walk for a little bit after that. In fact, after this last dislocation, she's been leash walked only for about 3 months. So far, no more dislocations (we were at once a month before ) It's not uncommon for the dog to go under to reset the toe - all four times, Ivy had to be sedated. Hers were all pretty nasty, too.

Well, a little bitty toe can cause a lot of problems - been there, done that... to the total of $1000. Anyway, sounds like your vet has a good game plan. Don't know what planet the other vet was on though! I would definitely make sure they wrap her this time and leash walk only for a while. Her ligaments are probably good and stretched out, and it'll take some time before she's out of the danger of redislocating it (been there and done that too!). Good luck.

I loved the Oscar stories, especially because he reminded me so much of my angel Bauer - those gorgeous fawn boys always tug on the heart strings. I'm so sorry. Godspeed Oscar.

I've been in that situation and have done both the waiting game until the vet opened AND the e-vet. The time with the e-vet the toe healed much better and faster... less overall swelling and I think that's because she wasn't left all night long with a dislocated toe. The time we left it, it was very swollen and never really healed well... lots of scar tissue and the toe still sorta looks funny. Not saying that's what's going to happen with Stella, but that was my experience. And I would go the e-vet route again. (None of her toes ever went back without sedation and manipulation, btw)

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.

After the adoption one, none of mine have needed a dental.

Don't mean to de-rail a thread I didn't start, but... Do you think the dog will leave the foam alone, or will he chew on it? Thanks Sure, there's always a chance they'll mess with anything in their crate. That said, neither of the two dogs that I had happy tail with did anything to the foam. In one case, I started with covering the the crate with a comforter, like this: It was sort of an experiment and it worked fine, so that may be an option if you think they'll mess with the foam. Basically, the theme of happy tail is protect the tail from further damage while it's healing. And sometimes that means gettin' creative.

If George is primarily whacking the tail on the crate (meaning that's where the damage is happening), buy some foam batting or padding at a craft store. They come in squares just about the right size to put up along the back walls of the crate - where the tail would hit. Hang them in the back sides of the crate - we used zip ties, poke a hole through the foam and zip tie to the wire crate. That helped tremendously! I agree with above - the key is to keep the tail protected until it can heal. Most likely 2-3 weeks. I use pipe insulation, and white athletic tape and tape up the tail about 4-5" (on to the hair). Here's a good website describing the wrapping process (though I would use something other than just cotton): http://www.grassmere-animal-hospital.com/h...l_bandaging.htm

That's 58% of the cases reported died of cancer? Right? We need to know the sampling methods before we really know what context these numbers are in. Not saying they're off or wrong, but if this was a cancer survey and the people polled were ones affected by cancer, then the numbers will be skewed high. If it was a survey taken across all greyhound owners, then the numbers might be more accurate. I can't tell from just this though.

There were a lot of good suggestions in one of my old threads here: http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php?showtopic=170595&hl=

I also had to use it with my broken legged foster, and it was a huge help. We didn't have any side effects and it didn't knock her out.

I'm so sorry Kim.

I can see sand being easier on the toes, but since she came to us missing a toe I though maybe there might be some history there. My vet brought up the arthritis possibility today and gave us some options to think about - adequan, increasing her gluco/chrondroitin/MSM supplements, etc. She already favors her broken hock leg, so maybe that's the source of her 'unnatural gait' that's causing this?

We've only had her since last fall, and within 2 months had dislocated her first toe. I will be up at the track for the Expo and will ask her trainer if this is status quo for her or something new. I doubt she has any sort of hereditary disease but maybe she's always had crappy toes. I'll track down some of the Ligaplex too, worth trying. She's already on the standard gluco/chondroitin/MSM supplement. Since we have X-rays of all her feet, I'll ask the vet to see if we're dealing with any arthritis. This is the first repeat offender toe, as far as "problem" toes go. She's in a soft wrap now - the splints tend to really bother her.

She's 8 and a fairly slow pup! She's not tearing it up when she does this - the first time she was just walking from room to room, literally. I watched her turn the corner and then come up lame. The next two times she was running back in from a potty break and this last time she was doing some cornering - and this was about 3 weeks after her last splint came off and her first attempt at running since then (same toe as last time, though all previous times it was different toes). We're leashing walking now and we certainly can keep doing it for any length of time. We don't encourage her running at all, and in fact, she rarely does so it's not that hard. How do we/the vet determine which toes are beyond repair? We've had 3 different toes now on 2 different feet and she's already missing one toe. And how do I find someone who know how to 'fire' a toe? Heck, at this point, I'll drive to Auburn! I don't know what is going on but I agree there has to be some medical reason why the toes dislocate so frequently. Have you ever tried putting any of the toes back in place yourself? I have done this when Kiowa dislocated a toe and it took about 2 seconds and he's never had it pop out again. He just stood there and let me do it w/o a whimper. I know there are a few GTers who regularly pop their dogs toes back. I've tried. She screams like bloody murder and as far as I can tell the toe won't budge. The vet has done the same thing with no luck. The other thing that I've been told is fairly odd about this is the way she dislocates her toes are not like "common" dislocations. Like the toe dislocates OUT rather than UP out of the joint (I'm not sure if that's how the vet explained it though, I may be remembering this incorrectly - but it was something to that effect). Thanks for all the input.

Well, as far as I know, she only ever raced in New England. And all her x-rays came out clean - no signs of osteo or anything like that! It's beyond frustrating and I feel so bad for her.

I'm at my wit's end. Ivy has had 4 dislocated toes in the last 5 months. Three on a front paw (one outside toe, two were the inside toe) and one on her back paw (outside toe). One time she did it inside the house, the rest have all been outside - sometimes she's playing, sometimes she's just trotting around the yard. She's missing a toe on the other front foot already. Each time she does it, the vet has to sedate her to re-set it. And she's in a splint for 3-4 weeks. She really does a number on her tootsies. At this point, all of her feet have been x-rayed and the vet can't find any cause for this to happen. Her nails aren't long, and I try to dremel them as short as I can each session (but when a paw is in a splint for 4 weeks, it's kinda hard to keep ahead of the game). We bought Therapaw booties, but of course tonight I didn't put them on and she dislocated another toe. They are rubbing parts of her feet raw, so I have a feeling they aren't fit right and so I need to have them resized. Maybe she'll just have to live in the therapaws?!? Has anyone dealt with this problem before? I can take one or two... but now we're on four dislocations so there's something wrong here.

I'm so sorry Lisa. I remember how she used to whine if she wasn't getting enough pets at M&Gs. What a diva. I know Bauer's up there keeping her company. They're probably hunting down squirrels and having a ball.

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry Diane.

I'm so sorry. Godspeed, Sally.

I'm so sorry. Godspeed Tyler.