Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary

That's A Lot Of Horse Hooves, Mister

Our farrier, Rich Boyle, came out today for his regular visit to trim the horses' hooves.  With 27 horses to trim, this is basically an all-day affair now for Rich.

In the first photo Rich is working on Beaver, one of our two sighted Belgian draft horses.  (You'll read more about Beaver and his brother Rooster in our spring 2006 newsletter.)  That's Alayne bundled up against the cold, holding on to Beaver.

Because these guys are so big -- they weigh about 2,000 pounds, about twice what an average horse weighs -- Rich uses a custom iron stand to hold up their hooves.  Their feet are just too heavy to hold while trimming.

And in the second photo, you can see what Rich actually looks like.  He says that each Belgian hoof takes as much effort to trim as FIVE regular horse hooves.  Yikes.  These draft horses are quite a work out!

(Click on photos for larger image.)

Update on Sick Cody

Our internist in Missoula, Dr. Dave Bostwick, called today to say that Cody was having a worse day than yesterday.  He is now experiencing bloody diarrhea, which is typical of parvo, so he is progressing through the various phases.  He continues to be on IV's and antibiotics.  We are just hoping that because we detected it early and had medical intervention within hours of the first clinical signs, that Cody has a better than normal chance of surviving.  Thank you to everyone who has posted such heartfelt comments about this little boy.

He's Not Blind But He Is Very Sick

This little guy just arrived Tuesday afternoon from Cody, Wyoming.  The shelter there had asked if we could take him ... the family who had the litter of pups said he was blind and contacted the shelter for help in finding a home for him.  We named him, well, Cody.  A young lady from Wyoming, Mandy W., drove him up to us.

We could tell right away he wasn't blind.  He scampered around just fine, navigated around objects, tracked our hands as we waved them front of his face, and he never ran into a thing.  Yet we noticed his eyes sometimes darted back and forth very rapidly. 

Then a few hours after getting here, he started throwing up.  Again and again.  We called our vets Tuesday evening for guidance and started him on fluids that night.  Yesterday morning he was lethargic and still throwing up, so Alayne rushed him in to our internal medicine specialist in Missoula, Dr. Dave Bostwick. 

Dave ran some tests and called with the bad news:  Cody has parvo, a virus that is often fatal to puppies.  Cody is now on IVs and getting round-the-clock medical care in the hospital.

Dave did an eye exam and told us that the rapid, darting eye motion is called nystagmus, which is very rare and especially so in puppies.  Dave also discovered that Cody's retinas are an unusual color.  He is consulting with our veterinary ophthalmologist in Spokane for more answers. 

The photo was taken a few weeks ago by the family who had Cody's litter.  He is quite a bit bigger than this -- he's 8 weeks old now -- but just as cute.  He is a handsome, cream-colored little guy who is affectionate and sweet.  As of today, Cody is holding his own, but it's too soon to know if he will survive.  Please keep him in your thoughts over the next few days.

A Wonderful Christmas Gift -- Smokey's Barn Cam

Two of the sanctuary's incredibly generous supporters, Jean C. in Nevada and Mary Ann F. in Montana, had read our post about Smokey's death and each of them independently e-mailed us last week with the same question:  What about a barn cam system in Beauty's Barn?  They wondered if it might have alerted us to her struggles soon enough to save her, or at least to end her suffering hours earlier if there was nothing we could do medically. 

Alayne and I had the exact same thought that Saturday morning when we found Smokey down in her stall.  What difference would a few hours have made for this old blind mare?

So we did some research about barn cam systems, and e-mailed Jean and Mary Ann what we found.  Each, unknown to the other, had offered to match a gift to help purchase a system.  Together, there was enough to buy it!  All this came together over Christmas weekend ... Mary Ann's gift arrived in the mail on Christmas Eve, in fact.  So we are working today with the supplier on the actual order.

Smokey's barn cam will soon be a reality -- thanks to the generous gifts from Jean and Mary Ann.  Thank you so much!

Vader's New Name

We had several suggestions for a new name for blind Vader, who just arrived at the ranch last week. (See post below.)  The winning name came from Karen F. in Missoula, who wrote:

"Change the name Vader to Luke.  Same movie but good over evil."

We thought that was perfect.   Thanks, Karen!

Intimidation Doesn't Always Work

Blind Widget always expects to get her way ... especially when it comes to moving other dogs off a bed or chair she covets.  She usually looms over them, staring intently, until they can't take the pressure and finally get up and leave.  (Regular blog readers have seen her in action before.) 

The one dog who is oblivious to Widget's intimidation tactics is her Uncle Dillon, one of our original Seattle "six-pack" of dogs.  I took this photo yesterday morning, after noticing Widget trying to force Dillon off his cot.  (Sorry about the glare in the photo, there was a lot of sunlight coming in from the windows.)

At first Widget stood with her front legs on the cot, looming.  No response from Dillon.  Then she climbed up on to the cot next to him and loomed.  No response.  In this photo she has finally started to growl at him:  "Move it, pal, you're trying my patience!"  Still no response.

Disgusted (and hoping no one had seen her fail at this), she finally gave up and climbed over to the empty cot right behind Dillon's.  There was no dog on that cot the whole time, but that's not the point.  She just wanted to prove that she could take the cot away from Dillon.  Better luck next time, kid!

