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Nov 11, 2015 01:58
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Nov 14, 2015 03:24
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such hound so bawwww
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Nov 14, 2015 03:58
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I'm so glad Remy is safe!
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Nov 14, 2015 06:14
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hound found!
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Nov 14, 2015 06:39
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With winter coming up, does anyone have suggestions for dog coats that work well for greyhounds? Last year I didn't have to worry about it, but Tatianna's day care is mostly outside, open play, and I don't want her outside for multiple hours in the cold without something. Note, this is Texas, so when I say cold winter, I mean high forties low fifties. Anything less than that and they know to bring her in and crate her with a blanket.
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Nov 19, 2015 03:40
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ghostgirl118 posted:With winter coming up, does anyone have suggestions for dog coats that work well for greyhounds? Last year I didn't have to worry about it, but Tatianna's day care is mostly outside, open play, and I don't want her outside for multiple hours in the cold without something. Note, this is Texas, so when I say cold winter, I mean high forties low fifties. Anything less than that and they know to bring her in and crate her with a blanket. http://www.k9apparel.com/product-p/sfc-gh.htm This is perfect for the temp range you mentioned. Had mine for 4+ years and it's great.
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Nov 19, 2015 06:02
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kv_LTf0tZQ Greyhounds are so fierce. 
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Nov 30, 2015 07:47
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I finally gave in and adopted a retired racer on Halloween. Introducing Flying Gucci - otherwise known as Gucci the Poochie  Iminnosynt fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Dec 23, 2015 |
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Dec 23, 2015 21:07
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I loved that sweater and I'm saving up for it . Right now I kinda stiched together a hoodie from goodwill that's working out really well until then. We got some bad news at the vet today. Tatianna started limping last thursday, and we took her to the vet today when it didn't get better over the weekend. No formal results yet, but our vet is nearly certain, and we're moving forward with treatment for osteosarcoma. She has an appointment with the Texas A&M small animal oncology department on Tuesday. It sucks so bad to get the diagnosis this holiday season. But we're now looking at our options. Pain management, or amputation and chemotherapy. Does anyone here have experience/know of anyone who's been here before? In general the Internet seems conflicted and we want to get some opinions before the appointment Tuesday. Also Gucci is Super Adorable, and I hope she has you wrapped around her finger where you should be.
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Dec 24, 2015 05:23
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So many Good Dogs in this thread! Union has been gone over 2 years now, but my friend knows I still miss her. For Christmas he and his gf gave me a little digital photo keychain that he had preloaded with all the photos of union he could find. I was super touched and stood there for like a minute watching the slideshow go by and babbling about what a good girl she is. Ghostgirl, that is pretty awful, I'm sorry... That is how I lost Union. She made it through the amputation surgery but later that day she just faded out. 5 minutes before that they'd called me to come get her and take her to the e-vet for overnight monitoring, so it was pretty unexpected by them too. The vet said in 20 years that was only the third time they'd lost an animal during/after surgery. It may be relevant that she was about 11, and had a heart murmur for some time, so surgery was more risky than for a younger or more healthy grey. I'm pretty sure Husker would be a success story for you to look at, I can't remember which poster owned him- they're in this thread somewhere. iirc Husker had a leg amputated and was back to being a doofus in no time. Eventually cancer got him but that was years later. I've been told that osteosarcoma is an issue for greyhounds, so there should be lots of stories or advice out there. I just decided based on my dog and her situation, and the info the vet was explaining. Good luck! (And give that dog a burger)
