Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary

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For The Love Of Kong

Kathryn called me from Widget's House this morning and said, "I think I've got a 'blog moment' for you ... you should see Timmy playing with his Kong!"  So I grabbed the camera and headed over. 

Timmy came to us a few months ago from a Denver vet clinic. We were told he was like Allie, our dog with cerebellar hypoplasia who wobbles.  He wasn't.  Timmy is paralyzed and needs help doing everything.  He can't walk, needs to be carried outside to pee and poop, and requires frequent bed changing.  Oddly, he actually looks a lot like Birdie, our Lab with muscular dystrophy -- they have the same thin body, sleek head, and long legs -- although Birdie isn't paralyzed at all.

Timmy is an incredibly sweet, gentle soul ... and he's crazy about his Kongs.  In fact, Kathryn gave me the headline for this post.  When I walked into Widget's House, she said "You should call this one 'For the love of Kong.'"

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Waiting For Dinner

Here's part of the gang at Widget's House, waiting to go inside this evening for dinner.  Kathryn is on the other side of the door ... she had been preparing their bowls.  From left to right are Buzz the Golden Retriever with a neurological condition, Luke the blind Lab, blind Bud, blind Penny, and blind Pepper.  In the foreground on the right is Allie with cerebellar hypoplasia, which makes her wobble (and that would explain why she's blurry!).

A few were already inside, while the rest of the gang was at the back door, also waiting en masse to go inside for dinner!

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Blind And Deaf Angel Gets Her Fluids

We started Angel on her sub-Q fluids this morning to help treat her chronic kidney disease, which our vet just diagnosed last week.  This beautiful blind and deaf girl came from Spokane County Animal Control a couple of years ago.  Recently she had been dropping weight and losing her appetite, and after a battery of tests, we found her kidneys were compromised.  We also found she has high blood pressure, so she's getting a daily dose of blood pressure medication called Norvasc.

The fluids really help ... they flush out the toxins in her kidneys, which makes her feel better, and in turn increases her appetite.

To read Angel's story, click here.

The other cat on the bed is blind Turtle, a new arrival who came from the Humane Society in Bozeman.

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Time For Some Hoof Trimming

Our farrier, Rich Boyle from Simms, Montana, came out today for his regularly scheduled trip to trim the horses' hooves.  In this photo our employee Beth is holding blind Faith (we actually call this old mare 'Snitty' because of, uh, certain personality traits) while Rich trims her hooves.

Very interested in the whole operation is blind but inquisitive Nikki, leaning over from the adjoining corral.  Nikki is totally blind but she's mapped her environment so well that casual visitors can't tell she's blind.  She runs and bucks and whirls in her corral and never collides with anything; people watch her antics and can't believe this filly was born blind.  She turns two this year, and in the spring we are going to start training her for riding.

To see what Nikki looked like as a baby when she arrived at 4 months of age, click here.

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You Know It's Getting Deep When...

We're still digging out from the last couple of days of non-stop snow.  Beth was on the tractor for quite a while today, clearing snow from in front of the barns and around the other buildings.  This evening I needed to unhitch the horse trailer and had to clear some more ground to park it on.  So I climbed in the tractor and started clearing.

At one point I looked over and realized the snowbank I was piling the new snow on was getting as tall as the tractor itself.  I stopped the tractor, went inside to get the camera, and took this photo.  It was about 6 p.m.

From this angle the tractor looks taller, but if you look at the cottage in the background, you can see the snowbank is well above the windows of the building.  I think it's about 8 feet high.  This is heavy, wet snow ... ideal for Montana, which is still recovering from a long-term drought.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Another Week, Another Round of Chemo

With apologies to the U.S. Postal Service, our own motto today might be "neither rain nor sleet nor snow will keep Chance and George from their appointed chemotherapy."  It's been snowing here for 48 hours non-stop -- none of this forecasted -- and I worried about whether to trailer blind Chance and George into Missoula for their chemo treatment this afternoon. 

We got off schedule last week because of a delay in their chemo drug shipment, and we now have a heavy snow warning on for late tonight through Friday morning.  (Memo to National Weather Service:  What about the past 48 hours?)  Thus I was concerned that if I didn't get them in today, I probably wouldn't tomorrow, either.  So we dug out the trailer, hitched up the truck, loaded Chance and George, and I set off for Missoula as the snow continued to fall.

