ahicks51
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Posts posted by ahicks51
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Well, if I'd given her that Rimadyl last night, I'd have been convinced it worked. But I did not give her one, and she's much improved today. One or two minor vocalizations out of her since this morning, and that's been it. Nothing nearly like yesterday. We didn't walk her last night, but we walked her the night before; we're both wondering if she pulled something while wearing the harness.
So- I've deferred the trip to the vet for today, if for no better reason I hate being the person who brings in the dog and says, "Well, she was complaining a lot yesterday..."
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We have 5-1/2 Rimadyl left over from a tooth she got yanked. Expiration date is >3 months from now. Give her one to see if the pain is a muscle strain, probably in the neck/shoulder: good idea, provided it's done well in advance of the visit to the vet? Yes? No?
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If you think her chest looks/feels fluffy, a quick x-ray of the torso including heart would not be a bad thing. Fingers and toes crossed.
More further back, towards the abdomen. She's a very skinny girl, so a little extra back there really shows. Thorax looks fine; abdomen- *maybe* a touch of swelling.
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Is this where you get the x-rays/ultrasound?
I suppose, if we could narrow down from where the pain is coming from. Otherwise, we're looking at full-body films.
If she's yelp-y tomorrow, I'm going to try to get her in with the local greyhound-savvy vet; he has a clinic- no appointments- so it's very easy to do that. It's just so danged hot, our car's a/c isn't that good, and it's a long drive. But an Igloo with ice water and some wet towels will go with us.
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Is she doing it only when she gets up from her bed? Is there something poking her from inside the bed?
Well, she does it when she's on the floor, too. She seems to be getting up BECAUSE she yelped, meaning there's something hurting her, and she moves. But then it's gone.
Her chest might be slightly distended, too; it looked a bit off yesterday. It's not tight or anything, and maybe I've been feeding them a bit more the past couple of weeks, but she's not gassy or anything. If it's real, it's symmetrical, so it's not like a lump on one side or the other.
She wasn't yelping much the past couple of days, maybe 2-3 times, but there's been a lot more of it today.
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Her temperature is 99.5; I just gave her a full shoulder grope with the video on her, trying to capture any sort of change in expression as I got before. She tried to go to sleep on me; no signs of pain.
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There's no consistency between what she's doing and when she yelps. Sometimes, it's a midnight scream. Other times, it's a yelp, followed by shifting and stretching. A few times it's been just standing there. They seem to come at random times.
The only thing I've noticed different was that I was stroking her shoulder while she was lying down; she didn't yelp, but the corner of her mouth pulled all the way back, just for an instant. Did it again the next time, too. It's not 100% repeatable, but it's too often to be a coincidence. She's never yelped from me doing it, but I'm afraid to press harder. It's on her right side, and she normally sleeps on her left.
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Minerva's been yelping with no clear reason for about 4-5 days now; Saturday was the worst, but there were two this morning. The weird thing is that she's not DOING anything half the time she yelps, and when she does, it's back to normal with no signs anything was wrong. For example, she'll yelp and then stand up and stretch like nothing's wrong.
There's no limp, and she runs like always, no deficit or injury. It's just as if someone stood on her toes- with a sharp yelp- and, bingo, back to normal. No signs of deformity, no injuries, no big changes in diet, no problems with stool quality or quantity, nothing like vomiting or anything. It's been a lot hotter than usual and she gets tired towards the end of walks, but she's close to 9 years old so the heat of Phoenix is bound to get her down even though we only walk at night.
Any ideas?
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Note there may not be that much difference between dilutions, i.e.: it could have been "high" for a 1:8, but relatively low for a 1:16, with a "true" value being somewhere between the two. But since there's no way to express intermediate values, it could just bounce between these two numbers because of the vagaries of ELISA.
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Just one small question: if it IS a TBD, and you've started steroids, can't the results be catastrophic?
Is starting antibiotics AND steroids an option?
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If you do a search in this forum and the food forum you will probably come up with 20 or more threads.
Not sure where the vet got his info as the only study I know of is the Purdue study and it is skewed. They used show dogs = high stress.
Number of large breed dogs in the study that were show dogs: 796. Those that were not: 98. Relative risk:
Show dogs: 0.58 (confidence interval of 0.29 - 1.16)
Dogs not regularly shown: 1.00
Giant breed dogs in the study that were show dogs:673. Those that were not: 70.
