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phall

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About phall

  • Birthday 07/15/1954

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  • Real Name
    Pat Hall

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  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Ayer, MA

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phall's Achievements

Jr Grey lover

Jr Grey lover (5/9)

  1. I am! This is such a great event!
  2. My boy, Lucas, is now completely blind with PRA and also cataracts. When I brought him home 7.5 years ago, he had just begun to lose some of his sight. He now has my house and my dog yard completely mapped. As long as I don't move furniture or place things where they don't belong, he does well. I haven't used anything special around the house to guide him as he seems fine without anything like that. However, like you noticed with Argo, once in a while there are some times that Lucas gets disoriented on where he is. When that happens, I go to him and gently guide him to where it seems he wants to go. He has gotten used to me doing this for him and most times, he'll stand where he is and wait for me to come to him. If I'm across the room and in the middle of something, if I talk to him from where I am, it gives him a bit of confidence to figure out his situation. When we go for walks, I have a harness for him that works great and I highly recommend. It's a K-9 Julius harness that you can get with velcro patches that say Blind Dog. The harness has a top handle that works great in helping to direct your dog when he needs it, and the patches let people you may meet know your dog is blind and therefore approach carefully. https://usa.juliusk9.com/products/julius-k9-idc-powerharness. Chewy.com also carries these harnesses. For the velcro patches, I think K-9 Julius only has patches that say "I'm Blind". I had those originally, but people I met often thought I was blind, not my dog. So I got the "Blind Dog" patches from Amazon and they work great. They come in different sizes, so you just need to get the correct size patch. Good luck - it's a journey, but so rewarding.
  3. My boy is now completely blind from PRA. Although I'm not dealing with the reactivity as you are with your boy, I've had some issues with him. I don't know if you are on facebook, but there is a blind dogs group on facebook that has been SO helpful to me. Many of the people there are experienced and they are all very supportive and helpful. I realize not everyone is on facebook, but if you are you may want to join. If you search "blind dogs" it will come up. In any event, good luck with Dune. He's lucky to have you.
  4. I will be there and can't wait to get to the beach and see old and new friends. I'll being going dogless, so will need my greyhound fix every day.
  5. I agree with this. My Lucas is completely blind now from PRA. Teaching him the "wait" cue has been so helpful and has saved him from an injury several times. I've used it in different intensities and he has realized that a very strident "wait" means to stop as something is not right.
  6. Thank you for sharing this! I so hope it does help dogs as well as humans.
  7. Sorry I'm a little late to this, but thought I'd chime in with what has worked for me. My Lucas is blind from PRA. I adopted him when he was about 3 years old, when he had been diagnosed with PRA by the vet of the adoption group. He still had a good amount of sight at that time. Lucas is 9 years old now and completely blind. I love him so much - he's a happy, confident boy. He has always been a "jumper" on people - even when he could see. He just loves people and visitors. Holding onto his collar when people came in the house didn't work well with him or for me (pulling my arm hard, twisting my wrist, etc). So I purchased a couple of short leashes (traffic leashes - which are about 12" long) and kept one by the door and one by the door to my dog yard. Whenever someone came to the house I quickly snapped the leash on and that gave me much better control over him, and it was easier to use than the usual 4' or 6' leash. I have another greyhound - female with full sight. She doesn't have sleep startle, but she doesn't want Lucas on her bed when she's napping and she tends to growl at him if he gets too close. Lucas will air snap at her if she comes too close to him when he's on his bed. During the day, they each seem to work it out with low growls saying, "I'm here on this bed" and the other walks to a different bed. But at night time if Sox is sound asleep and Lucas gets up, he'll sometimes get disoriented and once he actually stepped on her when she was sleeping. She was not happy. I did not want to crate either of them at night - neither would be happy with that. So, I purchased a "gate" that is free standing, only about 2 ft. tall, and can circle around a dog bed. I put this around the bed Sox prefers. It goes around about half of the bed in a semi-circle and allows Sox to get on the bed from either open end. This gate makes Sox feel secure from Lucas stepping on her unexpectedly and Lucas knows that it's there when he touches it with his nose when he gets too close. This has worked so well for my two. Sox now automatically goes to the semi-enclosed bed at bedtime. During the day I take the gate down as they are okay with calmly each other know where they are. I know the above may not work for you, but thought I'd share. Edited to add - I meant to include that I had the same issue of people letting their dogs run up to meet Lucas when we are on walks, and with strangers coming up and just reaching to pat him. I purchased a harness for him with a handle on top that I could grasp when needed (helps me guide him as needed) and had a place to attach a velcro sign that says "Blind Dog". That has really helped SO much!