This is the alternate week when Chance and George get the 'heavy' stuff -- cytoxan injected intravenously -- and we do this at Dr. Bill Brown's clinic.  Bill determined that we didn't need to use IV bags to drip the cytoxan into their veins, but instead could dilute it into 60 cc's of fluid and inject it with a syringe directly into the vein.  This saves us money (no IV set up or materials) and time.  That's what you see in this photo, with Bill injecting the cytoxan from a syringe into George while Bill's vet tech Vicky holds the tube in the vein. 

Meanwhile, over in the horse stock, Chance was getting bored and antsy, just like the first time he came here for chemotherapy.  He started to reach over and pester George, considered untying George's lead rope (the blue one looped around the post), and in general became quite the goofball.  A few minutes earlier Bill had taken off his cap and placed it on Chance's back.  I saw it sitting there and thought I'd like to see what our goofy blind horse might look like wearing a hat.  Your typical horse would have thrown the hat off in an instant, but not Chance.  He seemed quite content to wear that hat.

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After leaving Bill's clinic, I stopped at Dave Bostwick's clinic to pick up blind and deaf Angel.  She will need sub-Q fluids every other day for her kidney disease, plus twice-a-day Norvasc for high blood pressure.  I also picked up the ashes from Keisha's and Willis' cremations.

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(Click on photos for larger image.)

Waiting For The Doctor

Alayne took blind Widget back to Helena today so Dr. Brenda Culver could do a re-check on Widget's prosthetic eye.  Alayne took this first photo while Widget was waiting for the doctor to come.  She had her cone pressed right against the door, as if she were using it as a sonar device to detect footsteps and other sounds from the hallway outside. 

Ordinarily Widget's tail is straight up, signaling unbridled confidence and her innate desire to rule the world.  For those of us "Widget Watchers," this half-down tail in the photo is a sure sign of "I don't know why I'm here but it can't be a good thing."

A note on Widget's tail:  It doesn't wag like a 'normal' dog's tail.  It bobs.  Back and forth, straight up, bobbing.  No wagging.

Then Brenda arrived and evaluated Widget's eye ... here's a photo of the exam.  The news:  The eye looks great!  It's just the way it should look at this stage in the healing process.  That's a relief.  Although the eye appears red and bulging, Brenda assured us it's in great shape.  It will in fact shrink down to more normal size in time.

(Click on photos for larger image.)

Update on Angel

Our specialist in Missoula, Dr. Dave Bostwick, called today with an update on blind and deaf Angel.  After three days of IV fluids, her kidney values did indeed come down ... but are still elevated.  This strongly indicates Angel has chronic kidney disease.

She'll remain at the clinic until Wednesday.  In the meantime Dave will take her off IVs and see what happens to both her kidney values and her appetite (which perked up a lot over the the weekend.)  If her BUN and Creatinine spike again and her appetite diminishes, this means we'll need to give her regular sub-Q fluids (i.e., injected under the skin) back here at the ranch.  Of course, we will also be putting her on a low-protein diet to make it easier on her kidneys.

Meanwhile, tomorrow Alayne will take Widget back to Helena to see Dr. Brenda Culver for a re-check on her prosthetic eye.  And on Wednesday I'll trailer blind Chance and Lonesome George into Missoula for their IV chemotherapy treatment at Dr. Bill Brown's clinic.

Chemo Day

We gave blind Chance and Lonesome George their chemotherapy treatment today.  This is the week when we give them cytarabine; on alternate weeks our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown, gives them cytoxan intravenously.

We walked Chance and George down the drive from Lena's Barn to Beauty's Barn this afternoon so we could give them the injections in the warmth of the medical suite there.  While Kathryn and I tended to Chance and George, Beth was preparing all the stalls in Beauty's Barn for the night ... filling water buckets and putting hay and grain in feeders.

In the photo Kathryn is giving George his dose.  I think he knew what was coming, because I had to pull him the entire 150 yards down the drive to Beauty's Barn.  (Ever pulled a mule?)  Once we were done, I turned George loose so he could head back on his own, and he suddenly could walk at twice the speed.  Imagine that.

(Click on photo for larger image.)