Ok, so after my daily dose of "Trauma: Life in the E.R. - Ghetto Edition" stories from my wife. I showed her your Lurcher. She said it's definitely a Lurcher, and probably maybe beagle and since it's tiny probably an italian greyhound. Definitely has that greyhound face. Definitely a crazy looking dog. :-D
She said Lurchers do fall into that "Special Medicine" group I was thinking about. It's not so much regular type medicine... It's that the anesthesia needs are different from a regular dog. Which to me falls into that, "Not my department!" category and get's filed away into the medical part of my brain which is real small, so I have to drop most facts and just file away "Greyhound - Medical - Different" That's all I need to know...
Their liver metabolizes stuff much slower then regular dogs. They have half the body fat, so that messes with the drugs actions too.
Safe injectibles include Telazol, Ketamine/Valium and Propofol.
Thiobarbiturate anesthetics (Thiopental) should not be used. This stuff makes for a slow, drawn out recovery. Slow is not in the sighthound's vocabulary and thus should be avoided. Some anesthesiologist's think a single dose of this stuff intravenously is fine... I'd fire them on the spot. Why bother when there's all that other stuff?
There's probably more, but my brain can only hold medical information for 7 minutes 32 seconds. After that, forget about it, you're not gettin' anything out of me other than, "Greyhound - Medical - Different"
You could probably get a reference to a greyhound savvy vet in your area if you send an email to Kim Klueg,
[email protected] She's the president for Greyhound Pets of America of the local chapter in your area. Tell her the old webmaster from GPA Central New Hampshire Chapter sent ya!