Kirislin

aww thanks girls, she'll get some extra smooches then and I'll tell her they're from her admirers. She was really great yesterday, no anxiety like the previous days. I'm not sure if it was still the valium in her system or that I put her coat on her and left it on all day, even though it was quite warm, or simply because it just didn't occur yesterday. I've already put her coat on today anyway and she's tucked up here beside me. She loves her bed but she'll always get up when I do and come out into the computer room, so does Puck. The other 2 Tag and Neko are happy to stay in bed.

Here's my sweet girl Feather Mugshot by kirislin, on Flickr

thanks everyone for your suggestions, advice and good wishes. I'll report back when we've seen the vet tomorrow.

Not sure if she has increased thirst. She's always been a heat lover but over the last few years on sunny days, they dont even have to feel that warm to me, she would sometimes get the staggers and seek our shade on our walks. I've told my vet about it but they didn't follow it up.

Given what I have seen over the last 12 months my first port of call from now on whenever anything changes in a dog will always be thyroid. It controls so much of the body that it can show up in so many different ways and impact on so many parts of the body. If it were me I would be running a CBC, biochemistry, and at a minimum a t4 (many vets can do that in house). That should show up if anything is going on in the blood or thyroid and will give you a starting point. We have an 11 year old dog who has just developed a thyroid issue so definitely not too old :) It can happen at any age. I'm starting to think it is one of those things that is always there, lying in the genetic makeup, but it takes something external to trigger the issue and activate those genes. That stress (whatever it may be) can happen at any age so no reason why an older dog can't suddenly develop a problem. Same goes for adrenal glands etc too. The other thing I would be looking to do is get to a chiro or massage therapist. They will be the ones to pick up if your dog is sore, a general vet won't necessarily be able to do that. I've had regular vets miss some pretty major hamstring injuries etc on my dogs, even chiros have missed it and only the massage therapist has found the problem. So I wouldn't rule out soreness, especially at her age. Feather's recently had 2 visits to an osteopath that's been treating Neko and now Puck. She's certainly showing signs of aging now, stiffness etc. and she's on Meloxicam as well. Last night I gave her a Valium which had her staggering around like a drunkard but this morning she was positively puppy like. Trotting out with me at 4.30am happily wagging her tail and telling me she wanted to eat (as she didn't want much yesterday). I know sometimes when I've taken one the night before my back isn't as sore in the morning, so I think what she's got is pain related, although there's possibly other things going on as well. I've got an appointment tomorrow afternoon with the vet I used to go to but haven't been for a few years due to the distance. I think she might be better at diagnosing Feather's problem. Here's hoping anyway.

Thanks all. Just had a very brief scan of thyroid and aggression, it does sound a bit like what she's been going through except that it seems to happen in younger dogs when it's like that. Feather is almost 13 now. I cant wait to get her to the vet tomorrow. I hope they can work out what is wrong with her without it costing me an arm and a leg.

Last week Feather had this very strange episode where she was trembling violently and panting. I felt her heart and it was racing so I immediately took her to the vet. He listened to her heart, it was over 200 bpm!! but her temp was normal, he examined her and couldn't find any sore spots so he put it down to stress and suggested I give her valium. I thought back and wondered if it had to do with her being left at home with just Puck on Monday and we had that big lightning storm. I dont think she's been without me many times through storms. But she's had the episodes every day since so now I dont know what to think. Just now she refused her dinner and when Tag came in and went to get into a bed she attacked him!! That is an absolute first, I've never seen her attack a dog before. He defended himself and bit her and now she's bleeding on her head. It's not bad but I'm worried, I think I might go back to my old vet who I haven't seen in quite a few years as she's further away but I think I have more confidence in her diagnostic abilities. I'm just so shocked, it's so out of character, she's always been the gentlest little dog I hope she hasn't got a brain tumour. If she attacked Neko like she attacked Tag she could really do some damage.

Yikes! that bull eyeballing and kicking up the dust. RUN!!!!!!!

A bit further up the line but Julie Morrow at Mt Evelyn Vets is wonderful.

Not chewing things, but Pucks recent effort of spilling olive oil on my carpet was the most damage done so far. I tried to clean it up, knowing all the time I'd never get all that oil out. Finally admitted defeat, I'm now on a concrete floor and there's still a big dark stain soaked right into the concrete.

it's even funnier as thing not thigh.

of all the days to go to the beach, I chose yesterday. Thunder, lightning and rain, but it was lovely all the same. Neko and Tag had a ball. Here she is dodging lightning strikes :laugh: IMG_1225_1 by kirislin, on Flickr and racing Tag IMG_1164 by kirislin, on Flickr

Oh, and after he treated Puck he and his wife treated Marcus cause they do people too. His shoulder is feeling much better as well :laugh:

