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david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm

skoolmunkee posted:

Bonus the manager of the adoption centre I volunteer at has a saluki AND a wolfhound and so when she brings them in I am always looking for excuses to be back by her office or go outside when i see her taking them on a walk because I love them so much.

Whenever I momentarily feel too sorry for myself I like to remind myself that a Saluki or Afghan would be much more frustrating from everything I’ve heard. I think Afghan’s are supposed to be the most sighthound-iest of sighthounds when it comes to behavior and I can’t imagine Salukis would be much different.

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DarkHorse
Dec 13, 2006

Vroom Vroom, BEEP BEEP!
Nap Ghost

skoolmunkee posted:

I love Abby and Sparty and Katie and all the stubborn and weirdo boys and babushkas.

Seriously I had never considered greyhounds as a viable dog choice and now I can't imagine owning any other kind of dog. I just want to fuss on all of them and look into their extremely sad eyes and give them cheeseburgers.

Bonus the manager of the adoption centre I volunteer at has a saluki AND a wolfhound and so when she brings them in I am always looking for excuses to be back by her office or go outside when i see her taking them on a walk because I love them so much.

Lomgbois are the best no matter what shape or size

A friend was showing me silky wind hounds earlier and I just wanna ruffle their fuzz

Also there's an Irish wolf hound breeder near me and it's a good thing their litters get sold out instantly

actionjackson
Jan 12, 2003

DarkHorse do you seriously not think you owe me an apology

number 1 snake fan
Jul 16, 2018

I think DarkHorse was just asking a question because they weren't familiar with the syndrome.

actionjackson
Jan 12, 2003

I didn't read it that way at all.

"If it's Horner's syndrome does that mean she likely has a tumor on that side pressing on the nerves? It would go with the neurological effects you observed earlier with Abby"

My issue is with the "it would go with the neurological effects you observed earlier." DarkHorse has no qualifications to make this kind of statement. My vet of course is well aware of Abby's current and past medical issues. So suggesting that a tumor would make sense, when my vet has not mentioned a single thing about cancer as a possible cause, is very upsetting, not only because it is not in DarkHorse's purview to say such a thing, but what is being suggested, cancer, is every dog owner's worst nightmare.

It would have been much better to simply say "did the vet identify any specific possible cause?" instead.

edit: reading it again, I did not post the vet's finding until after the post in question, however I still think the question was insensitive.

actionjackson fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Feb 19, 2021

Major Isoor
Mar 23, 2011
Look, I mean, I know unsolicited opinions are never truly welcome, and I don't want to seem like I'm piling in on anyone, but seeing as you're pushing the point to DarkHorse I've gotta agree with number 1 snake fan on this, I'm afraid.

Like, don't get me wrong - I 100% get that it's a touchy subject, especially when The Big C is invoked. But it genuinely seemed to me like DarkHorse was simply/innocently trying to get more information and bringing up possible explanations based on the info that he has available. I know the whole situation is (very understandably) something that's concerning/on your mind a lot at present, and spit-balling potential worst-case scenarios isn't necessarily the best thing for you right now, but even so...it just kinda seems like the situation has been blown out of proportion, a little bit...sorry v:shobon:v


In any case, to post what I actually planned on posting here: Do any of your greys tilt their heads? Neither Taz nor Opal ever used to do it, up until last night when Opal decided to hit me with not one, but a double-tilt, when the food in my hand ~disappeared~ (and not into her mouth) despite her best efforts!
She just couldn't seem to understand that it didn't work - and she lost out on such a good snack, as a result! Poor thing, she must be starving...at least that's what she'll have you believe :D



Utter bafflement! haha

actionjackson
Jan 12, 2003

it's possible I overreacted, which is my bad if so, I'm very distressed because I'm at the point that I always knew would come when I first got her almost ten years ago. It's just a slow degradation of her quality of life, or what she can do. She doesn't recognize things the same anymore. Her joints are bad and I can tell she's in some pain trying to lie down. She can't walk nearly as far as she used to. She can't even jump up into the car anymore without assistance. Overall she seems happy and excited about things, but she also has these pains, and I know things will never be how they once were.