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Dec 27, 2015 14:37
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skoolmunkee posted:So many Good Dogs in this thread! Paging RazorBunny to this thread!  Skoolmunkee, I loved reading stories about and seeing pictures of Union in this thread long before I was able to get my own hound. My favorite was about how the first time she barked, she scared herself so bad that she ran away.  Ghostgirl, I'm so sorry to hear about your girl. While I don't have any personal experience with osteosarcoma (yet), I have worked for a veterinary surgical referral practice for four years. I guess the only real piece of advice I can give is, don't be scared off at the idea of amputation. You'll be surprised at how quickly dogs can adjust to having only three legs. It'll be an adjustment for sure, lots of sling support and taking it slow for a couple of weeks (especially if it's a forelimb), but I've seen more than a few dogs who are so relieved not for be bogged down by a hurty leg zoom out the front door the day after surgery. Somewhat anecdotally, the VP of the rescue that I adopted Rory from just recently lost one of her hounds to osteosarc (her second or third that has had it, I believe.) While it's a pretty significant financial/physical/emotional ordeal, it does go to show that it can be worth it from a quality of life perspective. After amputation and a full course of chemo topped off with a brush with lymphoma near the end, her dog lived almost two years after her initial diagnosis. Granted, that is an unusually long time, but even if she had only lived through the first six months, for her, it still would have been quality time. Here is a picture of her, 3 months post op amputation and in the midst of chemo, running at the annual picnic, not letting cancer slow her down in the least bit.  I'm always very paranoid about bone tumors in Rory, and get pretty  at the sign of even the slightest limp. She has an old rotater cuff injury that flares up every once in a long while that the surgeons have looked at over and over again, and luckily, they're just as wary of cancer as I am, but even they think I overreact sometimes about it. I can't say what decision I would make if faced with it tomorrow, but whether you decide to opt for palliative care, amputation and chemo, or even just amputation, you'll be doing the best you can for her in the end.  edit: Some recent Rory pics:     We went on vacation last week and I cried a stupid amount about leaving Rory behind with my family because it was the longest we've ever been away from her, but luckily my fam obliged my craziness and supplied me with a steady stream of pictures. 
pastor of muppets fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Dec 31, 2015 |
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Dec 31, 2015 16:36
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Rory has the best ears.
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Dec 31, 2015 18:25
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pastor, I love seein pictures of lovely Rory! She's so spoiled and it's great. I definitely sympathise with missing your pup so much even just a week away- it's so obvious with greys how attached they are to you, it makes you feel so guilty to leave them. Also, Thanks for your kind words
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Dec 31, 2015 19:38
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It's really amazing how quickly they snoot their way into your life. Even my husband went from "No, we are not getting a dog, I don't like dogs, no way" to "well okay, but only because you really want one, but it's gonna suck" to, well...this 
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Dec 31, 2015 21:33
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Not a dog person myself, but enjoying this thread lead me to suggest looking into retired racing grey hounds to my grandparents over the holidays. They love golden retrievers (and hate toy breeds), but are getting incredibly angry and frustrated at how inbred and prone to disease the breed has gotten, and their current golden is starting to hit trouble age. Folks in this thread mentioned that racing greyhounds tend to be healthy, and my grandparents said it sounds like a fine idea to look into when their current golden passes away.
