Post by hopefullygrey on May 13, 2014 12:03:54 GMT -5
As an update:
Bailey has been home for about a month now, and I've been feeding her Nutrience grain free kibble.
The weekend before last, she went to the vet for her first visit. The vet does have greyhound experience and was aware of the anesthesia/blood work concerns around greys. I felt reasonably confident by the end of the visit that he was well educated and suited to be Bailey's vet. During the course of the visit he talked about some of the issues Grey's can experience which reassured me because he was mostly touching on points I'd already read about the breed from the books I'd bought, the GRA forum, and other links.
He noted that her skin was dry and she had a bit of dandruff on her hind legs. Bailey's hind legs are fairly thin on the fur as is pretty common. He then inquired about food mentioning that their diet can influence their skin to a greater degree than most breeds. I let him know what I was feeding her, and he said that food should be fine.
He recommended giving her an omega (fish oil) supplement, something mentioned in these forums. Of course like all vets they happened to sell said supplement, and the price was reasonable.
He did mention that if the dryness persists, I should consider a diet food to help address that issue, also if she has soft stools or diarrhea.
So, home we went. I started her on the supplements (1 capsule per day), she ate them (this was Sunday). The following afternoon, when I let her out into the backyard. I noticed she immediately proceeded to act like a shop vac eating up the lawn. I know from cats, that sometimes they eat grass to help settle/neutralize their stomachs if they're upset. So seeing this, I stopped giving her the omega supplement, she'd had 2 capsules to date by this point.
Tuesday during the day while I was at work, and she was in her crate, she had an accident. As an aside, I've worked out an arrangement with my mum (who is retired), she comes every day between 1-2pm and takes Bailey for 45min walk. Thus Bailey doesn't spend 9+ hours in the crate, she goes in from 8:30am to 1pm ish, and then again from 2pmish to 5:30pm.
Her turnouts are in the morning before she is fed, after she gets back from her afternoon walk, and at night after I walk her/before bed. 3x a day seems about right, although she typically doesn't poop every time, usually morning and night.
Back to her accident... I'd read that you don't want too large a crate so that they don't do their business in it. That is bunk lol. Bailey backed her butt up against the side and did her business overboard. I would too in the situation...
At this point, once I'd decontaminated my house and her crate, I made a large pot of white rice, and I had cans of chunk chicken in water (the blue tins from Costco). For the first 24 hours after I gave her only water & a pepto tablet (one when I got home, one before bed, and one in the morning). After that I started her with 1/2 cup of rice/chicken mix, and added 1/4 cup each meal until she was back to 1-1/2 cups twice a day. This past weekend I began working in her dry food again as her stools had started to reform. About 1/8 to 1-1/4 at first, and by yesterday she was up to 1-1/4 kibble 1/8 rice (I had used it all up at that point).
Well, last night & today the squirts came back with a vengeance...
So, at this point I am thinking for some reason she's not tolerating the nutrience that she'd been on for a month (or the supplement triggered her to not tolerate it). I'll put her back on rice & chicken mix for the rest of the week.
I saw Dunn's post in luvsql's thread about the Hills D/D, which I think is what I saw sitting on the shelf at the vet. So provided her stools firm up with the rice & chicken mix. I'll visit the vet, pickup a bag, and try to work her on to it.
I don't think I am going to try the supplement again for a few weeks, provided I can get her past the current bout. Of course, if it persists through Friday without changing I'll take her in to get tested. Though at this point I suspect it is a diet thing as it all happened as soon as she started getting the supplements.
Thoughts welcome!