Cynthia

I'm so sorry Jenny. George was a super special boy and he had a wonderful life with you....Which reminds me that there was also George Bailey in 'It's a Wonderful Life' ! I'm sure he's bossing the girls around at the bridge... (except for Katie.) You take care,

Though pred will drive thirst and more frequent urination, consider that the actual incontinence may be deterioriation related to his 'back issues.'

Katie's body could no longer support her joy. That’s what I told the neuro vet in April. He had no more cards to play, and neither did 4 other vets who had been wrestling with the neurological degeneration of Katie for over a year. No amount of vets or money or time could fix her though we tried absolutely everything. So for the last three months of the life that was Katie's, I ramped the drugs until it was clear they weren’t going to help anymore. If I didn’t set her free there was going to pain to pay. Her pain. On July 24th I swapped her pain for mine and let her go. I had the comfort of scheduling the appt the Sunday before, and watching her that week made it so clear that it was the right decision for my little girl. I miss her rooing in my nostril at 3AM to go potty. I miss our nonsense conversations any time at all. She could say 'please', and 'thank you', and 'I love you' and a hundred other things I never understood. I miss the full tilt dancing and spinning and twirling of the healthy Katie that was in my life until April 07. Until the last 10 days, she still bounced in joy but just with the front legs and a grinning and bobbing face with mouth agape and eyes shining. I miss kissing her back whenever I picked her up or set her down from the six daily trips up and down the stairs - my weight bearing exercise. I even miss hearing poop bounce to the floor if I carried her through the kitchen a bit late for her schedule. I miss watching fireflies with her in the middle of the night while the other dogs slept. I miss watching her breathe and knowing she's there. She was my confident and fearless girl. No one has ever dealt with illness like Katie did. She never failed to rally for a vet appointment and sometimes there were three a week in the 15 months of her illnesses. ‘My people! How I’ve missed you!’ was the message she sent with body language when she wobbled and tripped grinning and wiggling into any vet’s waiting room. Her physical therapy was no real help, but she loved the attention and the outings and peanut butter on a bully stick, so it was good for her bright little mind. The only time I ever saw her tuck her tail was when I set her in her custom wheelchair, so wishing it could help her move. Her tail tucked in so tight then that it nearly came out under her chin. Later it hung straight, not right for my curly tailed girl. At her final appointment, we sat in the back of the HUV with gate open waiting for the last appt on a cool night in July. Katie oogling her head to see out, and me retracting so no one could see my trembling face. Pedestrian traffic couldn’t walk past her without a pet and a scritch and telling her she was beautiful. Katie was in heaven right then. It was her last party. When the vet left the room for the sedative to take effect I fed her hot dog bits and cookies and she said 'please' and I lost it. And then I lost her. Katie is twirling madly somewhere and I know I was lucky to have her for 3 years, 7 months and 5 days. I just miss her relentless JOY so much. Hat covering shaved head... Rooing at me last summer (with Monty & Dannie) Night party! Ready for an open house in the last months - bald body required summer wardrobe:) Love you sweetie

The harnesses and slings can help a little, but not as I much as I had hoped. Katie's at the point where she's getting a wheelchair/cart to help her. I originally ordered the cart as a 'walker' for her and her physical therapist agreed it would help her walk and build strenght. It's heartbreaking to watch them try to walk and stumble or fall as things progress. Since I ordered it 2 weeks ago, she's taken a turn for the worse and I had to ask them to add stirrups to support her back feet. I'm telling you this, because I so wish I had thought of a cart for her earlier when she was still stumbling but somewhat capable of getting around. So maybe you can be more prepared. There's a 3 week backlog at EddiesWheels.Com (which my PT thinks has the very best design) and they have a special design for greyhounds.

The twisting is probably an accomodation to the pain in her spine when she moves. The knuckling under is neurological. You may want to get a booty to protect that foot or it will be scraped on top and she'll have more problems and more pain. The meds she's on should keep her comfy, and you may want to look into ramps for any stairs (or carry her) as any up and down movements could make it worse. At 12, consider staying on medications for comfort (vs surgery) and take things a day at a time, but do find a doctor who can help you to find supportive therapys, like laser, TENS, non-aggressive PT. Acupuncture isn't an option unless you know for sure that she doesn't have any tumors on her spine. I also wouldn't advise chiro unless your neuro or primary vet supports that. You can get information on LS at Dr. Stack's site: Greythealth.org.

