gryhnd_adoptee
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Posts posted by gryhnd_adoptee
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Tessie does not like her feet touched at all, and will nearly turn herself inside out trying to keep them away from me. At first we took her to the groomer and it took 3 of us to trim her. We put her in the bath tub and I would hold her and sweet talk her, while an assistant would spray her feet with the water hose. For instance, while working on her front paws, the hose would get sprayed on her back feet alternately. The groomer would clip easily while Tessie was distracted thinking about her feet getting sprayed. Eventually, Tessie would just jump into the tub on her own for the new routine, and now I can trim them on my own with little fight at all.
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My girls like both, but they are brand snobs. It "must" be Jif!
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Our Lulu was a wonderful therapy dog. She was specifically drawn to children and people in wheel chairs while doing meet and greets at the mall, so we had her certified.
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What a beautiful, beautiful tribute. My heart aches for your loss.
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I just love the exuberant Greys who speak their minds. All of ours have been that way.....because I ask for them specifically when we chip.
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Nothing a whole lot useful to add, but has Turbo been tested for worms lately? Sometimes glancing at their sides, and definately diarrhea can be caused by hooks and such.
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A friend's 'wonder dog'aka mixed breed about 60 pounds.... is on deramaxx for inflammation...... is there a generic equivalent?
It is very expensive, and when I was using it for my senior at the time, there was no generic. What I did do though, was buy in bigger quantities through Fosters & Smith. It helped a little.
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Recent studies have shown that MOST dogs properly vaccinated as puppies (starting 8 weeks, then 3 boosters every 3-4 weeks, then booster at 1 year) will have immunity for at least 10 years.
If I can find links to the studies I will post them later. In the mean time, my dogs get core vaccines only ever 3 years. No one gets lepto or bordatella. I don't vaccinate dogs over 7 years old at all. Of course my Louie is only 3 but after almost losing his leg to a rabies vaccine, he will be getting titers only from now on.
Vaccines are very important, especially parvo and distemper, but we currently WAAAYYY over vaccinate pets and it is proving very detrimental to their health. More and more diseases are being attributed to vaccinations including IMHA and soft tissue sarcomas.
Our rabies are required here by law in order to license our dogs, epsecially since the Town Clerk lives just down to road from us...cannot plead ignorance there. I gave lepto to my first grey a few years back, and she had a reaction on the second shot in the series. Being as it only protected against four of the many strains anyway, we decided never to give lepto again. We also do not board our pups, so they also do not get bordatella.
I would be very interested in the additional links if you can find them.
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How long has it been since they were vaccinated? Interesting to see how we over-vaccinate. More people should run titers.
Kare Bear was last innoculated 05/29/08, and Tessie was 05/02/09.
Not all vets are open to titering before innoculations, and titers are a more expensive way to go. Not only because of the titer test cost, but if they come back as needing a booster, then you are usually paying for another office visit to have the shots administered. Our Dist/Parvo Titer Combo tests were $93.75 per dog.
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Kare Bear and Tessie were both due this spring for Distemper and Parvo, so on April 30th they had Titers done at their annual checkups to determine just how ready they are to get their boosters. A few years back, our LuluBelle began having seizures at 5 years of age, just two weeks after her distemper/parvo shot, and ever since then we decided to titer before innoculations to prevent unnecessary exposure to the shots. We since lost Lulu to bone cancer just two weeks after her 7th birthday, but we do continue the practice of titers first.
Per our vet, below are the recommended values for innoculation, and the results of their tests. Neither girlie will be getting shots this year, but Kare Bear is scheduled for a follow up test next year. If she shows a downward trend, she will be innoculated. If she is steady, or increases due to environmental exposure, we will determine this to be her "personal norm" and just continue to monitor.
Recommended levels for vaccination:
Distemper: Below 32
Parvo: Below 80
Test Results:
Tessie:
Dist - 3072
Parvo - 1280
Kare Bear:
Dist - 96
Parvo - 640
It looks as though Tessie is much more reactive to the shots with her numbers, or she has had a recent environmental exposure and her numbers have gone this high due to an immune reaction.
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We do warm Epsom Salt soaks here. Let her stand with her foot in a pot for as long as she will stand it....belly rubs and lots of sweet talk helps them to tolerate it better while standing there waiting for the time to pass.
