CherylB

So sorry for your loss. Understand and share your pain.

What a beautiful tribute to a beautiful boy. I'm so sorry for your shocking loss.

I'm so sorry for your loss. The sudden ones are especially hard.

I would love more puppy pics when you have time! We would love to see everyone at Mountainhounds. It's the same weekend as our Rescued Racers annual picnic, so we'll have to see if we can squeeze it all in!

Love the Woot puppy pics. I will add them to the only other that I have. Woot is in the back on the left, behind Rip Curtis I think. And there's Bandita in the front!

Yes, their racing names are: Remy--Oshkosh Debonair, West Memphis. Woot (kept his racing name)--West Memphis. Haley--Magnific, West Memphis Henry--King of Darkness, Woodlands in Kansas City Sheba--Gable Emmy, from somewhere in Texas, we think.

I’ve posted a few here a few times in recent months, and thought it was time for an official introduction. Meet my boys, Remy and Woot. These guys are our 4th and 5th greyhounds. We adopted Remy in July 2010 after my first boy died and left our girl Haley very sad. A little over a year later, Haley left us, and Remy REALLY needed a confident dog to follow. My friend Kelly had preadopted Woot, but couldn’t convince her husband to let her keep him. Remy met Woot when Kelly was dogsitting him, and it was love at first sight. Here they are on their first meeting: And together just this weekend: Woot being cute, one of his core competencies: The handsome boy Remy: I would be remiss if I didn’t share photos of my bridge kids. Haley, our first greyhound, died in July 2011. She was a total princess: Henry, my best friend ever, left us in July 2010. He was a happy-go-lucky goofball. And here’s Sheba, a perfect girl who was only with us a little over a year. She belonged to my elderly neighbor, and came to live with us when my neighbor had to move to a nursing home. I loved those ears! I know Wooty has lots of family on this board. We’re looking forward to getting to know everyone. Thanks for looking!

Kelly, I have been thinking of you and Rocky since I heard the news over the weekend. I'm so sorry, and very sad for you. The Rocket Hound was the best of the best. Everyone who met him loved him, and we are all mourning his loss. There will never be another like him. Cheryl

Also, for Silver's mom: Everything you described is exactly how I feel. It's hard to throw meds at a problem and wait to see if they work. Especially when there's no feedback mechanism from the dog, other than visual appearance. And you have to worry about whether your other dog or someone in your family is going to also get the crud and then you'll have two problems instead of one. hope a derm vet consult will help you. When a previous dog had skin problems coupled with SLO, ours here was a rockstar. Unfortunately, this time has been a little more problematic.

It is oddly comforting to know that it can take a long time to kill fungus. That was my original reason for posting about Remy--to understand what others' experiences were. After a month on the wrong meds, I was unrealistically hoping for faster results from the new treatment. Batmom, the patchy hair loss is only on the foot where the fungus is. It looks the way it does partly because of the topical we're using (Resi KetoChlor); you have to wet the fur/skin first then apply the lotion. As far as him not feeling well--the secondary infection between his toes causes him some discomfort (he favors the leg a little when he's standing still; shifts his weight to his other leg) and the meds affect his appetite and energy level. He also is a nervous dog by nature, and stands and shakes when I come near him in the kitchen because that's where we do the treatment. Otherwise, he's fine, but a little pitful. I have suspected that the underlying cause might be allergy all along. At first I thought no, because it was only on one foot. But you never know how these things will manifest. I will try elimination diet and see if it helps. It surely can't hurt. I talked to my derm vet about Malassezia dermatitis this morning--he agreed that it may be that and can do tests to confirm. The symptoms fit, except for evidence of itchiness. However, the treatment we're pursuing is appropriate for that diagnosis anyway. Resi KetoChlor is basically the same thing as a Cholrhexidine shampoo, but in a lotion form that keeps contact with the affected skin for a longer period of time. There's another board certified derm at the University of Missouri, just a coupole of hours away so that's an option, too. I'm not trying to self diagnose, just to be informed and an active participant in my dog's care. I have to be his advocate, as I'm all he's got. Ironically, the leg looks better since my original post:

Probably a long shot, but have any of the vets done a bacteria culture? Yep, back in the beginning. Wouldn't hurt to do another since it has been a while, though. Elimination diet is worth a shot He is on a chicken protein now. California Natural grain free. I am a little concerned about eliminating protein to start, as the meds he is on have affected his appetite and he's looking thin on top of everything else.

Thanks everyone. Silver's mom, shared misery is helpful. I'm sorry Silver is so itchy...I guess it's a blessing the Remy doesn't mess with this leg. We are seeing a board certified animal derm, and one of the first things we did was allergy testing (no positives). We have also switched him to grain free food with no effect on the leg. There was also no respone to Genesis spray. For a long time, the crud was just on one leg. In the last month, it has spread to the other foot. We have been vacuuming and washing his bed covers every few days to try to prevent infection spreading anywhere else. Not sure if it's helping, but not hurting either. We redid scrapings after one month on fluconazole--no fungus growth, but visually not much improvement. Since we got a false negative back in July, It's hard to get excited about a negative now.

