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greyhounds1234

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Everything posted by greyhounds1234

  1. Thanks for the suggestions. The bite-not collar might work out. At least the straps go behind his front legs so they shouldn't get in the way of the stitches. My husband and I are both retired so there is usually someone at home all the time. In true hound fashion, Jake is usually sacked out on a couch unless there is something interesting going on around the house.
  2. Our Biggie Iggy Jake, has a non-malignant fatty tumor that needs to be removed. It's located close to his arm pit so he's going to need some type of e-collar for a bit. Since I have a little time to plan ahead, I'd prefer to buy a soft e-collar for him. Most of the collars sold in local pet stores are the inflatable type and seem to be rather heavy. Do any of you have a favorite soft e-collar favorites? There are so many listed online that I'm having a hard time choosing.
  3. Our whippet (weight 30lbs.) has epilepsy and we didn't go the MRI spinal tap route. Our vet put her on phenol and it worked for several years but last summer, she started having seizures again. This time, our vet put her on 100mg zonisamide twice a day as well as the pheno and she had zero seizures until this weekend. She had been stressed about her iggy brother being ill and we think his illness....and recovery...triggered her seizures. Her zonisamide has been increased to 150mg. She had a whopping 9 grand mal seizures over the weekend as well as several smaller ones. As soon as the zonisamide was increased, the seizures stopped. Yes, they can be a little groggy for a couple of days but considering what they've been through with the seizures, etc...that's pretty much to be expected. He should be back to normal in a few days. We've not noticed any change in her activity level. She plays hard and takes her naps seriously
  4. If there is a Mensa group for dogs.......your dogs should be members!
  5. Gosh, I wish I would knock out my whippet and iggy! We didn't use it when we had greys but have been using it on our iggy, Jake, for the past year and had been using it for nearly 3 years on our whippet. No signs of sleepiness out of either one of them....darn it!
  6. Well, crap. That wasn't the news I'd hoped for. {{{{{hugs}}}}} I'm sorry.
  7. Were they ever able to figure what was going on with Rainey's brain to cause the seizures? It just amazes me that a seemingly healthy dog could just, out of the blue, start seizing. So far, the pheno is working for her. We started her on the pheno 7/13 and she hasn't had another seizure....yet. She, too was a little wacked out for several days but she's pretty much back to normal. We haven't gotten the food craving quite worked out. She went from being very picky to omg....FOOD!! We've altered her diet a bit to keep her from gaining a lot of weight while she adjusts to the medicine. I'm just happy things have gotten back to our new normal.
  8. Braunschweiger was always our top choice for pill hiding when we had our greys. They loved it. Livy and Jake didn't read that part of their doggy manual so for the moment, their first choice is hamburger.
  9. I think peanut butter anything is way down on her preference list She used to get her heartworm meds in tiny peanut butter and bread sammies. Turned that down flat! (I had to start quartering her pills because she'd just lick off the coating and spit out the pill) I'll keep it in mind for future reference! Hadn't thought of cream cheese. We generally don't have ground chicken on hand but I have a feeling that it could be a hit.
  10. I know. Learned a long time ago never say "never". We'll just moved forward 'til there is a reason to change something. I secretly hope that the pheno will slow her down on the critter catching, though
  11. So far, the pheno has worked fine. There have been no more seizures and she is adjusting to the drug. She's back to squirrel chasing and playing with her iggy brother.....all good signs. When we first starting giving her the pheno, I was making hamburgers for dinner and just popped the pill into a little raw hamburger since it was handy. Now, she absolutely refuses to take her pill in anything other than a dab of raw burger so we sort of created a mini-monster We had to make a trip to the store specifically to buy burger for her. Ohhh....the things we do!
  12. The vet, DH and I decided to just carry on with the pheno. We'll have another blood test in a month and see how she is doing on the dose of pheno we are using. At some point in time, we'll try to get the dosage down and shoot for a good maintenance dose. As long as she isn't having seizures, we're all happy.
  13. Paula (greypuppyluv) talked me off of the ledge over the weekend about this and you all are just confirming what my head is telling me to do...or rather what not to do. I'm feeling better about this already. Thanks!