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Jan 1, 2016 00:41
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Greyhounds are pretty healthy on the whole, and you typically see the same handful of issues pop up across the board, which makes it fairly easy to plan for/keep an eye out for: thyroid problems, bad teeth, and of course bone tumors are the big ones off the top of my head. You'll also almost NEVER see the kind of conformational orthopedic issues that plague most other large breeds, like hip dysplasia and stifle instability. No need to save up $8000 for bilateral TPLOs or total hip replacements. That said, and as evidenced by many posters and their dogs in this thread, cancer is unfortunately a pretty common occurrence in them, and osteosarcoma (a particularly aggressive type of bone cancer) can be costly to treat, and almost always has a poor prognosis. It sucks, and we still aren't entirely sure why greyhounds in particular are so susceptible to it, but as evidenced by my earlier post, a cancer diagnosis isn't always a "game over" type situation. With treatment, a lot of dogs can have another year or so in relative comfort. It's also definitely not something exclusive to them, either; I've seen bone tumors like that in many, many breeds of dogs, including goldens. Another plus is that greyhounds are less likely to be morbidly obese and so they adjust a lot quicker to getting around on three legs (again, this is pretty anecdotal, based on my experience working in veterinary medicine.) They can also be tricky under anesthesia, so it's always a good idea to ask questions about what the drug protocol will be and what kind of monitoring they'll have if they're going in for a procedure. Fortunately, most places use isoflurane or something similar nowadays for their anesthesia gas, so there's not as much of a concern about them having a bad reaction. Of course, there can be situations like what happened to Union where an underlying issue can cause problems, too. I assisted on a case where a seven year old, otherwise healthy greyhound didn't make it through a tibia fracture repair. She did beautifully under anesthesia for the entire hour long repair, but as we were suturing up, the anesthetist noticed a problem and made adjustments to correct it. We were literally stapling her up and suddenly, she coded. It was all hands on deck and we tried for twenty minutes to get her back, but she was gone.  It was devastating not only for the owners, but for us as well, even though there was nothing we could have done differently to prevent it. There's actually been research recently that suggest that greyhounds tend to throw blood clots quicker than other breeds, and if that happens, an embolism can happen and throw them into cardiac arrest, so that may be what happened in her case. Sorry, this ended up way longer than I intended, but basically what I'm trying to get across is that yes, in general, greyhounds tend to be healthy , due in no small part to their athletic builds and more stringent breeding programs, but there are definitely some things to look out for.
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Jan 1, 2016 19:00
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I'll pass that along, but Piper hopefully has a few years yet. It was just a suggestion I passed along to my grandparents since they mentioned they were getting frustrated with how sickly the golden retriever breed seems to be getting and they're already thinking they'll not get another one despite loving the dogs.
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Jan 1, 2016 19:19
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Yeah, I definitely know what that's like. I've had Persian cats and while I loved them, I'll never own another one. Too much heartache. Edited to add that a huge plus about greyhounds is that the adoption community is HUGE and most groups are very supportive of their adopted out hounds for their whole lives. Mine has some pretty whack-a-doo ideas about dominance and "being the alpha," but they also have some incredible resources that they offer the community for greyhound health like free workshops and lifetime service plans for hounds they adopt out with known health problems. pastor of muppets fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Jan 1, 2016 |
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Jan 1, 2016 19:37
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pastor of muppets posted:Yeah, I definitely know what that's like. I've had Persian cats and while I loved them, I'll never own another one. Too much heartache. Yeah, either way my grandmother liked the idea of looking into retired racing greyhounds after Piper inevitably passes away. I enjoy lurking in this thread and think they're adorable dogs, but I'm just not a dog person.
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Jan 1, 2016 21:11
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An update! Tatianna was diagnosed, and then had the amputation a literal week later. it's now been a week since the amputation and she's doing beautifully. We're back to the beginning with stairs, as she has lost most of her confidence and isn't sure how to approach them with only one front leg. She has an appointment with her oncologist at Texas A&M on the 20th as well to discuss chemotherapy. All in all, she is handling everything much better than we are, and has become even more of a bossy queen. Since she got a burger the day of her diagnosis, she seems to think that all burgers that we get to go are meant for her. And the fries. And the bed should also basically belong to her. It's become very much a "give a mouse a cookie" situation over here, and she knows she has us whipped. Pictures of her hop-a-long walking will be posted as soon as she looks less like a 2 year old who played with the electric razor.
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Jan 6, 2016 05:04
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So glad to hear that! It really is amazing how quickly they bounce back from losing a limb.
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Jan 6, 2016 16:09
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ghostgirl I'm so glad that everything is going ok! it's a really difficult thing to go through, but I bet all your pup knows is the painful leg is out of the picture and she can get back to living her life. I'm sure you are spoiling her rotten. Please do keep us updated! ghostgirl118 posted:Since she got a burger the day of her diagnosis, she seems to think that all burgers that we get to go are meant for her. Yesssssss
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Jan 8, 2016 18:14
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Greyhounds are generally one of the better breeds for being crated for 8-9 hours during the day right? The adoption website I'm looking at says expect up to 4 walks a day for bathroom breaks.