Show dogs: 0.71 (0.30 to 1.68)
Dogs not regularly shown: 1.00
Large breed dogs shown up to 10 times per year: relative risk = 1.00 (number: 335)
Shown 10-19 times per year, relative risk = 1.18 (number: 208)
Shown 20+ times/year, relative risk: 0.71 (number: 253)
Giant breed dogs: up to 10 times/year: relative risk = 1.00 (388 dogs)
10-19 times/year: 0.72 (170 dogs)
20+ times/year: 1.37 (115 dogs)
In short, show dogs had a lower risk (within the confidence interval, anyway), and the risk went down with the number of shows (for large breed dogs), and well within the confidence interval for giant breed dogs.
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Hey, wait a minute. I bought one of those high frequency thingys for rats to see how it affected the opossum living in my attic. It was battery operated, so I just tossed it up there and closed the hatch. Sure enough, the varmint wobbled his fat butt on out of there. He might have just been going out for dinner though because he was back the next day.
Jenn
Huh. They've learned how to collapse the bio-energetic field.
Obviously they present a greater risk than has previously been anticipated.
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We use raised, but I was recently reading in a greyhound magazine that they actually DO increase the risk of bloat.
More correctly, the only study data on the subject has shown that raised feeders are associated with a higher incidence of bloat in dogs that have been under study. However, greyhounds were not included in the study- other large- and giant-breed dogs were studied.
Risk was 2.17 (117% higher) in the large breed dogs fed from raised feeders, and 1.99 (99% higher) in the giant breed dogs. (Non-dietary risk factors for gastric dilatation-volvulus in large and giant breed dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 2000;217(10):1492-9.)
Exercise restriction: 1.62 in the large breed dogs NOT exercised before and after feeding, and 0.94 (slightly lower) in the giant breed dogs.
Water restriction: 2.31 in large breed dogs where water was withheld before and after feeding, 2.02 in the giant breed dogs.
Dry food: moistened dry food was 2.80 times the risk in large breed dogs, and 0.96 in the giant breed dogs.
With many of these risks come the behavior of those superstitious of such actions, i.e.: if you have a dog whose breeder tells you there is a risk of bloat, you'll probably feed them from raised feeders, restrict exercise, withhold water, and wet their dry food. That could be responsible for much of the differences seen in the study. Or, heck- maybe those things actually do raise risk. It's tough to tell from an epidemiological study.
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How closely bred are they then? Like I brought up in an earlier post, Abyssinian cats have a relatively small gene pool with a high incidence of amloiydosis and patella luxation, so it's difficult to find really healthy bloodlines. Is the gene pool small in the greys as well?
NGA greys are a bit weird in that one male may sire many litters; Molotov has 7,666 offspring. Some have more. Molotov has 14,837 second generation offspring. One animal can have a huge impact in the age of liquid nitrogen.
At the same time, due to breeding records, diligent breeders can make very careful choices to reduce the chances of genes being unduly "preserved," i.e.: line breeding or inbreeding, both of which are used intentionally to conserve genes- presumably by NGA'ers as well as in the AKC realm- although hopefully very rarely if at all.
Last I checked, there were 165 NGAs registered for every AKC greyhound that was registered. That speaks to a relatively small gene pool; we could argue about numbers, but any way one cuts it, 20,000 animals is likely to have a larger, healthier gene pool than 1/165th that.
Fortunately, in terms of "conserving" breeds, we're now on the cusp of a virtual revolution in genetics. Whether the efforts of a few, hard-core breed aficionados can thwart the determined efforts of a world full of nitwits who think they can pay the mortgage on their BYB efforts is unknown. But it would seem likely that more genetic tests will come to bear in terms of selecting the best animals for perpetuation of specific breeds. Those that are still truly "working" breeds like the NGA greyhound are at an advantage over those that are purely decorative.
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First ingredient: 2,4-D. Known carcinogen in dogs.
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/04/us/lawn-...k-for-dogs.html
Ortho Weed B Gon Max also uses 2,4-D.
http://www.afpmb.org/pubs/standardlists/ms...7-7110_msds.pdf
I'm very familiar with 2,4-D as it's used as a growth regulator in plant tissue culture; tiny quantities- smaller than are used to kill the plant- may be used to inspire certain forms of growth that are useful for propagation under certain conditions.
