Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary

Turtle's Eye Surgery

I know this photo will probably make you cringe -- sorry -- but Alayne brought blind Turtle home this afternoon from the vet clinic after her eye surgery.  Turtle was blind from uveitis ... something we're more likely to see in our blind horses than in our blind dogs and cats ... and her eyes had remained comfortable until last week, when we noticed some irritation and changes occurring. 

Our vet in Helena, Dr. Brenda Culver, did an exam and found that the lenses in both of Turtle's eyes had detached and fallen against the cornea.  That's what was causing the irritation and, as it turned out, pain.  The eye is such a complex structure and changes in any one part can cause a cascade of other things to happen.  That is especially true of an eye disease like uveitis, which triggers inflammation.  It's like a house of cards collapsing.

Brenda concluded that the only thing we could do for Turtle to give her relief was remove her eyes, a procedure called enucleation.  Brenda did the surgery yesterday.  This is always so hard, seeing them come home without eyes.  As often as we have had to do it ... in dogs, cats and horses ... it is always a bit startling to see an animal you've known with eyes to suddenly have no eyes.  But ultimately we know that they are pain-free, and since they were blind to begin with, that's all they know too ... that the pain is gone.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Pied Piper Of The Ranch

I took this photo today of Alayne coming back around noon from Widget's House, our main dog building there in the background.  Wherever Alayne goes, she has a little cluster of dogs that follows her down to the gate, waits for her, and then leads her back, as you see here.  Just before I shot this photo they had been milling around her feet, and she was threading her way through the throng (oooh, please notice the alliteration there!).  Then the cluster unwound itself and starting stringing out along the trail.

Big blind Kenai is in the foreground; she had headed down to meet the ensemble and turned around to come back.  Next is Holly, the tan dog with curled tail, who is typically in the lead.  Holly is our director of home-ranch security and sees her main job as protecting Alayne from all dangers, real and imagined (i.e., all imagined).  She is always in front of Alayne, clearing the path.  When she thinks too many dogs are crowding Alayne or not showing her enough respect, she charges in, barking like mad, to restore order.  (Creating chaos in the process, of course.)

Holly is not disabled -- she was a semi-feral stray who was dumped out here a few years ago.  We socialized her and I was preparing to adopt her out when Alayne, in a moment of weakness, overruled me and said she was staying.  (That's a long story for another blog post!)  Holly -- or "Agent Holly," as she is also known -- settled into her role protecting Alayne.  Why she thinks Alayne needs a personal bodyguard we don't know.  Maybe since she's not disabled Holly figured she needed a job to justify staying at the ranch.  Oddly, Holly sees me as a sparring partner, someone to roughhouse with ... she'll often try to start a "fight" by coming at me prancing on her two back feet, pawing at me with one of her front feet.  (Human/canine relationships can be quite complex, eh?)

Next in the line behind Holly is blind Goldie, while three-legged Cody and Birdie are at Alayne's side. Hidden behind Cody is little Daisy the miniature Dachshund,who had been patiently waiting at the gate for Alayne, along with the others.  Coming in from the left is blind Evelyn,who's always been a party girl and thinks it sounds like fun over there somewhere.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Heart Surgeon

Blind Goldie loves soft squeaky toys ... but really only the squeaker inside them.  She can smell a soft toy no matter where we try to hide it, but if it turns out not to have a squeaker in it, she'll the drop the toy in a second and wander off.  No squeaker, no fun.

Her only goal is to rip the squeaker out, chew on it for a few minutes, and then come to us looking for a new toy.  She has no interest in the toy itself.  Occasionally Goldie's approach is to shred the entire toy, scattering the stuffing everywhere, and then happily crunch the squeaker while she lies amidst the fluffy ruins of the dead toy.  The squeaker is like a trophy of some sort.  (She never eats it, by the way ... just chews on it until it's punctured so it can't make any sound, then she abandons it.)

But Goldie's more common approach is what we call 'heart surgery.'  She chews a very small, precise hole in the toy, carefully extracts the heart -- i.e., the squeaker -- and then leaves the toy behind intact.  To show you what this looks like, this afternoon Alayne and I put Goldie on a chair next to one of her recent successful "heart operations."  Notice that little hole in the chest of the toy ... it's exactly the size the squeaker was.

The real beauty of this is, we still have a toy left to give the other dogs!

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Me And My Big Friend

Alayne and I had just finished feeding the dogs yesterday evening when I looked over in the living room and saw this scene -- that's blind Callie on the left, sharing the cot with her friend blind Kenai. 

You'll notice the eyes look very different.  Callie is blind from progressive retinal atrophy, so her pupils are completely dilated to let as much light in as possible.  The glow you're seeing is from the flash bouncing off the retina in the back of the eye.  (Regular blog readers will remember seeing Callie's "glow" from earlier photos.)  Kenai, on the other hand, is blind from cataracts, which is why you're seeing the light reflect off the white lens in each eye.

This scene reminded me that Callie has a thing for big dogs ... she loves curling up with them, sleeping next to them on cots, or just hanging out next to them.  Now, we have lots of smaller dogs here, like Widget and Goldie and the rest of the Dachshund brigade, but Callie seems to prefer the big dogs like Kenai (who tips the scales at 100 pounds).  We'll often find Callie also snuggled up next to blind Helen, our 105-lb Rottie.  She also loves grooming them, as I showed in a post from last November.