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Jan 9, 2016 21:39
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Mine could hold it for 14 hours when he was younger. Now he's 12 and it's more like 5, 6. But he doesn't mind the crate, I lock him in there a lot for long periods of time and he still goes in on his own sometimes just to hang out.
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Jan 9, 2016 21:51
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I'm looking to be a first time dog owner and my big thing is being away for work about 9 hours during the day but I want to be able to go on long hikes/walks on weekends. Greyhounds were suggested to me for being fairly low maintenance but all the adoption websites are making me a little nervous about how much work they might require. Is part of that just scare tactics to weed out those who aren't very committed? I totally understand that dogs are a lot of work and effort but there's a limit to how much time I can put into one.
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Jan 9, 2016 21:57
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bamhand posted:Greyhounds are generally one of the better breeds for being crated for 8-9 hours during the day right? The adoption website I'm looking at says expect up to 4 walks a day for bathroom breaks. I don't crate mine but he spends pretty much all day working on his sofa groove. 4 times a day is about right for bathroom breaks. Mine gets a longer walk in the morning, a short trip around around the block after dinner and quick pee breaks in the afternoon and before bedtime. So yeah technically 4 walks but two of them are literally to the snowbank at the end of the driveway or to the tree in the backyard and back. bamhand posted:I'm looking to be a first time dog owner and my big thing is being away for work about 9 hours during the day but I want to be able to go on long hikes/walks on weekends. Greyhounds were suggested to me for being fairly low maintenance but all the adoption websites are making me a little nervous about how much work they might require. Is part of that just scare tactics to weed out those who aren't very committed? I totally understand that dogs are a lot of work and effort but there's a limit to how much time I can put into one. They are super low maintenance as far as dogs go but they're still dogs so expect more work then say a cat. They don't have tiny dog bladders and they're not like working dogs that need to be walked to exhaustion daily though. Two 15-20 minute walks a day will keep them happy and two more 5 min pee breaks will keep the bladder empty. The wonderful thing I've found is that they hate lovely weather as much as you do so if it's raining or cold they'll want to cut the walk short as much as you do. Lagomorphic fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Jan 9, 2016 |
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Jan 9, 2016 21:58
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bamhand posted:Is part of that just scare tactics to weed out those who aren't very committed?
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Jan 9, 2016 22:25
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I put booties on Abby since it's a -12 windchill. She was able to walk around in them, but incredibly slowly. It might be faster just to leave them off - while her feet will be much colder, she will do her business much faster.
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Jan 9, 2016 23:57
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actionjackson posted:I put booties on Abby since it's a -12 windchill. She was able to walk around in them, but incredibly slowly. It might be faster just to leave them off - while her feet will be much colder, she will do her business much faster. Try Musher's Secret or some other brand, might be a good compromise between chilly feet and stumble-y dog. We've used it in -10, -20 weather + road salt everywhere.
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Jan 10, 2016 00:35
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Tree Goat posted:Try Musher's Secret or some other brand, might be a good compromise between chilly feet and stumble-y dog. We've used it in -10, -20 weather + road salt everywhere. Yeah I used that the previous winters.