Major Isoor
Mar 23, 2011
It's all good, I get where you're coming from - it's fully understandable that you're feeling distressed about it. I just wish I could do something about it, is all. But either way, yeah that sounds like it must really suck. :(
If there was one thing I could change about the world, it would be the lifespan of dogs. They really deserve to have healthy long lives - especially the way they live life, compared to how we do. I really hope Abby gets past this and improves - especially as she's always seemed like such a great pup to me, through reading your posts.

actionjackson
Jan 12, 2003

thanks, she is a very good girl. most of it is honestly here to stay, it's just a matter of managing it. the horner's syndrome stuff isn't really harmful to her at all (though i'm sure the eye inflammation bothers her a bit as she rubs it from time to time), it mostly just looks weird. that's the only thing that I would expect to resolve on its own.

realistically, she's 13, and the longest living greyhound I've heard of was 15. so I just do what I can for her. also we had insanely cold weather during the last two weeks, which made things even worse. we couldn't even go for a normal walk around the block for about ten days straight. thankfully that is over now.

DarkHorse
Dec 13, 2006

Vroom Vroom, BEEP BEEP!
Nap Ghost

actionjackson posted:

it's possible I overreacted, which is my bad if so, I'm very distressed because I'm at the point that I always knew would come when I first got her almost ten years ago. It's just a slow degradation of her quality of life, or what she can do. She doesn't recognize things the same anymore. Her joints are bad and I can tell she's in some pain trying to lie down. She can't walk nearly as far as she used to. She can't even jump up into the car anymore without assistance. Overall she seems happy and excited about things, but she also has these pains, and I know things will never be how they once were.

I'm incredibly sorry if I've caused you distress actionjackson, that was absolutely not my intent. I'm not a vet, all I did was look up Horner's syndrome and saw that it's often caused by pressure on nerves in that side of the face, frequently by tumors, and I just connected that to the issues she'd been having earlier and figured that could be something you could ask your vet. And it's not like it would have to be cancer, "benign" tumors and cysts happen all the time even brain tumors even if they cause some effects.

I love Abby and want the best health and happiness for her, I was just trying to help figure out what might be going on with her. So again sorry if I caused you distress.

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm

Major Isoor posted:

In any case, to post what I actually planned on posting here: Do any of your greys tilt their heads? Neither Taz nor Opal ever used to do it, up until last night when Opal decided to hit me with not one, but a double-tilt, when the food in my hand ~disappeared~ (and not into her mouth) despite her best efforts!
She just couldn't seem to understand that it didn't work - and she lost out on such a good snack, as a result! Poor thing, she must be starving...at least that's what she'll have you believe :D



Utter bafflement! haha
Absolute lol

I haven’t really tricked Katie yet so I don’t know if she does it. When she was still hesitant about going down stairs, she would stand at the top looking down at me, raise her ears, and be like “are you serious I have to go down these things, it better be worth it.” I think maybe she tilted her head doing that?

Radiation Cow
Oct 23, 2010

Major Isoor posted:





Utter bafflement! haha

Just chiming in to say that Opal is beautiful. All the dogs in this thread are beautiful, but Opal is something special. :kimchi:

NomNomNom
Jul 20, 2008
Please Work Out
As beautiful as this?

actionjackson
Jan 12, 2003

DarkHorse posted:

I'm incredibly sorry if I've caused you distress actionjackson, that was absolutely not my intent. I'm not a vet, all I did was look up Horner's syndrome and saw that it's often caused by pressure on nerves in that side of the face, frequently by tumors, and I just connected that to the issues she'd been having earlier and figured that could be something you could ask your vet. And it's not like it would have to be cancer, "benign" tumors and cysts happen all the time even brain tumors even if they cause some effects.

