ahicks51
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Posts posted by ahicks51
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Looks like he's putting out the TSH, and the thyroid isn't responding. Time to supplement.
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Well, here's one journal article on it. Note that with the survival times, the article is 11 years old and cancer management has come a long way in dogs.
http://www.jaaha.org/cgi/content/abstract/34/1/19
It's rare stuff; you might find an oncologist willing to work with you on something experimental, like traditional chemo or maybe even something like Palladia.
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We've had luck in trimming the nails of a otherwise foot-touchy dog by putting one hand over the eyes and rubbing. The combination of distractions (petting and closed eyes) allows one to carefully snip the nail with the other hand. You only have a few seconds, but if you can manage to get the tweezers down in there while rubbing the eyes with the other hand- good luck!
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Just a thought- how are you on praise/reward when she does her business outside? Is there any chance this can be relieved through training?
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Glass and wood wouldn't show up on an X-ray; some of the explosives chemists I have known used leaded glass for their work so the pieces could be found and removed if there was an accident in the lab.
It's hard to say what they could be if not metal.
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If you can do a dipstick test on the urine, that might show what it is ASAP and cheap.
The dipstick test isn't absolute- it only shows if sugar is spilling over into the urine- so if that's negative, the next step is a blood panel. But that can satisfy the question very quickly and inexpensively.
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In my (very limited) experience, not leaving them in long enough is a bigger problem. For a small spot on the side of the face, that's not a concern at all. But for larger areas on the chest and abdomen, it may be a consideration.
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If you don't go with another vet, get OSU instructions in written form- by email or similar.
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Note that Palladia was recently approved as the first drug for management of cancer in the canine- and it's for mast cell tumors. So- hoping for the best, that you'll get nice, clean margins- but if it's mast cell, then there's a backup plan.
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Ancylostoma caninum (one of several hookworms that affect dogs- but probably the most common) takes >48 hours to hatch from eggs. Colonization of the host occurs through skin- I don't *think* swallowed eggs will do it for A. caninum, but it will with other species. Anyway- hook eggs require lots of moisture to hatch. Unless you have something grievously wrong with your plumbing, it's unlikely you need to go bonkers over the cleanup.
Out here, unless they land on the lawn, stool isn't at much of a risk for affecting other dogs; it dries out too fast. Of course, on the lawn where there's sprinklers, anything goes.
ETA: Swallowing LARVAE can do it, too- but they still need to hatch and make it to L3 which for A. caninum is 5-8 days out. See above about fixing the plumbing. No problem.
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I don't remember seeing too many threads on this.
Elsie was just diagnosed with adencarcimona, stage 1 with clean margins.
Anyone else have a greyhound with this?
A quick search for "adenocarcinoma" in the forum shows relatively few hits. Looks like OSU has studied mammary adenocarcinoma, and notes that with clean margins, prognosis is good.
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Can't help with licking it off, but putting it on:
1) If she enjoys having her ears cleaned, stick your finger in the ear and clean it while another person applies the cream.
2) If that doesn't work, start petting her and then rub the eyes- get the whole palm of the hand over the eyes and just rub. In the 3-4 seconds that you have while she can't see, get the other person to apply the cream.
The second one also works for clipping nails on dogs that REALLY don't enjoy that, but they have to be lying down.
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Back in the days before fiberglass, glochids were harvested for making itching powder.
what in God's name would you DO with "itching powder"??????
Isn't itching something you'd want to get RID of, not make???? 
What? Never pulled a prank before?
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That species doesn't have glochids, the REALLY noxious barbed hooks that opuntias threaten to overrun the world with. You might find a larger spine somewhere, but it's a lot better than a mouthful of glochids.
Back in the days before fiberglass, glochids were harvested for making itching powder. Best way to remove: Elmer's glue, duct tape, or a razor.
I believe Jumping Cholla are in this category. I got "spined" in my left hand by one at work and to this day I still have red bumps all over my hand from all the little hooks left behind!
Yeah; "jumping" cholla is Opuntia bigelovii, and along with O. fulgida, they've probably caused more heartbreak than any other single form of cactus. Very nasty. People think I'm a fruit loop for never wearing shorts in the desert; on top of being so white that I can be used as an ANSI standard, I don't care to get unduly perforated. I wore my heavy jumpsuit on cave rescue practice in New Mexico, and when the instructors suggested I go with something lighter "because of the heat," I told them I was from Phoenix, and I lived in New Mexico for 6 years. Carlsbad just doesn't measure up- sorry, kids!
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That species doesn't have glochids, the REALLY noxious barbed hooks that opuntias threaten to overrun the world with. You might find a larger spine somewhere, but it's a lot better than a mouthful of glochids.
Back in the days before fiberglass, glochids were harvested for making itching powder. Best way to remove: Elmer's glue, duct tape, or a razor.
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Out of curiosity- when dogs come from the track, or have been running loose for months or longer, or greyhounds that have been kept for long periods of time outdoors in harsh climates- do these dogs have more hair on their bellies? I know the dogs we've gotten from the track had coarser, longer coats that they lose in a matter of weeks or months, but never really bothered to pay attention to their bellies!