I sympathize with the amount of blood you're dealing with, having cleaned up after two fosters who hit rose bushes. The best solution for the glued ear is to completely wrap the head in vet wrap and leave it on for 3 days. You need some sticky tape, preferably elastic to hold the vet wrap turban in place with. (Panty hose will NOT work.) If you don't have the sticky tape to tighten up the vet wrap and adhere to a bit of their fur, they will get the turban off in less than an hour. When wrapping with the vet wrap go under the chin and down the neck. Then use the sticky tape to go around the front edge with less than a quarter inch of the tape on the fur. Just enough to secure things.

I'm distracted by the floppy ears and hardly notice the nails Every day dremel a couple of nails and you will get there. If you angle the top, the center will wear down a little when he walks and force the quick back.

The vet is likely not 'under dosing' the Tramadol. Too much pain killer could result in the dog feeling too good and injuring himself while under the effects of the pain reliever. Be careful about medicating without advice from your vet. The vets have reasons for proceeding with lower dosages to start.

"Also, I noticed today that he's having a little difficulty getting up the steps." That generally means pain from back issues.

Mattie was blessed to have you on her side through all of this. Hugs to you on this very sad loss. I'm so very sorry. I had to look her up on Greyhound Data, what an adorable and sweet looking girl.

Hope she continues to do well and will be HOME with you tomorrow night!

You can also try padding the area of the crate where his tail hits so that he doesn't redamage it. Is the tail bandaged? Dog proofing the house, and upping the exercise - as others have mentioned - should help him out. Calming meds for what sounds like a normal dog getting into what he can, will just make him happier about getting into things!

It sounds like the very special John E found a very special home. Hugs all around! So very sorry for your loss.

Even if the pred 'kicks in' it may take a few more days for the swelling to reduce. Does your vet think that she has SLO? Or did the nail rip because of it's length? It can be so dangerous for them to run with long nails. I do hope that she (and you) feel better soon!

How long have you had him, and is it possible he's losing muscle? How much exercise (walks) is he getting? And yes, how much weight has he lost? If it was significant the vet should be concerned too. Wet food has fewer calories than dry (lots of water in it), so more dry and less canned should put more calories into him.

Have you looked at the side effects of Tramadol? 200mg a day (did I interpret that right - qty 2 @50MG 2x per day) for a long time seems like the high end of the range, (2-5mg/kg) but then it's not my toe that hurts Hope she (and you) get some relief from all of this soon!

Monty picked this up last winter, probably from eating or drinking something in the yard that he shouldn't have Neither of the other dogs, nor the kitties or I picked it up, and I'm sure he had it for a while before it was Dx'd, so really just routine cleanliness to avoid contagion, nothing special. It was picked up during his senior well visit, he didn't have any symptoms. Panacur and Flagyl took care of it in no time and he tested clean after that.

Exactly Exactly. And I seem to be getting this attitude that I shouldn't give her anything for the storm anxiety. I know no one has come out and said that, but it's the tone. I could be interpreting it wrong, since this is the internet and written word with no inflection or real explanations. I realize the effect drugs like Ace. have as I take medicine for anxiety myself, but I still wouldn't be without it if a bad panic attack hit. Agree with Lady Charlotte and others, I have read the same things and fortunately never used it on my girl with severe storm phobias. I don't think anyone was criticizing, just sharing that ACE is not a drug for anxieties and can make things worse for our dogs. I was lucky enough to read some articles about meds before I adopted a dog with serious phobias. We've had good success with Xanax for storm/rain/wind anxiety, you might want to try that. And here's a link to a very thorough article on medicating for anxiety. It originally appeared in the Whole Dog Journal and covers every type of med you could consider for your pup. Chill Pills

Monty was a return around his 10th birthday and was able to go completely off of NSAIDs (Deramaxx) after 3 months on glucosamine chondroitin. He's now pushing 13 and runs like a puppy Hopefully the Rimadyl for Jazz is 'as needed' vs daily, and you can move him off of it completely at some point.

