Post by Brenda on Apr 7, 2015 14:22:20 GMT 10
Hello Tom
I have adopted a 4 year old ex-racer and have had her for six months now. She has been showing a couple of issues of late.
She been losing quite a bit of hair, especially on her belly and sides of her thighs. Wasn't sure if it was due to the hot weather, but that's over now for the most part. I feed her kibble and some tinned wet food (high quality, no rubbish ingredients...but sometimes wonder how healthy even high quality kibble or tinned food is) and a little olive oil, but I wonder if she is stressed by something or if her diet isn't quite right, hence the hair loss. She is alone at home in the day and sleeps well generally during the day. I've got an Adaptil dispenser in case she's freaking out during the day over noise lately (she tends not to like windy days) and the stress is too much. She has peed in the house at night a few times recently, despite being let out a lot in the evening and just before bed. I took her to the vet recently and she has a good concentration of urine so seems like the kidneys are okay and there was no bacteria in the urine when the tested in-house.
The second issue is back pain. She tends to get walked on the lead, runs around my paved back yard to catch her toys and sometimes spins when she's exited on the paving. Since last night she hasn't wanted to lie down, has had trouble jumping up on the couch or bed (not usually allowed on the bed, but she seems to want to be near me for comfort but can't get up there) and at around 1am her heart was racing, she was panting and pacing so I took her to the vet who thinks she might have back problems (she yelped when pressed near her hips). She's on Tramadol, but she seems to be exhibiting anxiety at the same time as pain (the cat-obsession has ramped up...yesterday evening and today she just wants to look out the back gate and front window the whole time...might be distracting herself from the pain...who knows). Anyhow, not entirely sure if she might have muscle spasm or arthritis, so just resting her on the vet's advice, to see if it dies down. The vet also thinks the back pain may be causing her to hold off on peeing until the 11th hour, hence the accidents.
Is there any kind of diet you can recommend that might help support her in regards to the hair loss and possible arthritis, or at least to prevent any arthritis or muscle spasms? I'm imagining a pinch of iodine (as long as it isn't in her dry kibble) and some chondroitin, from reading other posts. Just wondering if there's something I can also be adding to her general diet like salmon or something, that might help too.
She raced for 2 years and had I think it was 52 or so starts. She's a lovely girl and so is a typical greyhound.
Thank you!
Brenda