I love Abby and want the best health and happiness for her, I was just trying to help figure out what might be going on with her. So again sorry if I caused you distress.

It's okay man, thank you for apologizing.

I am interested in where you found that info though, because what I found, and what my vet said, is that in most cases it is idiopathic. I would imagine a facial tumor would probably be noticeable, or if they were concerned about that would have mentioned some sort of x-ray to look for it.

***

As to head tilting, Abby will do that when she hears something she's super interested in, like the cats instead my neighbor's unit. Specifically because she can't figure out where the sound is coming from.

skoolmunkee
Jun 27, 2004

Tell your friends we're coming for them

I think that everyone in this thread is here because they love these silly precious dogs. Pet ownership isn’t always easy or fun but of course we don’t like to emphasize the bad stuff, so sometimes it’s hard to know that someone could really be having a bad time. I hope that as long as we are all commenting from a place of kindness and mutual support, we can overcome any misunderstandings. :)


I recently learned that (in the UK at least) June 2nd is national greyhound day!

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm
Does anyone play with their greyhound or do you let them do their own thing? Katie has started playing a lot more but it largely doesn’t involve me. She mainly tosses a toy around and does indoor zoomies. Sometimes if I grab the toy and throw it she will run after it but that’s about the extent of my involvement.

I know that tug of war is not a greyhound thing and I haven’t seen anything about greys being likely to fetch stuff, so is it mainly a hands-off affair?

actionjackson
Jan 12, 2003

if Abby hasn't gotten out and about enough, which has been the case recently with the weather, she'll get a sudden burst of energy, usually in mid-afternoon. I will just move around quickly side to side, which gets her all excited and she jumps up and down. This lasts for about 30 seconds then she's had enough.

skoolmunkee
Jun 27, 2004

Tell your friends we're coming for them

If Josie is in a playful mood I can get her to do some hops for a toy. She really doesn’t understand playing though. If I’m interacting with her she just wants it to be scritches and pets mostly. If I try to introduce toys she just ignores them, or sees them as “mine” and not “hers” at that time.

We did have a neighbor Aussie pup who taught Josie how to play tug and play chase, which was so nice to see! But she’d only do it with that dog. However they moved away and so Josie lost her playmate, she has other dogs we visit sometimes but she mostly wants to side eye them and steal their beds.

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm
Katie and I are going to my parents this weekend for the first time. I can’t help but be a bit nervous for how Katie and Lucy will get along :ohdear:



Lucy is a spunky, outgoing dog who loves everyone, human or canine - she’ll happily play with the neighbors beauceron who’s like 3 times her size. Lucy is also a very swift little critter and I’m not sure she’s ever met a dog that’s faster than her. I haven’t seen her since the holiday break and I’m already shocked at how blunt her head looks to me now.

So far, Katie has growled at nearly every dog she’s met - including other greyhounds. The only one she didn’t dislike right away was another greyhound that she theoretically knew from down in Florida at the kennel. She’ll approach other dogs to sniff them before she growls so I don’t know what her deal is.

I’m hoping that being forced to be around another dog for a few days will help Katie get over whatever thing she has. I’ve read all the guides about introducing dogs (muzzle on, walk them together first, etc). Worst case poor Lucy can stay with someone else for the weekend.

bamhand
Apr 15, 2010

david_a posted:



Lucy is a spunky, outgoing dog who loves everyone, human or canine - she’ll happily play with the neighbors beauceron who’s like 3 times her size. Lucy is also a very swift little critter and I’m not sure she’s ever met a dog that’s faster than her.

It's always funny seeing the expression on a dog's face the exact moment they realize the greyhound they're playing with is twice their speed.

