ahicks51
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Posts posted by ahicks51
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Is he having any other symptoms?
If you don't mind feeding raw, a chunk of beef heart would add a big slug of iron to his diet. Cooked would be fine, too.
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Amicar is aminocaproic acid, and is used to manage bleeding disorders, so I suppose it could be used for post-op bleeding. What do you need to know precisely? I'm a little confused by your query.
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1664 seems a bit low; Feeman suggests down to 1800/uL is OK if the greyhound is otherwise healthy:
http://www.animalmedicalcentreofmedina.com...d%20Labwork.pdf
Where are you getting the 2.6 from?
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A long time ago, we had a foster with a bad case of happy tail; we used lots of tape, and I think the foster home used a chunk of pipe insulation. I think we used the NexCare blood-stop spray (it has octylacrylate, which is used in surgical wounds) to stop the end of the tail from seeping blood. (Come to think of it, it'd be interesting to see if a tiny dab of Krazy Glue, chemically similar to octylacrylate, to keep the bandage in place- it's used by special forces in the field to do so.)
I've used the Krazy Glue. It works.
Come to think of it, along with glue, the one recommendation that seems to work is to really wrap the tape the whole length up the tail if needs be- anchor that sucker in place, no chance of it coming off.
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Note that the artery that feeds the tail runs along the underside. To stop bleeding in the tail, compress the underside with your index and middle finger. You'll feel a sort of flat area with a channel in it, and it's that area that you want to compress to stop bleeding distal to the site of compression.
A long time ago, we had a foster with a bad case of happy tail; we used lots of tape, and I think the foster home used a chunk of pipe insulation. I think we used the NexCare blood-stop spray (it has octylacrylate, which is used in surgical wounds) to stop the end of the tail from seeping blood. (Come to think of it, it'd be interesting to see if a tiny dab of Krazy Glue, chemically similar to octylacrylate, to keep the bandage in place- it's used by special forces in the field to do so.)
Anyway- it looked pretty bad and club-like by the time it all healed over, not a lot of hair. A year later, however, one really had to look closely to notice it was any different from an undamaged tail.
The owner stopped crating him, too, which REALLY helped.
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If you have a muzzle, you should probably put that on her if she tries to bite you when you clean that region!
Good luck, and hope it all works out for the best.
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If I ever did amputate, it would be with chemo and follow up supplements like Transfer Factor and artemisinin or I would not bother.
Last time I checked, the average is still 14 months.
Note also there's tamoxifen, used in Dr. Stack's own greyhound who lived at least 4 years post-amp.
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I'm so sorry for your loss.
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Welcome to GT.
Is the spotting continuous, or intermittent? I seem to recall that greyhound ovaries can sometimes be tough to find, and that one (or a fragment of one) can be left behind in some instances.
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Thanks all. I really appreciate the hand holding you have provided, especially Claudia. I have been giving Roger 4000 mg of fish oil twice a day and 100 mgs. of benadryl three times a day. The fish oil was in capsules. I wondered if they were too thick for Roger to digest so I cut them and squeezed the oil out and mixed it with peanut butter. I then put the empy capsule in warm water to see if it would disolve rapidly. The capsule did not disolve. After 30 miunutes, I wondered if any of the previous capsules had done anything but simply pass through. Oh well, Ya Gotta Love a Puppy but they sure can make one worry. For those who do not know, Roger is an Oops Puppy. I have been worrying about him since he was 7 1/2 weeks old.
Sounds like things are looking better. Just one comment, a dogs stomach, or a human's for that matter contains hydrochloric acid, not water, there is no chance a pill casing could pass through the GI tract intact.
Particularly if it's enteric-coated fish oil, which is seen in some locations. It's specifically designed to resist the acid environment of the stomach, but the capsule dissolves once it passes the duodenum, entering an alkaline environment.
Old-style enteric coatings were stuff like shellac; newer ones contain weird phthalates that I'm not so sure are healthy.
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There's probably no real chocolate in there anyway- probably cocoa powder. If there was real ground chocolate in there, it'd take a heck of a lot- more than a single brownie from out-of-the-box mix, anyway.
