Annette

This morning I had an appointment to take one of our kitties in for his annual physical. When I got back home, Dixie had to go out at least a dozen times in two hours time. When something appears wrong with one of our fur kids, I always call their aunt, the vet, first. She starts rattling off medical conditions that could be the cause but did not seem alarmed. I asked if she thought Dixie should go to the vet, if she thought it was an emergency. She didn't think it was an emergency, but thought it would be wise to take her in. I woke up Roy and we took her in. Dixie conveniently left a pee sample on the exam room floor, and it appears that she has an infection. They did a quick in house test and sent a sample to an outside lab also. Before she offered up the sample, the vet did an exray of her bladder/belly area. There was nothing to unusual on the film other than her being gassy. Her need to go outside has slowed down considerably. I don't know if she peed her self out or if she wore her self out from trudging through the snow and being out in 15F weather. We were sent home with Ciprofloxacin antibiotic and Iams Prostora for her stomach. We gave her a dose of each around 12:30 today. Is it possible that she could improve so quickly? The vet also found a growth the size of a peanut near her rectum. He didn't seem all that concerned about it. Unless it changes drastically before we clear up the current infection, we aren't going to do anything with the growth. She will be going in for a dental in the near future and while she is under for that, the vet will remove the growth and have it checked out. I think we are all wishing her infection could have waited till warmer weather. We could have set up a shade tent, put out a bowl of water and a bed, and she could have lounged outside (the best she could). What is everyone else's experience with bladder infections? Thanks

I also wish there was a bigger greyhound community up here. About the only thing I liked about living near Chicago was the strong greyhound community. There use to be meet 'n greets in Plover, but with the economy and the price of gas, people weren't making it to the events. I know there are a few greyhounds in the Stevens Point area and besides our two here, the pharmacy manager at Walgreens in Marshfield has two greyhounds.

In our case, the potential adopter for Miriam was turned down. There were no other potential adopters (that I was aware of) waiting in the wings. I doubt people who foster keep dogs when someone is waiting for them.

Miriam is from GPA. She is a failed foster. Actually her adoption fell through and Dixie (adopted from Midwest GH Adoption out of Illinois) begged us to keep her. She likes having a buddy and someone to boss around

Who's fostering your pup, do you know?

Hello from Central Wisconsin!

When we lived on the Illinois side of Terre Haute, Indiana we had 17 1/2 acres and our gh, Icabod. He actually was off leash whenever on our property (never anywhere else). There was still a short stretch of fence left from a cow pasture. Icabod had absolutely no prey drive. While he was sniffing away near an abandoned tractor trailer I saw what I thought was a dog jump the fence, then another, then yet another. They all looked identical, then I realized they were coyotes. They were running like he!! to get out of there. Icabod never noticed them. We had loads of coyotes down there.

Rhett and Icabod were comfortable from the get go. Rhett cockroached his first night with us. It took at least a year for Dixie and Scarlett to feel comfortable and settle in. We have had Miriam for more than a year and we think she is starting to understand that she is in her forever home.

done

:grouphug

So sorry for your loss

FWIW, Dixie had a corn that took more than 6 months to surface well enough to determine that it was a corn. We had ex rays done, had her on pain meds and she was still limping 3 weeks after the first ex ray. She went in for a dental and they did more ex rays while she was out so they could manipulate her leg better. Didn't find anything. When we went to the GEM event, we bought her a thera paws boot and walking improved tremendously. She went in for her annual late last year and low and behold there was a corn. We quit looking for a corn because we were never finding one. Now we will keep on looking if she starts to limp again. Annette

A friend's ridgeback has just been diagnosed with a mast cell tumor on her rear leg. Is there a good site or sites I can direct her to regarding mast cell tumors? Thanks, Annette

We have had Miriam since the end of July. I posted once before regarding her behavior(http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/276696-changing-behavior/). We have been crating her when we are gone, so there have been no more peeing issues. Miriam has pretty well accepted me, but I am home with her 7 days a week (outside of going to work, etc). Roy has been working for the past year just over 90 miles away and has only been home on weekends, or we went to his apartment on weekends. She almost seemed a hair more (not much more) relaxed away from our home. Roy now has started a job closer to home, but he will still have to move to an apartment on the city's electric line. Until he finds a pet friendly apartment, he will be staying at home. She is absolutely afraid of Roy! She does not want to be in the same room with him. (This happened after he had an argument with someone on the phone regarding his old apartment) She is not afraid of Roy's dad and she does well in public. She actually seems to enjoy being in public. Miriam was relatively relaxed the one time we were at my inlaws with her. When Roy is home, she will not come in the house at all for Roy, and sometimes it is very hard for me to get her to come in. Roy has tried walking her on a leash to no avail. She will not do anything when he has her on a leash. With the snow starting to fall, if it is like last year, she will practically be able to hop over the fence so we will have to leash walk her, but we are afraid she can get out of her collar if she is too afraid. We had a harness from Wiggles, Wags and Whiskers for Rhett, but it slipped too much. Where can we find a harness that will not slide around a greyhound body? This is all really upsetting for Roy and I am sometimes at my wits end when I have to always be the one to take her out, feed her, etc. Just say my sleep has been lacking. What can we do? There are no trainers within 100 miles of here that know anything about greyhounds. Will she ever improve? Thanks, Annette

