Annette

We have not gotten chest x-rays yet but want to be prepared if Pogo is a good candidate for leg amputation. We need to find a grey savvy surgeon. We live near Marshfield. Has anyone used the vets in Appleton? Green Bay? Madison? Does anyone recommend the vet school in Madison? Thanks

I just wanted to let everyone know that I did hear from Dr. Couto. Once we get chest xrays on Pogo on Monday, we will send them off to Dr. Couto. Thanks

I just got back from the vet with Pogo. He is limping on his right front leg and it is swollen just above the wrist. The xray shows a strong indication of a hole in the bone just above his wrist. I just sent an email to Dr. Couto's consulting group. How long does it usually take to get a reply?

hugs

I know other dogs will eat dirt. Does yours? How do you make them stop? Miriam has recently began eating dirt. She is eating the dirt at the bottom of the steps going into the yard. We haven't a clue why. Neither Pogo or she does their job there. Roy wonders if there could be salt runoff into the soil and she is craving salt??? Her appetite is normal. She eats her regular food just fine. Any advice as how to keep her from eating dirt? Thanks

Sending hugs

I also hope the tumor and lesions are benign. Our pup, Icabod, had a tumor rupture on his spleen almost 20 years ago (September 28, 1995), he was also 10 years old. He had emergency surgery and went through 3 or 4 rounds of chemo of a 5 round treatment (too long ago to remember) before we stopped the chemo. He just started losing his appetite and not being happy. Icabod was a blood donor dog on staff at Colorado State University we adopted him. He loved going to the vet. He always had to take a tour of the sick ward as if to offer comfort to the patients. When he began to plant his feet and refuse to enter the vet school (U of I - Urbana) for treatment, we knew we had to stop. Icabod made it eleven months post surgery and chemo treatments before the cancer spread to his spine. He was on a three drug protocol (I think two of the drugs were adriamyacin and cytoxin???), I know the first letters of the drugs "spelled out a word". I don't know what chemo drugs they now use for treatment. Again, like Remolacha said above, Icabod's reaction to chemo was not typical, but it is human nature to talk about what is not typical instead of the norm. Sending hugs.

We keep a plasic floor mat (picture the mat used to make office chairs move easier on carpet) with the nubby side up. That is enough to keep Pogo off. No trying to coax him off the bed and we know he isn't on there when we are not home.

One suggestion I read somewhere was not to carry the cat in your arms while you are standing because the tail twitching may resemble the lure in their mind. I don't know if anyone else reading this topic has heard that before? That being said, in our personal experience we have never had a problem with cats and greyhounds living together. We have had retired racers as "kids" for almost 26 years. Our 6 pound, tripod kitty was the ruler of the hounds. She literally slapped the snot out of the dogs

So sorry to hear about Fruitcake. She really had personality. I am sure our Lefty greeted her at the bridge. Lefty was our "character" who made it to about 20 years old. Annette

I am not really concerned. Roy is just a big worrier and wanted me to find out if any other hounds out there are on hunger strikes. Miriam is an up and down eater. She has actually gained weight in the last month since Pogo has joined the family so there is no reason to worry about starvation. Now, if I suddenly stopped eating, I don't know that Roy would notice.

Miriam has has not eaten her last 3 meals (breakfast and supper today and yesterday's supper). I am not worried about her yet, but her dad is worried. Just curious if any other hounds out there aren't in an eating mood? Thanks

Unfortunately there is not a good way to block Pogo from the door. I do my best to ignore him. He is hard to ignore when he is waiting on the other side of the door when I come in. It has been a long long time since we had a big goofy boy. I am out of practice. Roy keeps reminding me of how Rhett was when we adopted him close to 15 years ago. I know it's going to take time to have Pogo act like a gentleman when someone comes home. Roy actually picked the name Pogo for him since in addition to outright jumping, he pogos on his his front feet

How do you train a greyhound to not jump when not on a leash? When I get home, Pogo goes crazy jumping. He is hard to even get a hold of sometimes. When I get home I can hear him getting excited and jumpy through the closed door. Anyone have advice?