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Thank you to everyone for your support. It is really helpful.
The vet had her urine tested for the fungal infection. This was at the advice of Iowa State University vets. It came back negative.
Did she race in the southwest? More precisely, if she has so much as been hauled through the southwest, valley fever (coccidiomycosis) should be ruled out; if you don't know if she raced here, give us a racing name and maybe we can help rule in or out the possibility.
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There's a note from Dr. Stack- a greyhound vet in Yuma- about the protocol used on her own greyhound after an osteo diagnosis. It must be noted that living >4 years post-amp is very unusual.
My greyhound, Aussie, now 9 years old, is > 4 years post amputation
(Oct 23, 2003). His protocol:
Took x-rays just a few days after noticed him limping. Saw what looked
like osteo at proximal humerus (left shoulder). Did not waste precious
time with a biopsy - amputated the very next day.
Started chemo exactly 1 week post-amputation - the day we got biopsy
results back from the lab (we sent in the amputated limb for biopsy).
Aussie had 6 carboplatin chemo treatments. No problems except a low
WBC delayed the 6th chemo by 1 week.
He's taken 3.75 mg meloxicam (generic Metacam) ever since amputation
because he's got a bad arthritic hock in backleg on same side.
1 year post-amputation, I started him on 10 mg tamoxifen once daily.
Tamoxifen is the anti-estrogen drug that breast cancer survivors take
for the rest of their lives. Anecdotally, tamoxifen may be an
anti-angiogenesis drug (a drug that stops new blood vessels from
branching out from tumors). Tamoxifen can have some problems in girl
dogs but is OK for boys. Not approved nor or you likely to be able to
find out much of anything about it. I just started Aus on it because a
friend's boy osteo grey was started on it by Dr. Ogilvie (ex CSU
oncology guru). I figured if it's good enough for Dr. Ogilvie, it's
good enough for me.
Aus eats the same food as the rest of my dogs, "Enhance Hunter's Edge"
by ARKAT. We feed it because it's relatively cheap (we have lots of
big dogs) and does a greyt job keeping weight on my greyhounds with
once daily feeding. Relatively high in protein, fat, and calories.
Protein 24%, fat 18%, ~585 calories/cup. Aus doesn't get any
supplements or special treatment and is very fit (we live on 2 & 1/2
acres).
Suzanne Stack, DVM
Another, much more experimental method would entail naltrexone, which has few side effects. There are occasional reports of its use in animals; one anecdotal report involving an unspecified bone cancer where the dog was expected to live 5-7 months is alive a year later; the tumor shrank, and when it began to re-grow they doubled the dose and it went into remission again.
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There's an "apparent risk" of bone cancer in gonadectomized dogs. There is some conjecture that this is due to the "my dog got fat after neuter" thing, with more stress being placed on the bones. But if they're neutered later (after the age of 1 for large breed dogs, I seem to recall) that risk is diminished. For an Iggy, it's probably not even a consideration.
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Glad to hear there's been improvement.
As an aside, the "Ridge Rest" foam mattresses used for camping are lightweight and waterproof- nice and spongy.
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When Minerva was hurting before her neck surgery (completely recovered and her fur has regrown- I can't even see her zipperneck scar anymore), I would chop up her raw food and then hold the bowl up to her face so she wouldn't have to lean over at all. It was a bittersweet thing, seeing her gobble food, letting out tiny whines of pain- her appetite was never impacted, but to think of her hurting while eating was pretty rough.
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ahicks51, do you think that adding digestive enzymes would help?
That's a good question; I've honestly not studied the subject of supplementation with digestive enzymes too much. However, because that's what the different bacteria in yogurt probably do (as well as physically displace less desirable bacterial species), it may be worth a shot.
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We know that as humans age, the ability to produce lactase- the enzyme that breaks down the disaccharide lactose, or milk sugar- tends to decrease. Lactose intolerance is the usual result. Of course, we have an entire suite of enzymes to process food, starting with those in the salive that are imparted during chewing. I don't think anyone has studied whether the concentration of these enzymes diminishes with age.
