The official retired or rescue greyhound thread

[Kiltie]

Taking a leaf out of the Sports Forum ... here we go.

We took our Meg in July 2007 and we were told that she was probably between five and six years old.

This was our first ever dog although there were always Labs in the house when I was a kid.

She's been brilliant. Initially a wee bit of hard work but overall - brilliant.

Her health has been ok apart from some sore feet which I think we've now pinned down to an allergy (thank God for pet insurance).

Behaviour has been close perfect apart from some sleep aggression and a general aversion to "space invasion".

OK, now for the pics ...























Anyone else now addicted to Greys?

Cheers,

Eric

[SPR2]

A couple of my friends rescue greyhound 'Haugh'.Incidently he has had troublesome feet -- corns!
This is her second one the first died earlier this year at 13yrs, he also had corns on his feet.[url]

|http://thumbsnap.com/h4icaL6g[/url]
Yours certainly looks at home with you.;)

Edited by SPR2 on Thursday 28th October 23:26

[bexVN]

I was going to ask if they ruled out corns. Quite a common problem esp in kennelled greyhounds. Very difficult to tx successfully. We were regularly hulling corns on one. It helped as he was very lame when they were bad never cured though

[SPR2]

bexVN said:

I was going to ask if they ruled out corns. Quite a common problem esp in kennelled greyhounds. Very difficult to tx successfully. We were regularly hulling corns on one. It helped as he was very lame when they were bad never cured though

Nothing to do with their racing then? Haugh is not so bad on soft ground but often appears lame on hard surfaces.

[bexVN]

SPR2 said:

bexVN said:

I was going to ask if they ruled out corns. Quite a common problem esp in kennelled greyhounds. Very difficult to tx successfully. We were regularly hulling corns on one. It helped as he was very lame when they were bad never cured though

Nothing to do with their racing then? Haugh is not so bad on soft ground but often appears lame on hard surfaces.

I don't think so. I believe it is because sand is often used on kennel floor and they run on soft ground so when they start a normal life the pads struggle to cope with hard surfaces, they also think it can be due to lack of fat between bone and pad. However I don't think they completely know why this affects greyhounds particularly.

I've just been looking this up and apparently there is a vet who has been successfully treating corns for a while.

He's called Daniel Doherty and is based in Middlesex. His tx is a closey guarded secret for some reason. Pity he doesn't develop it for the rest of the vet world as would help a lot more greyhounds.

Edited by bexVN on Thursday 28th October 23:59

[Kiltie]

Interesting - thanks for that. I'll pass on the information to some other owners whos dogs are suffering with this.

Not corns in our case. Below is a link to a pic of when it was at its worst (not for the aquemish, hence me posting the link and not the pic).

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Numptie/?ac...

Cheers,

Eric

Edited by Kiltie on Friday 29th October 09:20

[Morningside]

Off Topic: Is that your home in one of the photos? If so, its very cool. Also forgive me, but it looks like an old signal box?? And near to an old disused line. Or have I misread the whole thing?

[Kiltie]

Morningside said:

Off Topic: Is that your home in one of the photos? If so, its very cool. Also forgive me, but it looks like an old signal box?? And near to an old disused line. Or have I misread the whole thing?

Indeed, it is an old railway station ... on the " Deeside Line" - approximate location here. The line was most famous for Queen Victoria getting from Aberdeen to Balmoral.

We're not living there at the moment and in the process of a major renovation project which I hope will be finished in 2011. This will transform the property but one of my fundamental criteria for the plans is that nobody will ever be in any doubt as to the original use of the buildings when they first see them. Whether we move back in there remains to be seen ... we're actually living somewhere equally 'interesting' now.

In one of the shots, you can see my missus with the dog on its back. That was our living room which was actually the original waiting room (there was also a "ladies waiting room" as well ).

There are a few more shots of the place in this thread.

Cheers,

Eric

Edited by Kiltie on Saturday 30th October 14:09

[gog440]

Only just found this thread.
We got our 5 yr old retired racer eddie in september, it took me 3years to persuade my wife to go and look at them and then less than a day from going to an open day at my local rgt to deciding to have one! We now have a whole new group of friends as we go up on a sunday morning to help with the mass walk and it has been invaluable to us to be able to get advice from other owners about various little issues (house training mostly). I have posted pictures of him in the pictures of your dogs thread.
My 5 year old daughter cried the other sunday when we couldnt go up to help, she loves walking our eddie (I know I am likely to get criticised for this, but he is so placid he NEVER reacts to other dogs/cats squirrels etc, didnt even bark when 2 of the greys decided to have a full blown fight 4 feet away)

What do you guys feed your greyhounds on? in the kennels he was being fed on alpha which we stuck to for the first bag but he seems very happy and healthy on a no name brand I get from a farm nearby, it has almost exactly the same constituents as the alpha apart from a slightly lower protein level (which is actually closer to what is recommended for greys)looks exactly the same and he didnt even seem to notice that we had changed it!

