ahicks51

Smaller stool would imply better de-watering in the gut, which would be a good sign.

I know very little about pain control in hounds, but I do know that tramadol is available OTC in some countries- not the US, obviously. It seems to be a relatively safe drug, albeit a bit strong for the management of relatively minor pain. However, I don't believe it offers the inflammation-fighting power of NSAIDs, so it doesn't really get to the root of some problems that could otherwise be managed in that fashion.

reason why what??? From a post I made January 10th: "Take the starch out. Absolutely no starch, which means NO grains, and NO potato." Stop me if I'm wrong, but the first signs of appetite improvement and well-formed stools you've seen in some time were the result of the tilapia, yes? The Wellness Fish and Sweet Potato you fed has pushed things back towards soft-serve. The ingredients are as follows: Deboned Whitefish, Ground Barley (de-hulled), Rye Flour, Menhaden Fish Meal, Ground Pearled Barley, Sweet Potatoes, Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a natural source of Vitamin E), Tomato Pomace, Natural Fish Flavor, Ground Flaxseed, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Minerals [Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Selenite], Vitamins [beta-Carotene, Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Vitamin A Supplement, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B-12 Supplement], Choline Chloride, Taurine, Mixed Tocopherols (a natural preservative). The sources of starch in that have been highlighted. You went from zero starch (fish) to "some starch" (Wellness) to "ZOMG I can't believe it's not starch" Z/D. If I'm right, you're going to see stool quality diminish when you see the Z/D come to pass. I hope I'm wrong, and that it improves, but if I'm right, I would submit that starch is your problem. (While there are certainly many other commonalities than starch- too many components, as per Batmom, there is a plausible mechanism for the starch to be at fault.)

From this: http://www.petrx.com/index.asp?PageAction=...&ProdID=736 the first ingredient listed in Z/D ULTRA Allergen Free is starch. If there's D, I would suggest that would be the reason why.

Friend-of-a-friend: cousin living in a country with poor health care options had osteosarcoma. Treated with absolute gobs of turmeric- nothing else- and the tumor just disappeared. So- there you have it. Word-of-mouth of a rumor from someone who doesn't even pass the 6th degrees of separation test. Free advice is worth what you pay for it. Consider it disclaimed. ETA: Therapy consisted of honey mixed with turmeric that was purchased in *pound* quantities at a food store. Apparently that's a traditional Asian therapy? I dunno. Kid was given 6 months, and when he showed up at a doctor's appointment a year later- with no signs of cancer at all- the doctor was very surprised. Purely anecdotal.

If trying to manage osteo, I'd cut out the rice and barley entirely- and try more turmeric. There are anecdotes (and I stress- just anecdotes) of people being cured of osteo with turmeric (!). Now, that may be a steaming pile, I dunno. But restricting carbs may certainly have some value for management. I can't speak intelligently to the drug choices, but carb restriction- there may be something to it. ETA: http://talentedanimals.com/blog/?p=55 And feel free to Google up "turmeric" + "osteosarcoma."

Potatoes are largely stach, a polymeric form of glucose- sugar. Really- you wouldn't feed sugar to your dog. If you saw it on a label of pet food, you'd best set it aside and keep shopping. Potatoes offer little nutrition other than raw calories, and present increased risks of problems that manifest in the form of dental and oral disease, diabetes, and possibly things like cancer due to insulin-like growth factor similarities.

Come to think of it, slippery elm has proven to be quite useful for humans. Can't speak to its utility in dogs.

There's only a couple of things I could pull out of my box of tricks right now, and both of them are pretty much "yeah, so what?" from a veterinary perspective. 1) Run a fecal culture for bacteria. Do a perianal swab, plate out on MacConkey agar, and see what grows in anaerobic conditions. Probably won't yield much of anything useful, but I'd be really suspicious if any one thing popped up right now. I mean, you're going to find bacteria (that's the "yeah, so what?" aspect), and even if you do find anything out of whack, there may be nothing specific to treat with... except: 2) Xifaxan (Rifaximin), which is a creepy, semi-synthetic antibiotic that is commonly used for a number of gastrointestinal disorders. In humans, almost none of it is absorbed, meaning the feces are laden with antibiotics; this in turn can wipe out *some* susceptible critters in the gut. In that sense, it's similar to Flagyl, but at about 25x the price ($5 a pill for human-sized doses). I don't know as it's even safe to use it in the canine. But once again, yeah- so what? If you don't know what you're shooting for, how do you know you're going to hit something? It's grasping at straws, same as the bacterial culture I suggested above. The good news is, if your average tilapia comes in at about a pound, 3.5 pounds of tilapia works out to about 1500 grams. According to the USDA tables, 100 grams of tilapia comes in at about 96 calories (about 1 calorie per gram); at 1500 grams/day, that works out to about 1500 calories, or (according to what http://www.mycockerspaniel.com/mer.htm has to say for a "less active" dog of 75 pounds) an adequate number of calories. (Are you feeding cooked or raw? Beware the thiaminase, found in raw fish, which will break down vitamin B1.) In short, if the damage has stopped and repair is in the works, eating that much food will certainly work in his favor. The vet sounds pretty sharp. You might ask for a phone consult; although she's going to want to see Beau, if she gets copies of his records and gives her opinion, maybe you can save the stress (and energy "burn") of another trip to the vet's. Do you happen to have copies of his blood values? Anything that's out of norms might be illuminating so long as I'm stabbing in the dark. Dumb looks are still free. ETA: One more dumb free dumb look: menhaden (fish) oil, if it's allowed. Might add food appeal, in conjunction with nice calories.

