Remolacha

I am so sorry it didn’t work out. I know you tried as hard as you could to make it work.

Most of my dogs have ignored the cats, or been mildly curious and when told "no kitty" they kind of shrugged and walked away. Fletcher, my heart dog, was the exception. He was fostered with a cat and seemed fine with it, so deemed cat safe. The cat was a confidant cat that was used to dogs, and with that kind of cat, he was fine. Respected the cat's space, and I had no problem leaving them alone together, although I have always made sure the cats have a safe space that they can easily get to that the dogs can't. One of my cats, however, was a spooky, shy cat that didn't like or trust the dogs. She would "skulk" through the house, and Fletcher found her very tempting to chase. With a lot of firm "no kitty"s he learned not to chase her inside the house. He was very dis-tractable from the start, though. It sounds like Dangit was not cat trainable, and I think you made the right choice for him and your kitty to return him. My point is, even if this new guy shows some interest in your cat, if you can easily distract him, you probably can train him to safely live with the cat.

When I brought my first greyhound home I had five cats, from self confident and bold to spooky and shy and they were all fine. A year later I added another greyhound, so yeah, five cats and two dogs

It can be scary when they dont eat, but once you are sure they are not sick, it just becomes another greyhound quirk

Hah, the greyhound charm! I am so sorry Dangit didn’t work out, it can be scary to see that high prey kick in, especially if you didn’t expect it. Hopefully this new guy will work out, many of them do just fine with cats.

I am so sorry

Depends. If he has eaten part of the meal, I add some to bring it up to the usual amount. If he’s left most or all, I might add a little something, some cottage cheese or something like that to “freshen” it up. I don’t try to make up for the missed meal. Even as an old guy, I don’t think it hurts him to miss an occasional meal.

Oddly enough, it is Conner the food whore who doesn’t finish or skips meals in the summer. I usually refrigerate what he doesn’t eat and offer it again at dinner, which he happily eats, no problem.

I think most dogs like eating twice a day, but I have heard of several that only want to eat once a day. I have noticed that several of my dogs eat less, or not at all, in the morning when it heats up in the summer. I would also hesitate to feed a senior dog only once a day, unless they insisted. I think the old guys need to eat twice, or even three times a day, maybe smaller meals.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the extra freezer, an essential!

I think, sadly, you are making the right call.

It is not cheap, for sure. Your costs are to some extent going to depend on where you live and how much work you are willing to do to track down cheap meat. Remembering my early days of driving around town to pick up a case of turkey necks from one wholesale distributor to a carneceria for goat on sale, and so on. I now have access to a couple of sources that buy in large quantities and repackage and resell. I pay more, but they do the running around My dogs are 60-75 lbs and they each get about two pounds of food a day, in two meals. They are eating less now that it has turned hot, probably closer to 1.5 lbs/day. Another cost factor is, both of my dogs are older, one with bad teeth, so I now feed only ground, no RMBs, and of course, that costs more. The person I buy most of my food from makes a ground meat/bone/organ/veg mix, in the correct portions. More expensive than doing it yourself, easier, less time consuming, and way cheaper than the commercial raw mixes. I’d guess I spend about $125 per dog per month. To me, it is worth the money.

This is one of the hardest decisions you will ever have to make, but whatever you decide, it will be right, because you are doing what you think is best for your girl. Remember that in the days to come, because, again, whatever you decide, you will probably second guess yourself. I haven't read all the responses, brought back too many memories. My first experience with osteo, my girl broke her leg jumping off the couch. The evet confirmed the diagnosis, he showed me on the x-rays that there was osteo in her back leg and in her hip, I let her go that same day. My second time was a nightmare. Another broken leg, which the vet misdiagnosed, told me there was no osteo. My vet, another radiologist, and Dr Couto all identified osteo in her front leg. I should have let her go then, but didn't (long story) A few weeks later, when we couldn't control the pain, I let her go. The sound of a greyhound screaming in pain from a broken leg is one of the worst sounds I have ever heard, I hope I never hear it again. whatever you decide

Kangaroo and chickpea? Um, yeah, I can see some incomplete nutrition there Dogs are very adaptable, but a little common sense is an important ingredient!

I am pretty sure there is no walk scheduled here, it will be around 110 on Sunday (which means about 80 even at 6 a.m.)

I am so sorry for your loss. Having it happen so suddenly is a terrible shock. Personally, I do put their things away, it gives me some closure, but you should do what is right for you, everyone is different. It will be hard to go get her ashes, but I think you might find some comfort in having her back home.

This is never an easy decision to make, and second guessing yourself is completely normal, but you did the right thing. Part of our responsibility to our pets is to give them the best quality of life we can, and when the time comes, due to injury, disease, or old age when they no longer have that good quality of life, it is time to give them the last gift and let them go. It is a shock when it happens unexpectedly, I know, but you would not have done her any favors by trying to take her home.

I am getting Conner's from Costco, $7 for 90 100mg capsules. Hopefully, even if it becomes controlled they will still fill it, but it will probably go up. The 300 mg capsules I got for my shingles were a lot more expensive ($30, $40? don't recall for sure) but it was a one time deal.

Well crap. I hope they don’t do that here.

I am so sorry He sounds like he was such a special boy.

Another thing to consider, can you handle an unexpected large medical bill, or would it be financially easier for you to pay a relatively small amount each month in insurance premiums? I try not to add up what I pay for treating my animals, I really don’t want to know but, when one of my dogs had surgery for possible cancer (not osteo) with complications I did add things up to see if I was going to hit the limit on my credit card. I spent about $8,000 just on the surgery and complications, but for me it was easier financially to pay for it on my credit card and then pay that off on my own schedule.

This is what I do. I had a negative experience with VPI years ago and went the savings account route. There are a lot more options now, and I have heard many good things about some of them. However, I also adopt seniors and bounces, and the premiums would be higher right off the bat, if the insurance was even available.

I agree. Most of us keep some kind of tag collar on all the time, plus a martingale for walks, and for those of us who use Soresto collars, the last thing I’d want is another collar!

What a wonderful girl :beatheart You were both lucky to be able to share her last few years