E-Man

Mr. Elwood is up and down. Since going back on Previcox, his hip/back isn't quite so painful - in fact, he's only yelped once or twice, usually when one of the other dogs runs into him. However his appetite has been off the past couple of days and he's not really been eating. Maybe nibbling a bit and, as usual, begging for treats. The vet wants to wait a couple weeks before repeating his blood tests to see if his BUN levels go down and, at that time, we'll also sedate Big E and do xrays to see if it's arthritis, bone cancer, or something else. I think the vet suspects a neurological problem - I do recall there being a neurological disorder that is mainly found in coonhounds, but can't recall the exact details. Have to locate my hound health book again to check up on it.

Oh - one funny thing that I just remembered. Black and Tan coonhounds look, at least in coloring, very similar to Dobermans. Same markings in fact, but coonies have long ears and long tails - mainly because they're not docked at birth. I was fostering one young coonhound who was adopted by an older couple who lived in NJ. The husband had had a redbone and loved it. The wife was partial to little lap dogs. Anyway, they adopt Beau and off he goes to live the high life in NJ. One of the things we encouraged all adopters to do was to, within a week or so or adopting, take the dog to their vet to be checked out. The couple did so, and the woman called me that night, angry beyond belief. Apparently her vet had never seen a coonhound - so he told her she had adopted a Doberman. This was a "Doberman" with long ears, long tail and a deep bay. Eventually Beau did return to me, but not due to the breed confusion. Rather the wife won out - she'd never wanted another coonhound and complained until her husband gave the dog back up. All of which started a new practice in our rescue group - interviewing *both* spouses to make sure they both wanted the same kind of dog.