You could strike fear in the heart of 80 pound greyhounds. You were the true test of a kitty safe greyhound. You may have been a petite 7 pound tripod girl, but you had a mean right hook. You were left on the side of the road like a piece of garbage because someone didn’t want to risk catching some sort of disease by rescuing you. When your dad found out that you were left on the side of the road to die, he drove like a bat out of !#!# to find you. When he found you, he thought you were dead so he turned around to leave. For whatever reason he turned to look at you once more and you lifted your head. Dad then rushed you to the vet to have you put out of your misery. You looked horrible. The vet said that you could be saved, but your left arm would be useless. When I went to pick you up from the vet, the tech brought you out carrying you in her arms. You were a carry around kitty! I had to remain strong. We had more than enough kitties. We were going to take you to a no-kill shelter near Milwaukee that adopted out hard to place critters. Ten days after you came home with us, you started having seizures. We rushed you to the vet school in Urbana and the emergency room looked like a TV medical drama with vets appearing out of the woodwork. On our way to the school we stopped several times to make sure you were still alive. I told your dad that if you survive, we were going to keep you. Well, you made it to be a little old lady of possibly 20 years old. We are not sure how old you really are. Scarlett was your only hound sibling who was not afraid of you. You two had an agreement. Scarlett was the ruler of all and you were also the ruler of all, all but her. You were a kitty of destruction. You chewed up the arms of the futon and the blinds. When I put up shelves for my porcelain dolls, you climbed up the six foot step ladder and were walking on the shelf with the dolls. I had your dad bring you down because I was liable to strangle you. You loved to be carried as long as we cradled you in our arms. You slowly aged. Three years ago you were diagnosed as hyperthyroid. We weren’t going to attempt to pill you; that would only lead you to avoid us. The vet put you on a special diet, and you liked it. Your old body has caught up with you. You no longer were eating your special diet and were losing weight. There is no cure for old age. You have been eating whatever you like, but it’s time to go. Go strike fear into the hearts of greyhounds at the bridge.

He is adorable! Congratulations

Hugs. I know how hard it is. Dixie and Asta are playing together now. I am amazed at how much they resembled each other. Just looking at your pictures, I had to look at our pictures of Dixie and I can find similar poses to Asta. They would be hard to tell apart.

She is doing better. She only paces a bit and eventually settles when I tell her to lay down and chill enough times. She not acting anything like Wednesday night. We were sent home with Rimadyl. The tooth that was extracted was an upper tooth on the right side of the mouth, third from the back of the mouth. The vet explained to me that the tooth had to be removed in three pieces. (I can't remember why, unfortunately my mind has been preoccupied with a friend who, last Friday, was told she had a week left to live with the possibility of two to three weeks. She was admitted to a hospice facility on Thursday and has rapidly gone down hill.) In addition to having her tooth extracted, Miriam had a corn hulled.

Miriam had a dental yesterday. She had to have one tooth pulled and one corn hulled. The vet and the techs Miriam did well, no problems waking up from the anesthesia and there were no other problems. She was under for about an hour during the procedure. She is eating basically canned dog food soup with antibiotics twice a day and a deramaxx once a day. She doesn't really like it, but she eats it. At about 9:30 last night it was as someone flipped a switch. She started pacing. She seemed to be frantically searching for something. She wouldn't lay down. She walked behind the wood burner (luckily no fire lit last night) which really scared me. I even walked her on a leash inside our fenced yard because she was acting so strange. When we got back in she continued pacing. She eventually paced right into her crate. Once she was in there, I closed the door. I closed the curtains and closed the bedroom door and left her in the dark to help her calm down. I called the vet to see if it was ok to give here melatonin and L-Theanine with the medication she is on, and he said that it was okay. I left her in the crate over night and she was better by morning. Unfortunately she is back to pacing again tonight. Has anyone else ever experienced this after a dental? btw, Miriam isn't a full-blown spook, but she is not completely comfortable in her skin and she is afraid of her dad. Normally I give her an L-Theanine and Melatonin with her meals and this seems to take the edge off. Thanks.