(In case you're wondering, Dillon is now 14 years old.  We adopted him from a shelter where he had lived for 5 years in a kennel.  He had been abused and was frightened to death of people -- he would tremble with fear -- which made him unadoptable.  It was a no-kill shelter, so they kept him until we came along.)

Holidays Stress Me Out

This is little blind Callie, who came to us from the Bitterroot Humane Association on December 1st.  (See original post here.)  I took this photo just a few minutes ago this evening.  Clearly this is one stressed-out Dachshund. 

She also assumes this position when it's time to go outside for the last time at night, and rather than get up off the bed, she rolls over on her back and ignores us.  She lays completely still, upside down, pretending she can't hear us ... except every time we call her name, her little tail twitters faster and faster. 

Blind Vader Comes To The Ranch

Well, we aren't wild about his name but it's the one he came with!  This is blind Vader, who the Humane Society of Western Montana (formerly the Missoula Humane Society) called us about last weekend.  He's a young fellow, about 2 we think, and very sweet.  He can't see a thing.  The Humane Society had him neutered and vaccinated for us this week, and Alayne picked him up today when she was in town.  We noticed when Vader arrived this afternoon that he has an eye infection which we'll need to start treating.

He's clearly got Lab in him, but his legs are fairly short and his head is blocky.  Any guesses?

And yes, we need to change his name.  Suggestions welcome!

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Rolling Dog Ranch In Montana Quarterly Magazine

The winter issue of Montana Quarterly just came out with a wonderful article about the sanctuary and our animals.  The article is beautifully written and perfectly captures the 'spirit' of the animals here.  The piece is illustrated with great photography, too.  The headline reads, "Second Chances:  Couple's one-of-a-kind ranch provides care and a home for blind and disabled animals."

This is the cover of the magazine, and you can find it at both Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores around the country.  In Missoula, you can also find it at the university bookstore as well as at Rosauers.  In Bozeman, it should be in the university bookstore.  If you can't find it anywhere near you, you can also purchase the issue directly by calling the magazine at 406-587-4491.

The editor has graciously given us permission to post the article on our Web site and they are sending us a CD with the digital files, but it may take us a while to get the pages prepared for posting on the Web (they're huge files).

Willis and Wobbles

Today I took Willis, the last of my original "Seattle cats" -- the ones who moved with us to Montana in 2000 -- to see our specialist in Missoula, Dr. Dave Bostwick, for a check-up.  Willis has been suffering from lymphoma for over a year.  But cancer isn't all he's got.  He also has heart problems, high blood pressure, and a thyroid problem.  Every day he gets a multi-drug 'cocktail' served up in some canned food.  The cocktail consists of Prednisone for the lymphoma, Propanolol for his heart, Norvasc for his blood pressure, and Methimazole for his thyroid. 

In the first photo Dave is listening to his heart and lungs.  After this, Dave then did an echocardiogram of his heart, which looked okay.

Six months ago I would have told you Willis would be dead in weeks, just judging from the way he looked then.  Yet Willis has really hung in there.  He's down to 6 pounds, is skinny and looks awful, yet is still happy, affectionate, and purrs when held. 

It was a good thing we did the check-up:  Willis' blood pressure had zoomed out of control again, this time literally off the charts.  In the second photo Dave is measuring the blood pressure, which is done at the base of the tail.  The pressure is reported out on the dial Dave is holding in his hand.  The scale goes up to 300 units of mercury. 

Willis blew the needle right to the 300 unit mark, and presumably he would have gone past it if the scale allowed.  That's almost three times normal!  Dave was surprised that with blood pressure that high, Willis hadn't already ruptured his retinas or burst a blood vessel in his brain.  Yikes.  So we're doubling his dose of Norvasc, starting tonight!

(In case you're wondering what Willis is doing in the photo, he's licking the gel off his chest that was on the ultrasound probe.  I have no idea what that tastes like, but apparently he liked it.)

Dave called this evening, right after I got home, to say that Willis' blood work had come back and his thyroid had also deteriorated.  We'll double his dose of Methimazole, too.

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Meanwhile, just after I got off the phone with Dave, Alayne walked into the kitchen holding Wobbles, our little guy with cerebellar hypoplasia.  She had just brought him in from his cottage, where she'd gone out to feed him and his new girlfriend, Claire (a.k.a. Mrs. Wobbles).  Alayne noticed he didn't look right, and he wasn't interested in his dinner, which is unusual.  And Wobs (as we call him) hadn't moved from the same spot on his bed all afternoon. 

I took one look at him and could tell something was wrong.  His breathing didn't sound right ... a little raspy ... and he seemed out of sorts.  I took his temperature and it spiked to 105.9.  Uh oh.  (Normal range in a cat is 100.5 to 102.5 degrees.)  I called our other vets in Helena and spoke with our specialist there, Dr. Britt Culver.  Britt had me inject Wobs with 1/2 cc of Baytril, give him a very low dose of aspirin, and then gave me directions on what to do tomorrow.  We'll continue to take his temperature every four hours.

The photo shows Wobs on a dog cot in the living room, where I put him to take his temperature.  Almost immediately Widget climbed up to be with him.  (She loves cats.)