[Chilli]

OP, a beautiful dog...really lovely, and well done for rescuing a 5 or 6 year old dog.







ps - Not sure about the sofa, but hey we're all different!

[bexVN]

Chilli said:

OP, a beautiful dog...really lovely, and well done for rescuing a 5 or 6 year old dog.







ps - Not sure about the sofa, but hey we're all different!

Get a greyhound and you will lose your sofa, there is no choice . Same goes for whippets (though ours knows he can only go on the sette if his blanket is on it)

[Chilli]

[quote=bexVN
though ours knows he can only go on the sette if his blanket is on it
[/quote]

Hmmmm.....our Pug tells us where we can or can't sit!

[sjwb]

Beautiful, beautiful animals. We had the priviledge of having an ex racer (Paddy tatooed in both ears)grace our lives for all too short a period. We miss him so.
Things you may wish to note. Your collar is wrong for a Greyhound. Please buy a proper one, which is wide around the throat and narrow at the buckle. It is essential to protect the throat.
Never, ever, give a Greyhound bones, of any description. They grind them up into a powder which can set in the digestive system and cause havoc.
Keep the claws clipped and look for damage on the webs between the toes - very common and difficult to mend.
Do not feed them rich food, keep it simple, even though they will eat absolutely anything. This is especially important with an ex-racer because trainers keep them 'loose' (diarrhoea)so that they don't carry excess weight during races. Sadly the dog's digestive system seems to suffer long term damage from such treatment.
Try to use a vet who understands the breed, preferably a track vet. Greyhounds are really a breed apart and suffer ailments that others don't; one being that if they are ill, they tend to just want to die. Little fighting spirit apparently.
Lastly, you will never find such a faithful and loving dog as a Greyhound. Every home should have one.

Edited by sjwb on Tuesday 23 November 12:31

[bexVN]

Chilli - I've just realised that I completely misread your comment re: sofa, Doh!

[gog440]

I have just given eddie his worming tablets today and he has seemed really off it, hasnt eaten his tea and seems a bit lethargic (as far as it is possible to tell with a greyhound lol). Do they normally have side effects? It is the first time whilst we have had him that he has needed to be wormed.

[bexVN]

What make did you give him, this could be significant

[gog440]

Tablets are Johnsons one dose easy wormer tablets.
I`m not too worried now though as he is perky and back to normal now, He just seemed off it for 24hrs. I think we might use a different brand next time though.

[bexVN]

gog440 said:

Tablets are Johnsons one dose easy wormer tablets.
I`m not too worried now though as he is perky and back to normal now, He just seemed off it for 24hrs. I think we might use a different brand next time though.

Did it say what the active ingredients were? This is too make sure that the next brand you buy are a different ingredient. I've tried to find what's in them but cannot seem to find this anywhere!! Johnsons never been a great worming product in the past.

[bexVN]

FOUND IT!

As I suspected active ingredients Nitroscanate 500mg (also in some bob martins products) actually an effective wormer BUT very common to cause feelings of and actual nausea in many dogs.

My first practice used to sell Lopatol (same active ingredients) we eventually swapped to Drontal due to the amount of dogs that didn't so well on Lopatol (many were fine)

I would try Drontal plus next time, available on line or in pet stores (or milbemax if your vet stocks them)

Some wormers are fenbendazole these do round and tapeworm, very gentle on stomach but they do not kill tapeworm carried by fleas (the most common tapeworm), not a problem if your pet never gets fleas or if you regularly provide flea prevention treatment)

[gog440]

bexVN said:

FOUND IT!

As I suspected active ingredients Nitroscanate 500mg (also in some bob martins products) actually an effective wormer BUT very common to cause feelings of and actual nausea in many dogs.

My first practice used to sell Lopatol (same active ingredients) we eventually swapped to Drontal due to the amount of dogs that didn't so well on Lopatol (many were fine)

I would try Drontal plus next time, available on line or in pet stores (or milbemax if your vet stocks them)

Some wormers are fenbendazole these do round and tapeworm, very gentle on stomach but they do not kill tapeworm carried by fleas (the most common tapeworm), not a problem if your pet never gets fleas or if you regularly provide flea prevention treatment)

Thanks Bex you are a star, he is still not 100% happy eating but he hasnt vomited and he seems a lot happier in himself so I guess the johnsons stuff is to blame and we will be using drontal next time!