  8. Thanks, everyone, I really appreciate hearing from you. I've noted the info on the Tylan powder (great idea to add it to empty capsules!). I had not heard of Owelo carrot product, but I am going to read more about it. Sox had her bloodwork done this morning. I'll have the results on Monday. Her diarrhea is back most of the time now so the probiotic did not help. She's on metronidazole over the weekend while we wait for blood work results. Once we get that info, we'll make the plan for the next step(s).
  9. Thanks so much, Greysmom. This is so helpful to me. She has been doing well, but this morning had a stool that started out formed but then turned to liquid, so I would guess, based on past experience, that it will continue to go down hill today. But we'll see - maybe it was just a blip. I'm so glad we have the bloodwork scheduled for tomorrow. I had been thinking about the ultrasound and my vet suggested it as a next step, but hearing your thoughts has helped me to decide to move forward with it. I will keep you (and everyone who has offered their thoughts) posted. Thanks again.
  10. Thanks, everyone, for sharing your experience. It's so helpful. I'll add some more info here based on your input (that I probably should have included with the initial post) - thankfully, her stool sample came back clear so no hookworms or other parasites. My vet and I talked about changing her food - which we decided against doing as she is already on a prescription urinary diet due to recurring UTIs a few years ago. Once on the prescription urinary diet, the UTIs stopped. So, I have not changed her diet recently either. We did a food trial on her when she was having some skin inflammation around her neck and shoulders a couple of years ago to check for allergies and intolerances. The tests didn't show anything. (As you can tell, Sox has had several health issues over the years.) When she started with the diarrhea, I did fast her for 24 hours and then started her on a bland diet. It did help the diarrhea and I very slowly started her back on her regular food, but the diarrhea started again. (I used pasta and boiled hamburg). But I only did it that once. Doing it again with a different protein is a good idea. I will remember that. Greysmom - I did not know that about metronidazole and the probiotic. I wonder why my vet prescribed that. I will talk with him about it. Thank you for the recommendation of seeing a gastroenterologist if my vet runs out of options and the issue continues. I will most definitely do that. The last day or so, with her being on the probiotic and pure pumpkin, so far no diarrhea. (I'm not giving her the metronidazole.) We'll see how this continues. Fingers crossed. Even if she continues to do well these next few days, I will still do the blood work on Friday. Thank you everyone. I so appreciate it.
  11. I have a Honda Odyssey. I love it! It's low enough on the side doors for my blind greyhound to get in and out without him being anxious/scared. I keep the last row seats up so that I can carry things (groceries, etc.) in the way back and the dogs in the middle area. Of course, with kids coming, you'd want to do the reverse. Good luck!
  12. Posting this to get thoughts and hear similar experiences. Sox is my 8 year old female greyhound. A few months ago she started having occasional bouts of liquid diarrhea. She'd have one liquid stool and then later that same day, she'd be back to normal. This would happen once a week or so. These occasional bouts began to increase until a few weeks back she was having liquid diarrhea all the time. We've been to he vets. Stool sample came back clear - no parasites of any kind. She was put on metronidazole, a probiotic, and pumpkin. Her stools returned to normal. She finished the course of metronidazole and the probiotic, and the liquid diarrhea returned. I talked with my vet last night - we're putting her back on the probiotic and will continue the pumpkin to see if that helps the diarrhea. (He's giving my additional metronidazole to have on hand in case this doesn't work.) She's scheduled for blood work on Friday morning. If the blood work comes back normal and the liquid diarrhea returns even with being on the probiotic and pumpkin, we'll most likely be doing an ultrasound. Has anyone had a similar experience? It's worrisome to me.
  13. I am going! Can't wait to go - seeing friends, spending time with dogs, listening to speakers, shopping, visiting historic sites. I so enjoy this event. We're going on the Wednesday, returning on Sunday.
  14. Carol Becker of Gods Greyts (on facebook and also has a website) makes these tag collars - different colors, very soft. I believe they are deerskin - if not, they are a very soft leather.
  15. Last year I had to trade in my SUV for a mini-van as my Lucas just could not get into the back of the SUV and the side door was even higher than the rear door when the seats were folded down. I agree - the size of the mini-van feels large, but it was well worth it for me and my dogs.
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