Poorly Elderly Greyhound Advice Please

[Guest Soph4496]

Can anyone advise please? I have a poorly greyhound aged 12 yrs who suddenly became ill last night. He was panting heavily and would not eat and was quite hot. We took him to out of hours vets who ran blood tests and said the results were brilliant! For a 12 yr old he has good kidney function liver etc. No toxicity showing up and he even had a scan for fluid in abdomen lungs which was clear. He gave him anti inflammatory shot and another injection and we have him at home today and the panting is more sporadic now but he seems cooler. He just keeps moving as if he is uncomfortable. Its just cost us £400 for last night and before I take him to my own vet today just want to know if anyone has encountered this before? We really cannot afford any more bit dont want to have him pts.

[greysmom]

Panting can indicate many things - anxiety, pain, too hot, excitement. At his age, most likely it was a pain reaction. They can have arthritis or spinal issues which, while not life threatening, can make them very uncomfortable. The easiest place to start is with pain meds - and anti inflammatory and possible a actual med for pain like tramadol. If he's having trouble getting up and down, or hind end weakness, a drug called gabapentin can help with nerve pain.

 

Xrays of his spine may also be in order, but if they are beyond your reach right now, a compentent vet should be able to determine quite a bit with a physical examination of his spine.

[msjpk]

Get him on some pain reliever. Gabapentin works wonderfully. Good luck.

[XTRAWLD]

Anti inflammatory shots work well but without knowing what the underlying cause is (much similar in the case of meds), it's tough to say what pup might be experiencing.

 

My Kasey as he aged would pant and be uncomfortable when the house got to a certain temperature, a temperature that his human didn't like it to be kept at but it was kept at to keep Kasey happy. He exhibited signed of rear end drooping when standing which eventually was diagnosed with LS (treated with gabapentin).

 

Is your pup experiencing any other symptoms other than panting or not eating? Sounds like general discomfort at this point, but anything else you are noticing?

[Remolacha]

I think as they get older they get more heat sensitive, but pain is the most likely cause. Hope you can get some answers and get him comfortable.

[Guest Jordan33]

I don't have any suggestions or anything, but *hugs* to you both. I hope things turn out ok with the second vet's opinion!

[Guest Bayleaf]

I feel for you! My girl is 12 1/2, she pants sometimes and her back legs sometimes go out from under her. We are seeing the vet on Wednesday to update vaccs and discuss our impending move (involving airplanes)

 

Keep in mind Prednisone, depending upon what your vet thinks is the cause of his panting. I have had two dogs go through cancer - my first grey developed lymphoma, and my little husky had stomach cancer. In both cases chemo, etc was out of the question, but we use the Prednisone to give them about 3 months of quality time before it quit working. I don't know if it was the chemical content or the fact that they got a dollop of peanut butter around it but it made things better for a while.