Just a few videos of racing disasters

Henry On His Walk

Henry is such a good walker, always stays right by my side. =) A great ambassadog for greyhounds!

Greyhound Racing Industry Concerns Of Mine

There are some concerns I will always have with the greyhound racing industry, no matter how nice the kennels are, no matter how low the euthanasia rates, and all those other pro greyhound racing arguments I hear...

~If people were to not open their homes to greyhounds after they retire, what would happen to the greyhounds? They would be euthanized once deemed no longer profitable to the racing industry.

~I don't care how nice their kennel life is, it's still a KENNEL! I worked in an animal shelter for three years. We gave the dogs fiberglass beds, blankets, toys, multiple daily walks, etc., etc. But you know what? It was still a kennel and it was heartbreaking when a dog had to stay there for months on end waiting for their home. A kennel does not take the place of a real home. I have no problem with kenneling for temporary purposes or for breeding dogs for the blind and etc., but kenneling long term for pure entertainment and to make profit? Uh uh!

~By the way, some people seem to think greyhounds love it there because they love to race. They only race on average one short race every 4 days. It is not like they spend all their time racing. I am sure the would by far prefer a HOME to racing.

~Imagine if you were to try to adopt a greyhound from a rescue group. You only intend to keep the dog for *only* as long a he/she is bringing you profit. They would never allow you to adopt a greyhound. Yet, this is considered ok for the racing owners?

~Retired racers in need of homes are adding to the general number of dogs who need homes. There's not enough homes out there.


~If they are all about the hounds, then why are they feeding them 4-D meat? Because it is about profit first.

~The bedding, I see so many pictures people post from their visits to the racing kennels, and even kennel workers themselves post pictures, and the greyhounds only have pathetic scraps of carpet for bedding. I don't get how they see nothing wrong with that. Greyhounds have very little body fat or fur. Scraps of carpet should not be acceptable. I wouldn't even make a young lab sleep on nothing but a scrap of carpet, never mind a greyhound. Remember, the carpet in your home at least has padding underneath it. These thin bony greyhounds do not even get that.

A General Update

Hi everyone, sorry to have been AWOL. Thought I'd give everyone a general update. Henry lost a declaw a couple weeks ago. It started out that it was loose, I called the Vet and she said wrap it (not too tight) and hopefully it will callous over. Henry managed to get his vet wrap off when I was not looking, and ended up amputating the dewclaw by himself 95%. By this time it was late evening and my husband was at work, and had the van (our only vehicle) and we were in the middle of a blizzard. I called the vet, and she said if you can pull it off cleanly without traumatizing him, do it. Otherwise see if he can get it off the rest of the way himself. So I waited to see if Henry could get the rest of the dewclaw off himself. He would lick his dewclaw gently, but that was it. Henry started to pant and have Focal seizures from the stress and pain. I gave him an extra grain of Phenobarbital per the Vet's instructions. I then managed to cleanly pull the dewclaw off. Fortunately it came off with ease as it was barely hanging on. I put Neosporin on the area and gently wrapped it in gauze and vetwrap and right away Henry felt alot better. I put him on Cephalexin (antibiotic) as a pre-caution. I am happy to say this antibiotic caused absolutely no problems with Henry's epilepsy, unlike Flagyl, another antibiotic.


On to another piece of news. We are MOVING!!!!

My husband is a paralegic and has multiple health complications from the paraplegia. He has been a paraplegic since birth and it is taking a toll on him. Every winter his health takes a nose dive. I am amazed he continues to work at his part time job with his health. They did shorten his hours because it hurts for him to sit too long. Anyways, we are moving to FLORIDA!!!! My husband does so much better in the summer. I have a huge amount of work ahead of me in getting the house ready. I am very concerned for the stress the big move will cause Henry. If we move very soon, as in before March, then hopefully we can be settled in before it gets mega hot. It's going to be difficult to make the big leap from waaaay up here to down there. We have to sell our house first and will be essentially homeless for a short while. Henry gets seperation anxiety when we are not home. I have a feeling we will end up moving right at the hottest part of the year. It figures!

By the way, Henry is 88 days Grand-Mal free today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just so ya'll know, I have been doing most of my posting over at Healthy Houndz lately.

Latest Entry At Healthy Hounds

Seizure Monster

Valium Is Our Best Friend Today

A little after 10 pm, Henry started up with the panting again. I knew what was coming. Next would have been crying, and them trembling, and then BOOM, another Grand-Mal. I'm not taking any chances. I gave Henry one dose of rectal Valium at 10:30pm. I was going to dose him per vet's instructions within 30 minutes if pre-seizure behavior did not stop. About 10 minutes after administering the rectal Valium, the panting stopped. Thank goodness for Valium!

I think I may have to keep him drugged up on Valium until his regular meds begin to take effect. Hopefully within 3 days the Phenobarbital will be kicking in.