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We worked a lot with our Tessie with her car sickness and now she will maul us for rides with no sickness at all. Start out with very short, fun rides. Perhaps a few blocks, then a fun walk, and then the short ride home. This will help him to associate a ride with being something fun and nothing to be so anxious about.
We also used Dramamine. One tablet about an hour before the ride helped Tessie a lot. If we are going on a long, or particularly twisty/windy ride, we would feed only a light meal well in advance so she wasn't going out on a full belly. She also likes to ride where she can see everything that is going on (read....rides "gunshot"...she rests in the space right between the two front seats).
We were able to get over the car sickness in a few months, but it meant many rides, lots of fun things, and patience.
Good luck!
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Our Kare Bear (the white girlie in the video) loves to play with her gal pal Tessie the Fuzzzz. Sometimes they play harder than I'd like them to.
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Our staghound is Wuzho, aka The Woot. He's very similar in temperament to the greyhounds and most other sighthounds. A lot less of a hunting/chase drive which is ironic because he came off a staghound breeding farm that was breeding for hunting. Just like the racers, I guess they aren't all good at what they're bred for
Staghounds typically come from staghound breeding stock...staghound-to-staghound breedings have been going on for a couple hundred years, just no recognized studbook. A longdog would be a cross of multiple sighthounds and, technically, a staghound is a type of longdog.A sighthound of any type would probably be one of the last breeds I would pick as a service dog....not sure there are many on the forum but I have heard of a few greys over the years. Staghounds and longdogs in general aren't very common outside of rural/hunting areas so I've not heard of one in the US being used as a service dog. Entirely possible though.
Here's our staghound...
just........Wow!!
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And here she is with Lenny and Wayne
Claudia....I looove this picture of your babies!
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Hello to you all! I am Mary, and I live in west central Minnesota. I have an American Staghound, Gwynneth Maeve, who is my service dog. She is 2 1/2 years old, and is Irich Wolfhound, Scottis Deerhound and Greyhound. I got her from a rescue in Pine City, MN when she was almost 3 months old.
I am interested in hearing from other staghound owners/handlers, and other service dog handlers. Gwynnie is very different from any other dog I have had. I also have an 11 year old black Lab and a 9 year old chocolate Lab.
Thank you.
Mary and Gwynnie
Welcome Mary
I am Mom to Tessie the Fuzzzzyyyyy who was originally born in Minnesota. I adopted her almost two years ago from a couple who hand picked her from a breeder in Minnesota, then moved to NY State. Their plan is to retire and move back to Minnesota soon, and Tessie would have been too big for the retirement communities standards, so the began a search for the perfect home for their baby.
Tessie's Mom is Greyhound, and her Dad is Borzoi / Irish Wolfhound mix, and Tessie is also a "very different" dog. I give her former owners a lot of credit for raising her for the first 15 months of her life. She is an 80 lb lap dog, who is not one bit shy about just crawling into anyones lap for attention. While she has a lot of greyhound in her, Tessie is a dogs dog. She is full of energy, a total lovebug, and a wonderful guard dog too. We just love her to pieces!
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As long as they don't mess with them, I try to leave them open. I only put a bootie on them to go outside. I also use the Epsom Salt soak.....debrades the wounds and cleans it up really nice. I mix the salts in a stewing pot and let them stand in it for as long as they will stand still while giving belly rubs. I also use a turkey baster down in the water to make a swishy bath to help clean the wound.
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Do you by chance have a wood burning stove or fireplace, and store wood nearby? They often burrow into the bark to hibernate and come up when it warms up if wood is stored in a bit warmer garage, or an inside firebox.
We often have mosquitos in the house long after they are gone outside. They hibernate in the wood too, and come out to feast when we bring the wood inside the house each night for the fireplace.
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I always say that 20-20 hindsight haunts me! We lost our LuLu almost two years ago to osteo. She was a real live wire, and just turned 7 years old two weeks prior to walking her to the bridge.
Looking back to the many, many weeks before her diagnosis, I remember little things that I would never have associated with cancer. I remember one rainy day late in the summer, she was tearing around the yard and stumbled. She did a small roll, recovered and just continued running. I just thought it was because the grass was wet. She was never a clumsy girl, and tore around the yard all the time without incident. She made nothing of it, so neither did I.
At Thanksgiving a couple of months later, we took the pups to Ohio like always to visit family. Lu was laying on the floor and suddenly jumped up, yipping and trembling. I ran over to her, assuming it was a muscle cramp and rubbed her down with no unusual responses. A minute later, she was all happy and kissy face like nothing had happened. She made nothing of it, and neither did I.