Just thought I'd update on this. Puck's neck became sore again a couple of weeks ago so I started him back on the meloxicam and went in to ask the vet again for xrays and once again he talked me out of them saying an MRI and surgery would most likely be the course of action, thankfully this time I only asked over the counter, didn't have an appointment. Anyway, I ended up making an appointment for him to see Brendan Aitken, the osteopath who's been treating Neko. He was amazing, he's got magical hands. He found 2 spots in Pucks neck that were causing problems and while manipulating one spot up near the junction of neck to skull, Pucks rear left leg started to twitch. Brendan thought that was interesting as he'd never seen such an obvious reaction before then suddenly Pucks hind leg shot out with such force he almost broke the window! It was just like the violent kick of a horse. Brendan said as soon as Puck kicked he felt the spot in his neck release the tension. The other very interesting thing he found was in Pucks gut. He said it was very tight and asked if Puck ever had any bowel or bladder problems. Yes he has! He often does mucousy poos and does the posture where he puts his elbows on the ground to stretch but I've never taken him to the vet about it because he's always otherwise seemed so well, eating, playing etc. Brendan said because the ligaments suspending the gut are tight it can interfere with digestion, so I'm hoping to see an improvement there. I very much doubt my vet would ever have been able to diagnose or fix Pucks gut problem, and I know they couldn't help with his neck. I'm very happy with the outcome. I'm expecting Pucks neck might hurt him again as he's a big strong dog who plays very rough with his brother. Considering his age (10 yo) and his active life it's surprising he's never needed any kind of manipulation before. Unrelated to Puck, but because I'm talking about the osteopath I'll mention it here too. He looked at Neko again and found a couple of sore spots. I didn't tell him anything about her activities of late, only that I knew she wasn't moving properly. He was concentrating on one spot higher up on her back, and said (with what sounded like surprise) it's a real muscle strain. He said, "it's a hard muscle to strain too, it's the kind of injury where she'd have to be running flat out and then take a sudden turn." It's like he's telepathically communicating with her muscles!!!! She went lure coursing for the first time 2 weekends ago and that is exactly what she did there, although I didn't know she'd hurt herself. This bloke is a wizard with is hands. So to summarise, I'm glad I didn't get xrays, and even more glad I didn't get an MRI done, I would have been up for hundreds if not thousands of dollars and I don't believe it would have correctly fixed Pucks neck. Instead he's fixed Pucks neck and his tummy without any invasive treatment so I'm one happy customer, make that 2 Pucky is happy too.

the other day, just after the awful story on 4 corners about live baiting, Neko found a brush tail possum TAIL only. She was running around with it in her mouth and it looked like a great big fluffy moustache. She looked like Groucho Marx.

Kibah, the whole dashboard of my old falcon ute. We were at the whippet races (at Tooradin) and she was still in the car as I didn't fancy putting her in the dirty holding pens. I kept checking on her to make sure she was OK and each time I looked around the corner at the car I could see her little face watching on with interest, so I assumed she was fine. Then when it came time for her to race I went to get her out and saw all this yellow stuff on the floor of the car. It was the foam from inside the dashboard. She'd also chewed the steering wheel and even reached up and ripped at the sunvisors. I never did get it fixed as it would have cost thousands.

Penny: an ENORMOUS dildo that she found at the park. I've told the story before. She found a whopping dildo with knackers attached that I'm guessing had been used by her excited reaction to it. She galloped around doing a victory lap of the park area, doing that leaping bucking canter while thrashing the awful thing from side to side and it hit her on each side of her shoulders and chest as she shook it, making a thwack thwack thwack sound. Then she lay down with it between her paws and started vigorously pulling at the latex outer covering of it. A man was walking by and I quickly proclaimed innocence, telling him, It's not mine! All he said is, It looks painful, and kept walking. :laugh:

If greyhound racing continues, and I think it will, perhaps now those involved in the industry will quickly report others they know are live baiting to stop overall suspensions ever happening again. Or am I being optimistic.

really? he'd never heard of pigs or possums being used as live bait??? I find that very hard to believe. I'd heard of possums being used when I was a kid. My brother caught one and was all excited because a man had offered him $5 for it. My mother was very upset and made him release the possum, that was hiding in our bathroom and had to be dragged out and she knew what they did with them. It was obviously common knowledge because we weren't involved in the sport at all back then.

I'd really thought that the possums and piglets were the losers. The sympathy expressed has done a big shift from the original victims to the spin-off victims. Of course the massive possible numbers of greys being affected is horrendous, but there are not "that" many people as concerned about the rabbits, guineas, cockerels and other small animals. What happens to the (?hundreds?) already in cages just awaiting being killed in terror and agony around various "facilities". Bet they won't be thoughtfully disposed of - they will be doubly ill treated as lash-out punishment by the thugs involved - let alone deprived food and water which I doubt is ever involved in their management in any case. Grumpette they are good links you have in your posts. Yes, you're right

I bet everyone will want to buy her when it comes time to sell them. :laugh:

Me too. And they shouldn't be allowed to transfer the dogs into another persons name.

I agree Grumpette, the poor innocent dogs are the loosers, but then they have been all along. I would like the GRV to stop the dogs of trainers found to be live baiting to be transferred into another persons name. They need to be retired, sad as that is. Perhaps the trainers should also be made to contribute to their lifelong care with $$$ in the form of fines, a bit like a bequest that is made for animals by owners when they (the owners) die.

Exactly. Because obviously notices like this a) don't work and b) show that something iffy is going on for the notice to go up in the first place. This was taken at Tooradin. This surprises me because when I was driving the lure at Healesville the track manager told me that the GRV had brought in the rule that only dried and cured skins could be used, no freshly killed animals were allowed on any track in Vic, and that was about 4 years ago at least.

I have a friend who is a barrister and she thinks the evidence might be accepted by the judge, cant remember exactly how she phrased it but something about "good cause".