2,4-D is "weed-specific" in that just about everything that grows in your lawn that isn't grass will be killed. Well, every "broadleaf" weed, anyway. It causes uncontrolled growth in those affected plants, and that's the end of 'em. Very useful stuff, very toxic. "Agent Orange" was a mix of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T; the latter was banned because it's REALLY bad. Agent Orange was made vastly more toxic to humans because the product was contaminated with dioxins, leading to horrible things for both American and Vietnamese for decades. Dioxin in synthesis of the compounds is no longer a problem, but they are extremely stable in the environment and will continue to cause problems for generations.
"Agent Blue" (they were named this way for the color markings on the drums) is available today as MSMA (monosodium methanearsonate). We passed laws to take arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per BILLION down to 10, and then we spray it on the lawn so we can impregnate the carpet with it and inhale it as arsenic-laden dust for years afterwards. I saw this yesterday at the "pest and herbicide" store, and was appalled. Before that, it was available at the hardware store, made by a different manufacturer. The label was very "busy," and I couldn't quite make out the "arsen..." part of the name. I suspect it was designed that way because the chemical companies think people are stupid and might eventually catch on to the idea that they're spraying arsenic on their lawn.
Much safer: Roundup (glyphosate). A tiny squirt of the stuff, right in the crown of the plant where the dogs can't get it- let it dry before letting them back out.
Safer still: mechanical elimination, like "weed poppers" or a weed-digging tool.
ETA: Your weed control guy is a nitwit. 2,4-D is not a control for clover.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7490.html
"Herbicide. Both established annual and perennial clovers can be controlled with postemergent herbicides. The best herbicide to use depends upon the species of turfgrass. Warm-season turfgrasses such as bermudagrass, zoysiagrass, and kikuyugrass will tolerate products containing mecoprop and dicamba but not triclopyr. Cool-season turfgrasses will tolerate all of the herbicides that control clover. The herbicide 2,4-D is not effective for clover control; it will injure the plant but does not control it."
Corn gluten meal does it with absolute safety, although it takes several years to finish the job.
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All purebred dogs have some health issues. Greyhounds, in general, are healthier than most. It is said that about 50% of Irish Wolfhounds die from bone cancer.
[anti-carbohydrate whacko nutjob helmet on]
You know, in order to keep some of these big-boned dogs from going bonkers on growth, some advocate low-protein food to keep the monster breeds from growing too fast. There's only so much substitution with fat that one can do, so much of the bulk ends up being... grains.
[anti-carbohydrate whacko nutjob helmet off]
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It's time to play Buzzword Bingo!
Warning! "paradigm shift"
Danger: Level of technology may exceed that at Lawrence Livermore National Labs: "physics, quantum physics and advanced computer software technology."
Well, of COURSE it is: "The key to Shoo!TAG™ is the three dimensional electromagnetic field embedded in the magnetic strip."
We have a winnar! "bio-energetic field which surrounds all living things"
Hon, I can't even keep my dogs from escaping the yard: "frequency barrier"
If it's magnetic, it'll sound better in the ad: "magnetic strip"
And we're sure none of these cause cancer, right?: "encoded with beneficial frequencies"
What about resonances? I heard about them on Stargate: SG1: "and resonances"
How about something electromagnetic?: "and an electromagnetic charge"
Quick! What if we reverse the polarity?: "bearing a polarized energy signature"
How will I see results?: "which when introduced into the bio-energetic field of the wearer produces results."
Aaaaand I'm sure you have studies substantiating these claims, right? "These specific frequencies and resonances have proven to disturb targeted pests and create a barrier."
I like these people. They are teh funnay! I tried invoking quantum physics last time I got pulled over by a cop, too. They're smarter than that.
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Welcome to Blackhead Pickers Anonymous.
Is it about time we get a patch or a T-shirt or a secret handshake or something?
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I'll cover the pending discussion by covering the possibilities:
Yes!
No!
Maybe!
I'm sure that will help a great deal.
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I'd pad between the dewclaw and the leg, and then wrap lightly with Vetwrap or similar.
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Yeah- if it's a matter of getting a nice scab but the dog not leaving it alone, it's simply a matter of protecting the wound for another few days. The pants would work well in this case, I bet.
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Freshly wormed- but any signs of the boogers in her stool? Any chance there's a heavier infestation that's getting missed?
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There's some research out there that shows that the incidence of some cancers may be reduced in dogs if neutered after the age of 1. If there are no girls around and there's no other reason to neuter, you might put it off a few months.
Sanitize Mouth
in Health and Medical discussion
Posted
1) Too late.
2) Don't worry about it.
3) Do you know what these guys put in their mouth when you're not watching?