DarkHorse
Dec 13, 2006

Vroom Vroom, BEEP BEEP!
Nap Ghost
We can sometimes get sparty to play with toys but it's usually very brief. He'll get the zoomies, and if we toss a toy he'll dive on it with his feet then bite it a few times. We can keep that going for a few rotations before he decides he wants food or whatever it is that goes through that hollow noggin of his

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm
After some initial silly growls from Lucy they seem to be doing OK!


Katie wasn’t spooked by her one bit. She even initiated some play earlier. Right now we’re just trying to get them both to take a nap because they’re wired.

Redczar
Nov 9, 2011

I have a bit of a dumb question, but I'll take the opportunity to introduce Omi first:

Omi was found like this, and we do not know his history. He might have been a racer, or possibly used to train fighting dogs, or just an abandoned dog who was attacked by strays.


They took him to the vet and gave him a bath, and started looking for a foster home to live in while he recovers


Now he is with us (here getting to know our dog a bit better. So far they're respecting one another). If everything works out, and there are no severe issues between him and our other dog, our intention is to go from foster family to just family


He is clearly very scared and super tired, so he has been sleeping the whole time since getting here, which brings me to my rather naive question. I did my due diligence about owning greyhounds, bringing dogs into your home, bringing injured dogs home, but this wasn't obvious:

He is stretching and moving his legs a lot. Do greyhounds move and adjust a lot when they sleep, or is he just moving because it hurts? As well, any general advice you all have would be well appreciated

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm

Redczar posted:

He is stretching and moving his legs a lot. Do greyhounds move and adjust a lot when they sleep, or is he just moving because it hurts? As well, any general advice you all have would be well appreciated

They do shift positions and stretch a fair deal based on my sample size of one. Towards morning Katie will even get up, stretch out, walk a few steps (possibly even go over to my bed), then go back and collapse onto her bed. There’s always the classic stand up, spin around, then lay down maneuver they do too.

Edit: I’ve never dealt with a rescue so I can’t help you there, but if you don’t know anything about greyhounds I highly recommend Lee Livingood’s book. It’s the go-to manual for most adoption groups. They are weird dogs even without the added complications of Omi’s background.

david_a fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Feb 21, 2021

Veskit
Mar 2, 2005

I love capitalism!! DM me for the best investing advice!

Redczar posted:

He is clearly very scared and super tired, so he has been sleeping the whole time since getting here, which brings me to my rather naive question. I did my due diligence about owning greyhounds, bringing dogs into your home, bringing injured dogs home, but this wasn't obvious:

He is stretching and moving his legs a lot. Do greyhounds move and adjust a lot when they sleep, or is he just moving because it hurts? As well, any general advice you all have would be well appreciated

I'm happy you found him! He already looks like a good boy even in his condition. I couldn't image a greyhound being a fighter, and this one seems sweet. Where there any tracks near where you found him?


I've seen mine get up and move around and switch positions a lot so that seems normal to me.

actionjackson
Jan 12, 2003

good for you for saving him, god drat those pics are tough to look at

how are all the open cuts being treated?

Veskit
Mar 2, 2005

I love capitalism!! DM me for the best investing advice!
Dont racing greyhounds have tattoos in their ear?

Redczar
Nov 9, 2011

david_a posted:

Edit: I’ve never dealt with a rescue so I can’t help you there, but if you don’t know anything about greyhounds I highly recommend Lee Livingood’s book. It’s the go-to manual for most adoption groups. They are weird dogs even without the added complications of Omi’s background.

Thank you so much for the book recommendation. I picked up a digital copy and will look through it.

Veskit posted:

I'm happy you found him! He already looks like a good boy even in his condition. I couldn't image a greyhound being a fighter, and this one seems sweet. Where there any tracks near where you found him?

He was found in a rural community just outside my city (Santiago, Chile) that I'm not super familiar with, but races are legal here so I assume there must be a track or two around. He is supposedly the typical age of an ex-racer, so that is the most likely background.
Anyway, he seems relatively comfortable now, and earlier took a massive dump, so at the moment things are going well

actionjackson posted:

how are all the open cuts being treated?