Can they do a sed rate and C-reative protein on a dog? I'm pretty sure they can. Those numbers will help tell if there's systemic inflammation. The second thing to do is suspect severe allergies. Either blood test, skin test, elimination diet, or go raw/homecooked with novel proteins. There are some data to suggest that the latter- raw food or whatever- may have positive effects on some "autoimmune" disorders. At the very least, get out the wheat, and get rid of the corn. Pray for rain.

Interestingly, "fecal transplants" have been employed in the management of various intestinal disorders. Makes one wonder what the value would be for a canine that has had such a set of symptoms; after all, folate and B12 are both produced by bacteria in the gut. WARNING: GETS SERIOUSLY GROSS FROM HERE. GO READ SOMETHING ELSE, LIKE BOINGBOING.NET. The "do it yourself" version- an indication of both how screwed up our healthcare system has become as well as the levels of desperation that some folks come to with their own guts- involves a healthy donor, an enema bottle, some mixing, and a strong stomach. Indeed, the coprophagia is interesting in itself as it implies (dime store microbiologist speaking here) the dog could unwittingly be trying to re-inoculate its own digestive system. Either that, or they just like to eat poop. Anyway- if you don't care to be giving injections, the B12 patch might be worth pursuing. http://www.b12patch.com/

Old-style anesthetic protocols (involving barbituate drugs, IIRC) were, in fact, quite dangerous for sighthounds. Current gas anesthesia protocols in which gases like isoflurane are used are much safer for all dogs, but sighthounds (and probably some other breeds) in particular. The newer systems and drugs are nearly universal these days. As for opting not to get stitches- it can be worrying when there's an open wound like that, even when covered. Coco managed to lacerate his tail so badly I could see the tendons, and it took a long time to heal- but even with stitches (if they were even possible there) it would have taken a long time. Another time he managed to cut a part of his paw where the bone was exposed; I saw no way a vet could get into the bits between the toes- it was an exceptionally awkward place- and opted instead for a rigorous inspection and cleaning regimen in which I would inspect, wash (with dilute povidone iodine), and re-bandage as necessary every 8 hours. Perhaps foolish not to take him to the vet, but ultimately I have concerns about procedures that risk death, further injury (even just driving them to the vet's!), infection- including the potential for drug-resistant strains from being at the vet's, and then a big wad of drugs they'll want to give for post-op. I suppose if the wound had been in the winter, I would have been more careful in that the yard gets all muddy sometimes. But it was in such an awkward place, way down in the webbing. The first 2-3 days, there was nothing- then, just- zip! It was healed over. Really kind of neat.

Please- if you suspect it could be a tickborne disease (TBD), get started on the antibiotics right away. What is your location? Maybe we can find a vet more familiar with greyhounds in your area.

He'll be 5 in April.

Hmm. Well, there's no opalescent quality to the eye, nor do I see anything in the cornea or growing from its margins. He's 4 years old, and otherwise very healthy; I'll do some careful observations over the next week. The group is amenable to a vet visit based on my suspicions, but I'd like to collect some more data before bringing him in for no good reason.

When passing through a doorway just a few minutes ago, he smacked the left side of his face- the same side with the green eye- into a doorframe. Whether he's just goofy or has limited vision in that eye, I don't know, but I suspect something's up.