A few weeks later, I took the pups for a joy ride. Lu slipped between the seats on a very slow turn (I drive like an old lady with the pups in the car). I thought this was rather odd as Lu was always a good rider. She had great car legs from all the rides she went on.
About a week later, on Christmas day...Lu showed a very slight limp. I thought it was because she scraped her leg when she slipped in the car. Took her to the vet and they gave me some pain meds to try with a 10 day follow up. Well, around day 4, the limp was getting worse, and the meds were not helping. New years day I took her in for x-rays....they found osteo. We lost Lu 7 weeks post diagnosis...our lives were just shattered.
After the hard crying...I began to look back at all those incidences. I think she was reacting to the osteo before we even realized what was going on. Other than occassional mild seizures which began just before she was 5, she was a very vibrant, healthy baby girl.
I have been haunted since losing my heart girl by the coulda, woulda, shoulda's. What if I had looked into it when she slipped the very first time? Would they have been able to find something then? Would I seem like a paranoid nut for bringing her in for being clumsy on a run, and for what I thought was a muscle cramp? Could I have done something different had we known the few months sooner? I beat myself up all the time with these questions!
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Kare Bear and Tessie get a 50/50 blend of Eagle Pack Holistic and TOTW Pacific Stream for breakfast and dinner. Night time snack is a handful of Core Wellness which they see as their treats.
Night time snacks began here when our Bridge girlie LuLu started to have seizures out of the blue. They seemed to always happen in the morning, so in an attempt to keep her glucose levels a bit more even, she always got snacks before bed.
If snacks are ever forgotten...there is no peace at bed time!
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Our Tessie was a puker, so we use Dramamine. Also work in frequent fun rides. If they learn that rides are fun, they tend to be less anxious. After a few months, she will look forward to the rides, and there will be much less puking.
Now a days, Tessie only gets Dramamine if the ride will be a really twisty, windey road trip.
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Claudia,
I had a big event this weekend and have nor been on the computer since Thursday. My heart just sank when I saw the title of your post. After racing through this thread, I am so happy to read that Ekko is doing much better now. What a horrible scare for all!
Continued healing thoughts being sent your way.
Belinda, Kare Bear, and Tessie the FUZZZZZZZ
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My first girlie developed degenerating disks in her neck, and compression of the nerves in her spine from them. She also had some calcification points on the tips of her vertebra which caused her additional pain. This was all determined by x-ray after she developed wobbly rear legs. We managed with deramaxx and glucosamine, kept her activity level low, and had acupuncture done to help relax the muscles along her spine which became extra tense when she was particularly bothered by the pain.
She would also bite at her front legs from time to time like she was after bugs which were crawling on her. The vet said it was because the nerves would sometimes be particularly tingly, which made her feel like something was crawling on her. We also limited her from jumping up and down on things as it seemed to aggravate her, and also heavily padded the bottom of stairs to help cushion her landing when she got to the bottom.
I would certainly limit activity. If it is a spinal issue, you might have to make a lifestyle change to help keep him more comfortable.
Keep us updated.
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Ohhhh poor Robin!! Why can't these babies just talk to us when something is wrong??
I did a quick search on canine skin conditions just to see if we can stumble upon a lead to what's going on, but unfortunately, I am still only dial up. I don't know just who I'm kidding sometimes when I think I can just sign on and load images!
Here is the link I was hoping to find something at. I hope someone here can open things up just to see if there are any similarities which might lead to an easy fix for Robin.
http://www.dog-health-guide.org/DiseasesandConditionsCanineSkin.html
I hope this can be resolved really soon by the specialists. It breaks my heart to see them so miserable.
Staghounds typically come from staghound breeding stock...staghound-to-staghound breedings have been going on for a couple hundred years, just no recognized studbook. A longdog would be a cross of multiple sighthounds and, technically, a staghound is a type of longdog.
$114 A Month For Meds
in Health and Medical discussion
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We had a girlie on Proin several years back, and realized that she did beautifully on about 1/3 the prescribed dosage. The full dose made her pant a lot and very nervous, but went away when we reduced the dosage. We adjusted down until there was leakage again, and figured out what worked for her that way. It took time, but I also felt better about putting less of the Proin into her.