Ok, but you need to specifically ask your vet to have a tick borne disease panel run. As Meredith suggested, NC state can do a complete panel. Rule out tick borne disease before going to the expensive tests like MRIs Even if ticks aren't a problem in your area, your greyhound likely lived and or ran in an area with ticks at some point in his career. And if he didn't the greyhound in the next crate probably did and ticks move from dog to dog.

That's wonderful that she is progressing so well! I'm curious, did they find any underlying cause or indicate if she's at risk for additional strokes?

Katie's surgery was 3+ hours. It's delicate scary stuff! To keep the other dogs from knocking into her by mistake, I have an x-pen to create the fourth 'wall' across file cabinets in my office. She has three more weeks of 'crate rest' and though she had a tough time at first, we got the meds adjusted and she is becoming more and more restless. Her solution is to talk to me in roos and mumbles. I also give her a lot of things to chew on. One of the best is a bone shaped plastic thing with discs of a non-rawhide material which screw in. It's called something like 'Busy Buddy Bone.' It also gives her front legs some exercise as she pushes and anchors it with her front paws while she trys to get the chewy discs. When she had her staples removed after 3 weeks, the vet authorized one slow 5 minute walk per day, and we're up to 10 minutes now. No stairs allowed. And she doesn't want to do them anyway. I've been carrying her up and down since early summer. But I suspect Higgins may weigh more than 60 pounds, so not as easy to tote him around? I don't know when she'll be able to do stairs again, and happy she's here to be carried as long as needed Hope Higgins continues to improve. Sounds like he has good results already. Do check on the Tagamet - perhaps they're using another brand or the generic - cimetidine.

Katie has been on pred but much lower doses for almost a year. She had her lumbosacral laminectomy on 11/26. Is that what Higgins had? Sounds about right. Anyway, we went to 10MG twice a day after the surgery, at this point I have her down to 7.5mg AM and 5mg PM If I cut back to 5 and 5, she's restless and lightly panting. Yes, it has side effects and those were starting to show in her bloodwork before the surgery. I can't remember if it's liver or kidney that can be affected. Pred can also cause tummy ulcers, and I expect your vet advised that Tagamet should always be given with pred? The slow reduction in pred is to give the body a chance to start producing it's own steroids.

'Slipped disc' is the usual starting DX (very reasonable) before they start the expensive tests to figure out what's really going on Pred helps with pain too by the way.

Call and ask: *If they have a website. (You can get some sense of their philosophy/values from a website - if they have one.) *Where they went to school, what additional training they've had, and how long they've been in practice. *Under what circumstances do they refer to specialists. (A vet who never refers is concerning to me.) *What differentiates them from other vets in the area? This is really the key question, along with experience or willingness to continue learning. * If not familiar with greyhounds, you do need to poke to see if they're open, or if they brush you off. You can always schedule a consult with just one of your dogs and see what you think about the vet, the practice, and whether you want to bring all of your dogs there. No harm in trying out a vet one time and then moving on, if it isn't a comfortable fit. When I was looking for a neurologist for Katie I called and interviewed the person who answered the phone in each office. If they didn't have the answers I asked to speak with a vet tech. Still, I ended up taking Katie to a neuro that had a very competent and knowledgeable receptionist Staff is a key and it's important to have a vet who has experienced competent people. There was a neuro 5 minutes from me, and one an hour away. I went to the one an hour away, and think I made a good choice. Dr Benson (my generalist vet) is about an hour from you I think. He has a fairly new vet there, Dr. Hawkins, and though she's young and initally not grey savvy, my dogs have been giving her lots of opportunity to learn I recommend her highly. She's really analytical, and that's pretty important with these guys. Plus she can always consult with Benson who has lots of grey experience. My dogs started out with him, but when Monty had his emergency last spring we had Dr. Hawkins, and she was so darn good I've stuck with her.