We have 3 hounds right now (one is a foster). When I go to work both Miriam and Toby (the foster) are crated. We have only had Miriam since the end of July and Toby since the beginning of November. Miriam had problems peeing while I was at work so she stays in a crate when no one is home. Toby is a "bounce". Supposedly he had sleep space issues (haven't encountered any so far with him here, and I regularly lob stuffies at him when he is a sleep and have had no reaction so far) so we are crating him when we are gone and when we go to bed. Dixie only goes in a crate if she wants to and if no one else is in the crate. It doesn't seem to phase either Miriam or Toby to have Dixie free while they are crated. Dixie has actually started collecting stuffies and giving them to Miriam and Toby while they are crated. Annette

It sounds like Star was just protecting her space. I don't think there is anything you really can do to stop a cat from acting like a cat. Hopefully the kitty will no longer enter the crate while Star is in it. We don't have that problem here. Lefty has no interest in being near the dogs intentionally, but heaven help the sensitive hound who gets in her space. Lefty has slapped the snot out of several greyhounds. They have either been upset after being slapped or totally oblivious to the fact that they had the snot slapped out of them by a 16 year old tripod kitty. Toby is of the oblivious variety, Lefty has slapped him till she's been "blue in the face" but he doesn't realize it and always seems to be in her space. Dixie and Miriam fear the kitty with the mean right hook Annette

Toby is here. Right now there is not much to report since we got home at 10:00 pm last night and I was at work all day today. I have no problem crating him. His crate came along as part of his "dowry". His crate is set up in the bedroom while Miriam's is set up in the living room. When it is time for meals, I put him in Miriam's crate in the living room just so he isn't separated from the pack. I have had Toby, Miriam and Dixie all muzzled when Toby isn't crated. He has been to stressed by his change of living, that he really hasn't slept while I am awake, so I can't do some observing/testing of his reaction when disturbed while sleeping. Of course he will have his muzzle on and I will be a safe distance from his jaws. He did try getting on the couch once, but I made him get off. I think the girls pretty much have told him that the couch belongs to them. He won't lay on the beds I have down on the floor, he goes and lays on the carpet runner instead Hopefully this weekend he will settle enough to relax and sleep while I am awake. Right now I feel like I am supervising a day care. Dixie, the nice, calm, mature child (she's 10 yo) lays quietly on the couch while the two four year olds act like children. I swear she is smirking when Toby and Miriam start driving me nuts Otherwise he is eating well and isn't shy in the least. He does show some signs of being an alpha dog. I am going to have to get him out walking on a leash (his family let him be off lead in unfenced areas ). One question, do you think I need all three dogs muzzled? Can I take the muzzles off the girls? Thanks

Tomorrow I will be picking up a greyhound being returned because of its sleep space aggression. He has been in the house for about 1 1/2 years and started showing signs of sleep space aggression about 1 year ago. The dog is coming from a house with three children (also have the impression an active household). The dog was allowed to sleep with one of the children (who he growled at when it was disturbed while sleeping) and also allowed on the furniture. Apparently the dog was on the couch and was sleeping with his eyes open and the dad got a little to close to the dog's face with his own face and was bitten. We have personally had two greyhounds with sleep space aggression. Icabod was not allowed on the furniture at all. His favorite place to sleep was in the hallway, lying across it so he blocked it. He snapped at both Roy and I along with the cats. Since we knew he was like that, we just were careful not to disturb him when he was a sleep and we made loud noises to let him know that we were nearby. The cats even learned to leap over him. He eventually outgrew the aggression. When we adopted Dixie, she had sleep space aggression. She actually bit the sil when they were both on the couch. Once that happened, Dixie was banned from all furniture. Dixie has since outgrown it. We go camping and share the mattress with her with no problems and sometimes she will lay on the couch if one of us is on it stretched out without any problems. Has anyone who has fostered or has had multiple dogs had to re-train a dog who has not been corrected for a year? How successful were you? Everyone will definitely be muzzled and the foster will be crated when not supervised and will not be allowed on the furniture. I am guessing Dixie and Miriam will gladly assist me in keeping the foster off of THEIR couch. Anyone have any other advice? Thanks