I have reached a new level of frustration with treating my 6-year old grey Remy for a foot fungus. I'm posting here in hopes that someone out there has had a similar experience and can offer advice. Here's a recap of Remy's story: Back in June, we noticed redness on one of Remy's lower legs and foot. It wasn't bad, just a little red and it didn't seem to bother him at all. Our regular vet tried a couple of different antibiotics, thinking it was skin infection. Antibiotics had no affect. He didn't lick at or bother the area. In July, we started seeing a skin specialist, and because of a false negative on a fungal test went through a series of even more treatments with no affect. Finally, we did a consult with a human dermatologist in November, who suggested a second fungal culture and it came back positive. I was so happy that after all that time we had a diagnosis and that's we'd finally be able to help him get better. He still never licks at the leg, but by this time, the inflammation had gotten much worse and a secondary infection caused sores between his toes and made him reluctant to put weight on the leg. I hate that we wasted so much time. If we had only figured it out sooner, we could have been well on our way to curing it. Initial treatment was fluconazole plus clindamycin for the infection and prednisone to get him through the initial stages. We also started using a topical antifungal, ResiKetochlor. He immediately started to look better, but apparently it was only because of the prednisone. As soon as the prednisone was finished, the inflammation came back and looked as bad or worse at the original site. And, it was spreading to his other foot. So, we switched treatment to generic Lamisil, continuing the topical and clindamycin, and applying a antibiotic/anti-fungal ointment to the infected area between his toes. The results were pretty much the same: better at first, then back to looking inflamed. The infection between the toes appears to be healing, but slowly. This treatment plan will have been in place two weeks this coming Friday, and the vet says it can take two weeks to see results. In the meantime, my poor boy doesn't feel good and looks awful. (See pic below, taken yesterday.) l I spend a lot of time worrying and wondering if there's something else we can be doing. Are the drugs we are giving just not effective on greyhounds? I know some antibiotics just didn't work on one of my previous hounds, and we had to experiment until we found the right one for her. We do have an appointment with a holistic vet coming up next week to talk about immune system support and perhaps other non-pharmaceutical treatment options. I have read about other home remedies, but am reluctant to try them for fear that I'll do more harm than good. If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading. Any advice you have would be much appreciated. Thanks, Cheryl

My girl Haley had a fibrosarcoma tumor removed on her leg, same situation and prognosis, with dirty margins and high probability of recurrence. After evaluating our options with an oncologist, we opted for no chemo or radiation (the odds did not seem good in her case). We could have amputated, but chose not to because of the slow growing nature of the cancer, combined with her age (11 years) and her nervousness about adapting to new situations. It just seemed like at her age, something else might happen to her before the cancer returned, and I wanted her to have as many happy days a possible until. Instead, we saw a holistic vet and have had her on anti-tumor herbal supplements, and have seen no recurrence in more than a year. She continues to be well and happy, and we are thankful for every day with her. I hope this helps and gives you some hope.

My greyhound Henry has a bad case of stud tail. I've been trying to research possible treatments without much success. If anyone here has any suggestions to share, I would much appreciate it! Thanks so much. Cheryl

All, I am posting this to see if anyone has had a similar experience. I've got a puzzling situation that recurs every summer with my female greyhound and am hoping that someone else out there can tell me what's going on. My girl is 8 years old and was diagnosed 3 years ago with SLO, which has since been brought under control with meds--niacinamide, tetracycline and Omega 3 supplements. Currently, she is on Omega three supplements only, and does fine, except in the summer months, when she starts refusing to walk in the grass in the yard. In fact, when I take her on walks she will refuse to walk in the grass until the urge to go becomes absolutely too much. Sometimes, she'll even pee on the pavement! Her nails are not bleeding, and look fine but it's as if there is something wrong with her feet and it only happens between May and September. I've asked the vet about seasonal allergies--he says there's no indication of that, but I am thinking about trying some Benadryl anyway to see if it makes a difference. Her refusing to walk in the grass results in refusing to potty in the yard, which then becomes pottying in the house. I can get her to go if I walk her, but I'm worried she's in pain that I don't know about. If you have any ideas, I'd be so appreciative. Cheryl

Hi, I am sorry to hear about your situation. I have been dealing with SLO with my female greyhound for a 4 years. At first it was bad and affected all four paws, but for us it eventually did get better. It took about 9 months. Although her nails are still not normal (they are somewhat brittle and a little misshapen), she is now pain free 99% of the time with only the occasional flare up (1 or two nails/year). Our vet didn't know a lot about the disease, and we ended up with much better treatment and advice by seeing a skin specialist vet (just fyi as an option, your vet may be more knowledgeable than mine). I know how stressful it is, but I agree you are doing the right thing not using the Prednisone treatment. We used dermcaps, niacinamide and tetracycline. I bought the niacinamide and the dermcaps on line, wherever I can find the lowest prices. Eventually, we were able to put her on just dermcaps and eliminate the other meds. As a side effect, her coat is now fabulous and she actually grew hair on her bald butt! good luck and if you need help feel free to e-mail. There is also a yahoo news group called "SLO dogs" with lots of good information.