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Jan 10, 2016 01:50
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Yeah. My dog is on the younger side for a retired racer (3 1/2 years old now, was 1 1/2 when I got her) so she probably has more energy than many older retirees, but even she still sleeps like 18 hours a day. And I'll be honest, she doesn't even really get a long walk but every other day. Usually, I'm the one bugging her to wake up because I want to get out of the house and go for a walk. Having a fenced-in backyard helps, though. She's crated for 8-9 hours a day during the work week, then we get home and she gets out to go to the bathroom, eats her dinner, and then we throw the ball around the yard for ten minutes and she's always ready to come back in and go take a nap up in our bed. Sometimes I forget I even have a dog because she'll be upstairs sleeping for like four or five hours at a time and you never see her. It's still a lifestyle change, though. If you're used to being able to spontaneously go out after work for drinks without going home first or going out of town for the weekend, it is an adjustment to have to consider the dog. If it's your first dog, expect like a month of "holy poo poo what have I done?" but I promise it does get easier. I will definitely have to get a vat of Musher's Secret for this winter. We live in the city and the sidewalks are always heavy on the salt. pastor of muppets fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Jan 10, 2016 |
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Jan 10, 2016 01:52
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actionjackson posted:I put booties on Abby since it's a -12 windchill. She was able to walk around in them, but incredibly slowly. It might be faster just to leave them off - while her feet will be much colder, she will do her business much faster. I have the greyhound booties from K9 Voyager. Bean walks about normal speed in them now that she's used to them, but a couple of times I've incorrectly guessed how cold it would feel if she went out without them and had to carry a sad, freaked-out hound back to the house. Windmill doesn't seem to matter so much to her, but about 20 I put the boots on if we're even just going around the block. (I live in central WI, the first winter we moved here we had days in the -20s, felt like -40 with windchill)
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Jan 10, 2016 01:58
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I can't quote because I haven't figured that out yet on the phone app but I wanted to comment on Bamhand's question. First, re: crating. Some greyhounds love their crates and don't mind and in fact enjoy having them around but some get home and don't really want to use them again. With Reese, we did all the crate games and luring and he would go in, and be quiet but was completely miserable. He would shake and turn into a sad dude completely different from his happy goofy normal demeanor. The rescue we got him from told us that some hounds turn out that way. Instead we started giving him incremental freedom and now he has free run of the place. As far as bathroom breaks go, he is capable of holding it for at least 8-9 hrs but we live in an area where traffic even for my ten mile commute can take an hour, so we have a dog walker come in mid day for him. Finally I wanted to respond to the comment about taking them for long walks or hikes. Again each hound is different. I know some people definitely take their hounds to do these things (Pastor of Muppets and Rory according to their awesome photo updates) so my advice would be to make sure the rescue knows you want a higher energy hound. As a counterpoint, Reese has a limit of about a mile and after that you are going to be waiting for him to rest up or walk verrrrry slowly home. They are built for sprinting not endurance. I don't say any of these things to discourage you, far from it, our greyhound is awesome, calm, sweet, well mannered, goofy and adorable. I really just want to point out that they vary a lot from hound to hound. Good luck in your search!
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Jan 10, 2016 16:17
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Thank you for the information! Is the crating behavior and energy level stuff that the adoption agency will know ahead of time or is it more something I'll have to slowly discover after adoption? My main issue with the crate is I have two cats so they can't be allowed to be in the same room as the dog when unsupervised. Would locking the dog in a bathroom work as an alternative? It's a pretty large bathroom at about 80-100 square feet.
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Jan 10, 2016 17:51
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bamhand posted:Thank you for the information! Is the crating behavior and energy level stuff that the adoption agency will know ahead of time or is it more something I'll have to slowly discover after adoption? My main issue with the crate is I have two cats so they can't be allowed to be in the same room as the dog when unsupervised. Would locking the dog in a bathroom work as an alternative? It's a pretty large bathroom at about 80-100 square feet. Rescues are good at finding greys that are going to be OK around cats if they know that is a criteria. The first week or two Fuzz Feets and I were super vigilant about Reese eating our cats but he very quickly acclimated to them and now couldn't care less about having cats in his house. Most weekends we find him sharing his blanket pile with our male cat as they both take a nap. They do testing at the kennel to identify those hounds with high prey drive and those that will most likely be small pet friendly. Just be explicit with the rescue for that kind of requirement and they will work around your needs. 