Today she is rather calm. I think yesterday wore her out. She never lost her appetite through it all (she always willing to eat and she did not get a meal last night). She had a small meal of hamburger and rice for breakfast. She was also wary of going outside this morning (considering the stress last night). When I got home tonight she didn't hesitate to go outside and stick her nose where it doesn't need to be. (She always goes out and pokes Dixie in the butt when she pees, then Dixie turns around and does the same thing to her ) Roy loves his little girl. When she came here for fostering, Dixie immediately adopted her. She didn't act with Eddie (who is a lot like Rhett) like she acted with Miriam. Well, Miriam's adoption fell through and Dixie got to adopt her "sister". He is working 90 miles west of here, so he is home only on weekends. Now that he has an apartment without stairs, I will head out there more often on the weekends. Miriam is still wary of Roy. Right now he is probably glad he isn't here. First it started when he traveled back and forth with his apartment kitty. In the beginning it seemed as though Casey and our old kitty, Lefty, could live in relative peace. Lefty started using her litter boxes less and less. After Casey decided to pull a chunk of hair out of her, he no longer was welcome to come to visit. Lefty then completely stopped using the litter boxes. So the cure was to kick Miriam out of the crate, and put Lefty in it. After a couple months in solitary, Lefty learned to use the litter box again. While Lefty was still living in the crate, it seemed as though a switch was turned on Miriam, and she started peeing in the house. Now she is back in the crate when I am at work. I was going through paper towels and cleaner like crazy. Then Friday, Saturday and Monday morning, Dixie started throwing up her breakfast after eating. And now Miriam's diarrhea. Hopefully I will be doing a little less cleaning up for a while. I picked up some TOTW bison and venison formula. After a few more days of hamburger and rice, I will gradually add that to the pups diets. Annette

Tracy,you can find Miriam's introduction over here: http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/275630-what-a-ruckus/page__p__5004275#entry5004275 Annette

When I got home from work today, I found that Miriam had explosive diarrhea while in her crate. I even had to clean the wall next to the crate. It apparently happened earlier in the day, because some of it had to be scrubbed. I let Miriam and Dixie out while I got to work on cleaning. I thought I heard a yelp, but wasn't sure because it is very windy here tonight. I looked outside, and both Miriam and Dixie looked fine. Miriam wanted to go out again a little while later and this time as she squatted she yelped several times. So I started making phone calls to find a vet who would see her after hours. The vet did xrays and stool analysis and everything is normal. Her intestines are inflamed though from the diarrhea. I was sent home with diarsanyl and metronidazole. My current suspicion is the Purina One Lamb and Rice. On Friday, Saturday and Monday morning, Dixie through up her breakfast almost immediately after eating. Miriam has been also eating it, but she didn't have any episodes of diarrhea until today, and she never threw up. Anyone have any ideas? Also, can someone recommend a food for sensitive stomachs that doesn't have chicken as the main ingredient? Thanks, Annette

Unfortunately there are no trainers within 100 miles of here that would know how to properly train a greyhound. A shelter I volunteered at before I found a job had a trainer who was ex military and treated all the dogs like they were in marine boot camp I don't know if I can get a pee sample from Miriam because she doesn't want to be approached when she is doing her "business".

I am trying melatonin with her. Melatonin helped Dixie when we first adopted her and she started stress drinking after having the hardware removed from her broken leg. When it was really bad, we also added benadryl with the melatonin. We also seemed to have success with DAP diffusers. With Miriam we are going try the DAP diffuser collar because we will also be trying the feline equivalent plug in diffusers for our old kitty (She quit using litter boxes after my husband's apartment kitty started beating the crap out of her when they were home on weekends. Apartment kitty no longer comes home on weekends and our old kitty is currently confined to a greyhound crate where she has been good about using the litter box. After a few weeks with the kitty diffuser, we will let her out of the crate until she may decide to use our furniture as a litter box again). Next weekend I will be taking both pups in for a check-up. Someone is peeing in the house and I suspect that it is Miriam because on occasion she will stress drink, but since I haven't caught anyone in the act, both pups will have to be checked out.

She is afraid of the fan if it is on or off. We don't always have the fan and air conditioner going at the same time. Both Dixie and Miriam are fed in the living room, where the fan is. Miriam will come into the living room and just pace while looking up at the ceiling. Eventually she will calm down, but it takes a while. Last night, she reminded me of another think she is absolutely freaked out by -- flashlights. If it is already on when she initially sees it, she is frightened, but if the flashlight is turned on when she is in the same space, she freaks out and runs to another part of the house. Annette