From this, we're left with a big hanging question: as animals age, do they have the same ability to digest food as they did when they're younger- or is lactose absolutely, positively the only one? I doubt it, but there's no evidence either way.
Then the question becomes- what happens if these undigested dietary components go a-travelin' down the ol' alimentary canal? As with beans in humans, they ferment- producing gas. From this, we know microbiological populations can change- sometimes startlingly quickly- to adapt to the "new" food items that come to, er, pass. Many people who consume beans on a a regular basis adapt to this change over a period of days or weeks.
The problem comes when the host is sensitized to these unnatural populations. We know that some digestive disorders- in humans- carry with them the risk of forming antibodies to specific organisms. This seems to happen under specific conditions under which the host has been fed large quantities of carbohydrates- primarily from grains. A similar thing happens with dogs, although the data are much shakier for that. However, we know that IBD and IBS occur in dogs quite frequently, causing owners to change foods and, if that's not enough, go the route of medical intervention with prednisone and other immunosuppressants in order to keep the interactions between bacteria and host from eventually destroying the animal's capacity to digest food and eventually waste away. This does not happen in all cases, obviously, but a select few animals will go down this route.
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Very common; the blood pressure in greys is a bit higher than for other dogs, and then when they stand up, they get all that additional pressure from the "water column" of blood, being so far beneath them that the nails keep bleeding.
If you haven't fed dinner yet, do so- that'll keep them off their feet. Add something (flour or pepper) to the cut nail, and then wrap in a couple of paper towels with some tape to keep it on loosely. Put a ZipLoc plastic bag or similar over the foot if they decide to walk anytime soon, wrap it in place with a bit of tape.
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What was his condition? This sounds very similar to Dexter. He doesn't have any visible symptoms (scarring, cataract, etc), just blindness.
We're going to call the OVC and see if they have an opthamologist who can take a look at Dex and see what it is and if anything needs to be done. Luckily they're nice and close so we can probably get him in if they have someone that can help.
There was that similar green sheen, too. Doc suggested it may have been a lens injury at some point in time; it may have been why he was retired, but I forget details now. He was fine when we got him, and he'd just been retired shortly before that, so I kind of doubt it was a recent injury. Maybe he even ran with it like that- I don't know.
Correction is straightforward, but- again, provided one eye is at or near 100%, the question would be "why"? Many dogs do surprisingly well even when both eyes are affected.
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We had a foster that was a bit of a klutz when turning to one side; we took him to the local greyhound vet the day before he was to get adopted out (he was a fast move), and he took one look and said, "Well, he's blind in one eye. Or nearly so." Well THAT was simple. The lens can be replaced; when asked, he took another look, figured the dog had perhaps 30% sight in the affected eye, but he really did quite well for himself. Other than a couple of incidents (bumping into a door frame when turning towards the side with the affected eye, that sort of thing), he did fine. But if something DID happen to the unaffected eye, there was always a surgical option, albeit an expensive one.
The adoptive family was notified ASAP; they continued through with the adoption and, best as I know, he's still in the home today.
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Well, I give heartworm year round, and my vet still insists on testing annually. Don't know if that's to make money, or because it's really necessary.
Part of it is that it covers you- if the dog shows up positive, the company may pay for treatment (Interceptor- don't know about others). Part of it is that it constitutes a much larger program in which if a dog DOES show up HW+ while on HW meds, then we know we have a problem: resistance is forming.
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hmm, my 6 year old has that on her chest! It doesn't seem to bother her and I haven't pointed it out to the vet. I wonder if I should? Is there something that needs to be done? She doesn't itch at it or anything, and does't mind when I'm petting her either. Anyone else have any advice?
It's very common to have something similar on the chest; blackheads tend to form there. They get a little better with a warm, moist cloth. Welcome to Blackhead Pickers Anonymous.
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Orbiflorxacin is in the same class of drugs as Cipro. Best as I know, it's safe in greys.
Wound Care - Wrapping
in Health and Medical discussion
Posted
Depending upon the severity of the wound, I like to check every 8 hours- clean dressing and fresh tape 3x/day, which may help capture an infection more quickly. Once it skins over and dries, one can back off to once a day, or as needed if the bandages tend to fall off.