Of course he has a course of anti-biotics (among other meds) and the vet gave us an ointment called Mixantip Plus, basically anti-biotic, anti-allergy, anti-inflammatory, etc, to apply directly on the open wounds

Redczar fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Feb 21, 2021

DarkHorse
Dec 13, 2006

Vroom Vroom, BEEP BEEP!
Nap Ghost

Veskit posted:

Dont racing greyhounds have tattoos in their ear?

The ones in the US do. That's the easiest way to make sure people aren't swapping dogs out during races

I call sparty's his gang tattoos :kimchi:

Kitchner
Nov 9, 2012

IT CAN'T BE BARGAINED WITH.
IT CAN'T BE REASONED WITH.
IT DOESN'T FEEL PITY, OR REMORSE, OR FEAR.
AND IT ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT STOP, EVER, UNTIL YOU ADMIT YOU'RE WRONG ABOUT WARHAMMER
Clapping Larry

DarkHorse posted:

The ones in the US do. That's the easiest way to make sure people aren't swapping dogs out during races

I call sparty's his gang tattoos :kimchi:

They do in the UK too, all of my partner's parent's long dogs do/did have them.

actionjackson
Jan 12, 2003

I cannot stop laughing

btw I'd recommend doing this, I did check with my rescue group to make sure it was okay and they said it was fine

Only registered members can see post attachments!

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm
Redczar, unless your vet’s already familiar with greyhounds you most likely have to educate them. This is especially vital if Omi has to get anesthesia for treating some of those injuries. Greyhounds have weird reactions to some medications* and their normal blood values are different from other breeds. I don’t have my copy handy, but I believe the Livingood book goes into all of this.

I hope he does OK and you can post more pictures when he’s feeling better!

Edit: * as an example, flea collars can kill a greyhound

DarkHorse
Dec 13, 2006

Vroom Vroom, BEEP BEEP!
Nap Ghost
Yup. They have exceptionally high levels in blood proteins and react weirdly to anasthesia, be absolutely sure they understand how weird greyhounds are before they tell you something is wrong.

actionjackson
Jan 12, 2003

does your dog ever eat:

peanut butter

hmmmmm

Veskit
Mar 2, 2005

I love capitalism!! DM me for the best investing advice!
Have any of yall done non greyhound training classes? Is it as hellish and embarrassing as I'm imagining it will be?

Silver John
Sep 30, 2014

Veskit posted:

Have any of yall done non greyhound training classes? Is it as hellish and embarrassing as I'm imagining it will be?

I did one once with an Italian greyhound, luckily the teacher was familiar with sighthound so she could help us with what would work better

Legit Businessman
Sep 2, 2007


Veskit posted:

Have any of yall done non greyhound training classes? Is it as hellish and embarrassing as I'm imagining it will be?

Having never done a training class ever, I had no idea that greyhounds needed their own special training class. We signed up for a regular basic training class.

He also came from a home, so this was more learning about what he already knew, so it worked out really well.

I didn't think it was that bad or embarrassing. Our dog is a good boy. He was probably too friendly, to be honest.

Legit Businessman fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Sep 5, 2022

Radiation Cow
Oct 23, 2010

Veskit posted:

Have any of yall done non greyhound training classes? Is it as hellish and embarrassing as I'm imagining it will be?

We did traditional training with Gello. It went mostly okay, not at all hellish or embarrassing. We mainly went for the socialization, so it wasn't an issue if she decided to lie down instead of sit, for instance.

NomNomNom
Jul 20, 2008
Please Work Out
Watson aced his basic obedience class. He was the star pupil. Helps that he's 4 and his classmates were all 6 months or less.

By the end though he could sit, stay, lay down, and come when called.

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bamhand
Apr 15, 2010
I'm picturing this in my head but with human children vs infants and it's great.

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