If this is the case, it may simply be an environmental thing. As for bald thighs, well- that's an academic discussion of Biblical proportions!
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If it's not too bad, it's a do-it-yourself job, IIRC. Never had to do it, but I recommend something disposable in terms of outerwear and some pretty good gloves!
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Seems like it's been on the market 20 years. Have you called them up to ask why the heck they'd put hops in there if it's bad for dogs? Is it residue from fermenting, so the "bad stuff" from hops is gone? Is it in such small quantities that it's normally not a problem?
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UPDATE: She stopped yelping about a day or two after my first post. Not a peep of pain out of her in days now, so- looks like it was just a muscle strain or something. She's back to tearing up the yard, raising cain and causing havoc.
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Actually, in another thread Aaron, our resident science guy, recommended roundup much safer for use around dogs than other weed killers. I'd tend to belive him as he is pretty darn smart.
Yeah; glyphosate is about as safe as it comes for synthetic weed killers. Very non-toxic and what IS consumed is generally excreted unchanged. There's a lot of hyperbole and screeching about Monsanto- not all of which is unjustified- but small quantities of Roundup in the yard need not be part of it. The alternatives- 2,4-D, monosodium metharsenate, atrazine, etc.- are much worse. "Natural" pesticides (vinegar, corn gluten) present a much lower risk, and mechanical control (digging, barriers like black plastic, etc.) are better yet. Get some sunlight. Vitamin D won't kill you.
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See, ya got your natural antibiotics, the semi-synthetic antibiotics, and the synthetic antibiotics. The natural ones come from natural sources, like penicillin comes from mold, and vancomycin comes from a bacterium isolated from a soil sample from Borneo. Good thing we're getting rid of those nasty, dirty rain forests to make room for oil palm production or we'd have more of these.
Anyway- sometimes the natural abx don't have the properties you want, so you take the natural ones, and do some organic chemistry magic on them, and you take one branch off and stick another one on, and- viola, magic happens. Most importantly, a new patent comes out so a drug company makes a lot of money. This is pretty rare since we're running out of new things to try, and the bacterial always win in the end (as do drugs for erectile dysfunction- gotta get your priorities right in terms of saving civilization, and this is one of the perils of living in a world dominated by white men). But more importantly, these different branches (called moieties, or functional groups) offer different properties. In the case of ampicillin, I think it offers better acid stability meaning that as it's administered orally, more of it ends up in the blood. Everyone wants a pill; nobody wants an injectable antibiotic. Of course, it might offer other really nice properties like high renal excretion, meaning it'll work nicely on urinary tract infections. Helping that would be low first pass metabolism (I don't know specifically about amp- I don't know much about the drug), meaning it would be relatively unchanged by the liver's enzymes.
(Sometimes this is good, and sometimes it's bad- many first pass or second pass metabolites offer GREATER efficacy than the drug that has been provided originally. One of the more notable antibiotics is clarithromycin, a macrolide antibiotic that undergoes first-pass metabolism to 14-hydroxy clarithromycin, which is about 2x as active as clarithromycin, and a half-life of 7 hours (about twice that of clarithromycin), meaning you don't have to take it quite so often, all other effects being equal.)
Antibiotic resistance has gotten so bad recently that mixing the old-school abx with synergists, mainly clavulanic acid. They take something old, like amoxicillin, and add clavulanic acid, call it Clavamox, and charge a buttload for it even though both components are cheaper than dirt- because it's under patent. Your run-of-the-mill beta lactam antibiotic (penicillin and its derivatives, like amoxicillin) have lost the war against the bacteria; add in clavulanic acid- which is a horribly poor antibiotic on its own- and they're effective once again. This is because the clavulanic acid messes up the enzyme that bacteria use to get around the beta lactam antibiotics.
In conclusion, I don't know why. Does that answer your question?
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You a retired EMT? You know ... you just gave me an idea! I might get a pair of Magill Forcepts for my first aid bag (yes, mine is an old EMS bag, too :-)
"Burned-out volunteer yahoo" EMT is more like it. Ten years of ditch medicine and SAR. Mainly firefighting.
The Magills are a good idea, too; I only have the Ballenger/Foeresters- I don't have a proper set of Magills.
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Since I need them for plant tissue culture, I have lots of long forceps around the house. I particularly like the Russian thumb forceps:
I figure if anything gets caught in the throat and they're unconscious, if I can see it, I can grab it.
Other'n that, I have my old EMT jump kit in the trunk of my car.
Also useful in a pinch: Krazy Glue can be used to hold bandages to skin or fur when there's no other way for it to adhere. It comes off with a bit of acetone or nail polish remover, but it can be used with caution.
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Corn cobs can expand in their digestive tract, I believe, and cause blockages.
Did the whole thing come up?
Interesting to know about the corn cobs! Thanks!
That and it's completely indigestible- lots of fibrous cellulose, for which the greyhound is ill-prepared to digest. Even if it doesn't swell, it can form a fatal obstruction.
Isn't itching something you'd want to get RID of, not make???? 
Need Some Help Please
in Health and Medical discussion
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I think there's an extra $4 fee or something for a written interp, but it's done by a veterinary endocrinologist who is supposedly familiar with sighthound values. Worth it.