  14. Thanks for the input. It's difficult not to have testing done when it's available.....but on the other hand is there really a point to having the testing done in the first place. We didn't do the full thyroid test on her. The blood test in the office showed her thyroid level to be 1.4 which is in the low-normal range of 1.1 to 4.0
  15. For those of you with dogs who have had seizures, how far have you gone to rule out brain tumors or lesions? What I guess I am asking is did you have an MRI or a CAT scan done? This past Friday afternoon, our 3 1/2 year old whippet had a grand mal seizure. We immediately took her to the vet and blood work was done. Her blood work was fine. We didn't get any meds at that time because we were hoping it would be a one time thing. It wasn't. Saturday morning, she had 3 more grand mal's starting about 4:30am...about every 2 hours. We had her back in the vet's office and they gave her a loading shot of phenobarbital (3.40mL) and pheno pill to start when the shot wore off. She's had no more seizures. We've ruled out pretty much every reason that might have caused a seizure. The only thing out of the ordinary was the night before when she and her iggy brother shared a dead bird. Not sure where the bird came from but on occasion, we've had hawks drop their kill in the yard (nice of them to share). Don't know who got the lion's share or even how much was left but our iggy had no ill effects. Our next step is either to just continue on with the pheno without further testing....or take her to Missouri School of Vet Medicine for an MRI. My first thought was omg...of course we'll take her for an MRI but we are sort of re-thinking that. I need some input about what you all have done.
  16. Yup! We are a faux cosmopolitan city! Got several different varieties, too!! I'd kinda thought about mixing sweet potatoes with bananas for leathers or adding sweet potatoes to the beef for a jerky variety. My dogs would probably love their beef mixed with a powdered sugar donut....but I'm not sure about other dogs This event is the first Saturday in June so I need to get a "menu" figured out and a few test runs made before I do the stuff we are going to sell. How does ground chicken mixed with spinach sound? There are so darned many options that I don't really know where to start.
  17. I volunteered to make a bunch of dog treats for one of our groups fundraiser events and thought I'd make some jerky treats as well as the standard dog cookies. Seems like dog cookies are just the norm and I wanted to be a little different. My game plan is to make the ground meat jerky since it would lend itself to having uniform pieces. (I have a dehydrator, meat grinder and a jerky 'gun') I feel like I need to add something to the meat before I dry it but not certain what I want to add. I was thinking maybe parsley and something in the way of a flavor enhancer. I'm considering doing the standard beef and chicken but thought I'd try something a little more unusual like alligator tail, salmon and bison. I haven't made jerky for dogs before so I'm not sure if I even need to add anything to it. Anyone have any suggestions?
  18. I'm sorry. His pictures.....well...he just looks like a little ray of sunshine.
  19. I bought a bag of Ranchland last week and it hasn't caused any problems with the big D here.
  20. We feed our dogs Orijen Wild Boar kibble mixed with a little good old canned Pedigree. One of our dogs is exasperatingly picky and we tried a multitude of kibble before she decided that the Wild Boar suited her delicate pallet. Our other dog considers cat poop to be quite the score so he didn't get a vote in the selection Their poo has been consistently firm so no complaints here.
  21. I use Trifexis with our dogs. I haven't had one get puked up but both of our dogs are fond of licking off the flavoring and dropping the rest on the floor. I used to follow them and pick up the pills once they dropped it....then stuff it inside a treat...sometimes a little piece of bread with some peanut butter or a little bit of cheese. It's always in something we normally don't give them just because we want them to look forward to having something 'special'. What I do now is quarter the pill and stuff each quarter in something tasty...so they each get 4 little tasty treats...and a pill. If your dog didn't actually keep the pill down....just re-use it.
  22. Our female, spayed whippet doesn't spend...well...quality time with herself but she does hump the male, neutered cat on occasion. She only does it with him and absolutely none of the other cats or even our male, neutered iggy. When she is in the humping mode...the cat just stands there with a stupid look on his face. I do wonder what is going through his mind.
  23. I'm so sorry. Any thread you posted about Bill was always a first-read with me because he had a knack of doing the most interesting things. He seemed to have such a larger-than-life personality and I know he will be dearly missed by all of us.
  24. Our Storm died of kidney failure. We had been giving her rounds of sub-q fluids daily to keep her kidneys flushed out but we knew we were just buying us a little more time. We struggled to get her to eat anything at all....and we truly did try everything imaginable to tease her appetite. Sardines, lobster, canned tuna. She's nibble at some of it but I think she was tired and worn out. She went through the incontinent issues and she'd pee in her sleep. I could tell by her eyes that the light had gone out and she was ready to be free of this world. Basically, her kidneys just gave out and we chose to let her go. About a year before she died, our vet thought she had a tumor in her chest. (She had been having rounds of coughing) Our vet recommended an ultra-sound from a different vet (sort of a second opinion) and the tumor showed up there and we sent copies of the x-rays to OSU and they thought they also saw the tumor. When she died, we had a necropsy done to see this mysterious tumor and what it was exactly. The tumor didn't exist, her heart and lungs were fine....but her kidneys were shot. I'm so sorry you are having to go through this.
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