Right now it's -20 with a -42 wind chill. Miriam is on strike. She peed before work this morning and that is it. I am just going to keep trying to get her outside. We aren't suppose to get above zero till Wednesday, and then only +3 degrees. Thursday we are suppose to make it into the teens for both high and low temps. Miriam wants to move back to Alabama.

So sorry. Swiftie will always be just a memory away

We were going to wait to adopt Rhett a sister, but he needed help healing his heart and you came at the right time. You weren’t a spook, but you were very shy. You were afraid of your dad, but that changed over time. He became your “hero”. When we were at gatherings, you had to always have him in your sight. If he wasn’t in sight you paced and panted till he returned. When you came for your home visit, we had to make sure that you were especially kitty safe since your sister Taffy was blind. You were very careful not to startle her. You seemed to know that she needed special care. Then there was Lefty. She tested you to make sure you were really kitty safe. I think she understood when we told her that she had a new sister that was her twin of a different species and she didn’t like that. You never crossed Lefty’s path. She was the boss. Your life with us started out rough. You were a broken leg dog and all that hardware in your leg just didn’t agree with you. You developed an infection that would not heal so we had that hardware removed. Afterwards you were so stressed that you couldn’t stop drinking water. We didn’t know how we were going to make you better, but you did get better. Our first time camping was very rough on you. A storm came through that made everything a cold wet mess. Your brother Rhett slept with his body leaning against the heater in the tent while you tried to bolt 3 times. You and I slept tightly together and kept each other warm. We decided to find a hotel that had a first floor room for the next night. You were so stressed that you began stress drinking once again. We gave you medicine to help calm your nerves and it seemed to help until we went outside and all your stress came back. It is still hard to believe that the medicine wore off in an instant. You were a Grade A racer and let Rhett know that. You could be competitive when you wanted to be. Most of all, you and Rhett were good friends. You helped him get over his loss of Scarlett and he helped you blossom into a pet. It took us a while before we adopted a sister for you. We fostered a few hounds and you enjoyed the company, but you didn’t get attached to any of them until Miriam. You seemed to know that she wasn’t just shy, she was a spook. For the longest time, you would lay in the crate with her and next to her on the side of the bed. You told her that it was a good thing to be a pet. It took two years, but she finally understands how to be a pet. She is no longer afraid of her dad. I don’t know who is going to miss you more, Miriam or your parents. You no longer have problems breathing and you can beat your brother in another race. Dixie, aka Pazzo Dixie: June 16, 2001 – August 31, 2013

She has her good days and bad. Lucky for Dixie (but not for our farmers and gardeners) we have been cooler than normal. We actually had lows in the upper 30s and low 40s around here last week. We are suppose to have a return to summer later this week with highs in the upper 80s. Dixie doesn't have the stamina for even the shortest of walks and if she gets excited she has a hard time breathing. Dixie says that it sucks getting old

Curious if anyone out west heard about this clinical trial taking place at Oregon State University. http://www.oregonlive.com/pets/index.ssf/2012/09/pet_talk_laryngeal_paralysis_n.html

Since Miriam is our first real spook, is it common for spooks to be relatively normal and then suddenly regress? Nothing has changed around here (at least in our eyes) for a long time. It's been quite boring since winter does not want to let go and we keep getting snow and cold. Still have a solid pack of 1 1/2 feet of snow on the ground. Last night/this morning (whichever way you want to look at it) around 3:30 Miriam started pacing. We assumed she needed to go outside. She was hesitant to go out at first and then went out and didn't want to come back in. It was +4 this morning and she was out more than 20 minutes and still wouldn't come in. When she is relatively normal she will come in for me if she doesn't come in for Roy. This time she wouldn't even come in for me. We sent Dixie out and she finally went up to Roy when he was petting Dixie outside. He was able to grab her collar and bring her in. Needless to say, we will be attaching her long rope to her collar whenever she goes out so we can reel her in. Saturday morning I was on the couch with Miriam on one side and our tripod kitty, Lefty on the other side, with both hitting me for attention. So this is a sudden change in her and we don't know why. Thanks