Tortolia fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Jan 10, 2016 |
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Jan 10, 2016 18:47
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Fuzz Feets posted:I can't quote because I haven't figured that out yet on the phone app but I wanted to comment on Bamhand's question. I just want to point out that, even if you get a higher energy dog, it may not stay high energy forever. We have two older greyhounds. One of them insists on his daily walk (about 3/4 mile round trip most days), sometimes with some "running" (i.e. him jogging lazily, with me sprinting and struggling to keep up for 100 yards), sometimes not. The other goes out with us because he doesn't want to be left alone in the house, but he's VERY slow and plodding, and we end up having to walk the more energetic one again on his own, so he can get some real exercise. My point is that I'm sure both dogs were more active 10 years ago, and we've even seen both of their energy levels decline just in the 3 years we've had them. So, if you get a dog that wants to exercise with you, you need to be okay with the fact that that could change. Same thing with having a dog-walker come over - even if your dogs don't need it at first, they may need it after a while. For us, it's worth $15/day just to know for sure that our old guys aren't spending hours every day desperately trying to hold it in. And we know that if we miss the early bus, or run into traffic, or whatever, they won't explode. We've never had to crate ours, so I can't really speak to that. I will say that when we were looking into adoption, the greyhound rescue coordinator we worked with more or less told us that greys aren't great dogs for doing things with. They're athletic, but their legs are so long that it can make them kind of clumsy and awkward. I'm not sure how good they'd even be at hiking, unless you plan to hike short distances on a flat, soft trail. And, they mostly just aren't interested in doing much. For us, it has been more like having a pair of 75 pound cats in the house than it has been like a stereotypical dog experience. If you really want a companion to go places and do things with you, you might want to consider a different breed.
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Jan 10, 2016 18:52
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Regarding the cats, they do test at the track, but it isn't always foolproof. Luckily you will know pretty quickly if it's going to work out or not. The original hound we were supposed to get was tested as cat-safe in Florida, but the instant she saw the first cat in our house, she was lunging and continued to be fixated on it, even when I took her outside. A rescue will coach you on how to safely introduce your dog to cats, because situations like this can always arise. When I brought Rory home a few days later, the difference was night and day. She ignored the cats completely, and while I expected to have to keep her muzzled for at least a few days around them, I felt confident enough after one night to let her around them without it (still supervised.) Other things that helped were limiting her free roaming space in the house with baby gates, and giving the cats lots of "outs" if they needed to get away. I would have the baby gates high enough to where they could escape underneath if need be. That said, I still almost always crate her when we're away. It gives me piece of mind to know that there's a barrier between her and the cats. Also, Rory is big enough to where she can set off the motion sensors if given free roam. At this point too, she loves her crate and is used to her routine of going straight in after her morning pee break before I leave. Sometimes, if I'm just running up to the store, I won't crate her, but it almost makes her MORE anxious than if I told her to go in her crate. That's just my personal preference and what works for me and my dog, though. There are plenty of people, including in this thread, that don't crate at all, even with other pets in the house. When it comes to having a high-energy hound, we originally told the rescue we would prefer a lower-energy dog, but it just worked out that the 5-year-old hound we were supposed to get tried to eat the cats, and young little Rory fell into our laps a few days later. We were honestly a little apprehensive at first about getting a young dog because of her potentially being more high energy, but it hasn't been an issue at all. I took her to the dog park today and she ran her little rear end off for twenty minutes, but is now dead asleep on the floor next to me, and will probably stay like that until dinner time. The most exercise she can tolerate is a 2-3 mile hike before she's done for like two days, so we definitely have to leave her home for our 9-10 mile hikes. e: Reese, demo-ing the most common greyhound configuration. pastor of muppets fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Jan 10, 2016 |
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Jan 10, 2016 19:45
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   Some galgo winter fashion from Finland... Fleece overall is the game changer for luring her outside, as otherwise -20C is way too cold. Custom clothing made by other tailor-capable sighthound owners here. (edit: images fixed) naig fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Jan 20, 2016 |
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Jan 11, 2016 15:01
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That is awesome. On the other hand, when I look at it all I can think about is how it's gonna get peed on. Edit: Hadda see dat face up close 
slap me silly fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Jan 11, 2016 |
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Jan 11, 2016 15:05
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