We have a few foster- looks the same as the foster we brought in for adoption last night (what a coincidence!)- and there's an eye difference that I wanted to ask the group about. In the right light, his one eye flashes green- the normal kind of reflective green thing that some hounds do. The other eye does not, or at least doesn't flash green nearly as brilliantly. They're quite different. When I was checking him over last night, when I put a finger a few inches in front of each eye separately, he blinked- so there's no *complete* loss of vision in either one. But the reason we have him is that he bounced from a home where he apparently snapped at some children. I'm just not seeing that in his behavior, so I was thinking it was a vision thing. Could the asymmetry in the "eye flashes" mean there is a deeper problem, or is this an occasional thing that's normal? ETA: I got him in to see the go-to vet for greyhounds in Phoenix, and it took him all of about 5 seconds to inform me he has a cataract in his left eye, possibly with "some displacement," whatever that means. He speculated it was due to an injury some time ago; the cornea looked normal to me, as does the iris (although it's slow to respond, as one would expect from a bad lens). When I asked for an approximate percentage of vision, he assessed it again, and said- 30%, ability to discern large objects, that sort of thing. So- his right eye is fine, but the left eye is pretty bad. My guess is that he can live his life comfortably in the absence of children, as he quickly adapted to our home, not bumping into anything for a week or two now. Other'n how the one eye flashes green and the other doesn't, it's tough to tell anything is different about him, in fact. And there's always cataract surgery if the owners are so inclined. The same day I took him to the vet, I got an email saying he has a home as of Friday. Yay!

Have you had a tick panel done at any point?

Years ago, we had a wirehaired fox terrier that did that for a day or so. No apparent cause, and no reason for it to spontaneously resolve. He actually dragged his tongue along the carpet at one point. Very odd. He lived for many years after that, though.

Yeah. Oaks can be trouble. From the Merck Veterinary Manual: "Most animals are susceptible to Quercus poisoning, although cattle and sheep are affected most often. Most species of oak ( Quercus spp ) found in Europe and North America are considered toxic. Clinical signs occur several days after consumption of large quantities of young oak leaves in the spring or green acorns in the fall. High mortality is often observed. Malformed calves and abortions have been reported in dams consuming acorns during the second trimester of pregnancy. The toxic principle, which appears to be gallotannins, polyhydroxyphenolic compounds, or their metabolites, causes GI and renal dysfunction. Signs include anorexia, depression, emaciation, dehydration, rumen stasis, tenesmus, smell of ammonia on the breath, serous ocular or nasal discharge, polydipsia, polyuria, hematuria, icterus, and constipation followed by mucoid to hemorrhagic diarrhea. Renal insufficiency may be evidenced by increased BUN and creatinine, proteinuria, hyperphosphatemia, hypocalcemia, and urine with a low specific gravity. Pale swollen kidneys, perirenal edema, subcutaneous edema, ascites, and hydrothorax are common necropsy findings. Edema and subserosal petechial or ecchymotic hemorrhage of intestinal mucosa and ulceration of the esophagus and rumen may be seen. Diagnosis is based on clinical findings, necropsy, history, and histopathologic examination of the kidney (ie, nephrosis). Other common diseases that resemble oak poisoning include pigweed ( Amaranthus spp ) poisoning and aminoglycoside antibiotic poisoning. "

That's correct. Unless he were on immunosuppressants (such as prednisone) or immunomodulators (cyclosporine, leflumonide, cytoxan, etc.) or had another underlying disease compromising his immune system, having DL does not put him at any additional risk of infection. There is also an interesting phenomenon where if you overdrive an already overactive immune system, sometimes it tilts back to normal. It's a little like giving stimulants to kids who are already hyper, producing a state of relative calm (at the expense of all kinds of other stuff). I have no idea how this might work in the canine, but one emerging therapy for some types of autoimmune disorders- including lupus- is LDN, or "low dose naltrexone." The drug is remarkably safe, and its primary expense lies in how it must be compounded. Never been used in dogs, best as I know, but there are probably toxicology data in the canine from its safety assessment days.

I'm gonna cheat and say "raw food."

From a link posted to the greyhound email list a couple of days ago: The rabies vaccine waiver

Try two weeks, maybe four if after two weeks it's inconclusive. If things get dramatically worse, look at another protein source- beef, fish, lamb, whatever.

When Minerva had her lower canine removed, the vet's office was in transition and they had no empty bays for such a large greyhound (she's almost 70 pounds, and VERY tall- as tall as some of the 80+ pound foster boys we get). They had to put her in this big pen they had for CATS. And, of course, she's this super-prey-intensive alpha bitch from hell, and she wakes up in this cage with the pervasive smell of cats. I got a call, and all I could say was, "Be there in 15." I probably broke some laws and maybe the sound barrier getting there. I never did ask why they had such a big pen for multiple cats.