I know "big" is relative when you're a Dachshund, but this plump little girl definitely likes her big friends.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Today Show Video Now Online

If you missed the Today Show segment this morning -- yikes, it finally ran in the last 15 minutes of the 3-hour program! -- it is now available online at the Today Show Web site here.  Click on the "Launch" button under the photo of Alayne with blind Penny and that will bring up a new window with the video.

We will be getting a tape of the Today story from NBC that we can digitize and post on our own Web site, but that may take a week or so before we can get it turned around.

We've had a phenomenal response to the Today piece -- it will take us days to reply to all the emails we've received just today ... more than 400 to me and over 150 to Alayne!  So if you don't hear from us immediately, please bear with us ... you'll know why!

Update on Today Show Appearance

The NBC Today Show producer who did the story on the sanctuary called late this afternoon to tell me our segment is now likely to air tomorrow morning, Friday, in the third hour of the program, i.e., sometime after 9 a.m.  This is a change from the earlier schedule, which had our segment airing in the second hour.  And it could change again tomorrow, so you may just have to set your VCR or Tivo and record the entire program to be sure you catch it!

We'll Be On NBC's Today Show This Friday!

We're going to be on NBC's Today Show on Friday morning, January 26th!  Not only are they airing a story they filmed here at the ranch this past Monday, but they're also flying Alayne out today to New York so she can appear "live" on the program tomorrow morning.  And if that's not enough, they're also flying our paralyzed Yorkie, Spirit, and her new adoptive Mom and Dad, Nicci and Glenn Bennett, to New York to appear on the show along with Alayne.  On Tuesday they sent a film crew to Tampa to get footage of Spirit and interview Nicci and Glenn, so that will be part of the story, too.

The producer told me that the segment featuring the ranch is scheduled for 8:15 a.m. Eastern time Friday. Of course, because the program airs at different times depending on what time zone you're in, you'll need to check your local listings.  But if they hold to that time -- and the producer cautioned that it could definitely change depending on breaking news and other events -- the segment should air shortly after the start of the second hour of the 3-hour program, wherever you are.  (The original broadcast in New York runs from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.)  This being television, though, there are no guarantees!

Happy viewing!

Spa Treatment

I hauled little Brynn -- our blind foal with the chronic urinary problem -- into Missoula today for a 'deep cleaning' at our equine vet clinic.  Because Brynn doesn't like anyone working around her backside ... we need to clean between her thighs, around her vulva, and other sensitive areas ... she needs to be sedated so we can wash her and scrub off the urine scalds.  What she has, in effect, is a severe case of equine diaper rash, and when it gets this bad, the only way to get the job done is with sedation.

I took the photo of Linda G., a vet tech who works for Dr. Bill Brown, giving Brynn her 'spa treatment.'  I had been cleaning the other side of Brynn when I stopped to get the photo of Linda scrubbing away.

After going through this yet again, and seeing how raw and inflamed Brynn's skin is, I was so incredibly thankful that we have the money now to pay for surgery to hopefully fix this once and for all.

Bill discussed Brynn's case with Dr. Claude Ragle, the surgeon at Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, again today.  I will be calling the equine surgery department tomorrow to schedule Brynn's appointment.

After we got Brynn cleaned up and while she was still sedated, Bill examined Brynn with an endoscope -- an optical tube that allows doctors to see inside the body.  The last time we tried this Brynn was too small and the endoscope too big to use with her.  Today we got a good look inside her plumbing, and that's what you see us doing in this photo. 

I'm inserting the endoscope while Bill peers in the viewfinder and is giving me directions:  "Move forward ... hold it there ... come back a bit ... hold it ... okay, go forward ..."  We also found where the ectopic ureter is coming out -- not inside her uterus as it had earlier appeared on ultrasound, but actually inside her vagina.  We could watch this little slit in the vaginal wall open and close, and each time small amounts of urine would squirt out.

After nearly two hours of endoscopy, I'm sure Brynn was thinking, "What kind of spa is this, fellas?"

Florida Girl

Spirit's new Mom, Nicci B. in Tampa, Florida, emailed this photo yesterday of Spirit wearing her new Doggles.  Nicci thought Spirit should have the Doggles for cruising in the convertible, but here Spirit is trying them out while she rolls around in the grass.  Folks, notice that the grass is, um, green in January. 

Speaking of colors, Nicci also got Spirit a pair of bright red Doggles, along with the pink ones.  When it comes to fashion accessories like super cool shades, it's important to have a choice.  Especially when you're a Yorkie.

Brynn's Fund -- Oh My Goodness!

This is amazing.  We have the money for Brynn's surgery!

As of 7 p.m. Sunday evening, we had $2,040 already come in for Brynn's fund ... an amount that in itself was incredible.  I was getting ready to post that figure as the update on the blog and on Brynn's fund page.  And then the phone rang.  One of the sanctuary's friends and supporters in Canada was calling to make a $3,000 donation for Brynn's fund.  I could tell from hearing Alayne's end of the conversation that something remarkable was happening, but I didn't know what.  When Alayne got off the phone, she told me about the astonishing gift.  We both just stood there, speechless, looking at each other.

In just four days, so many generous and compassionate people came forward to donate for this little blind foal's surgery that we have the entire $5,000 to pay for the operation!  Alayne and I are still in a state of shock over it.  It's hard to describe how we feel right now.  To say we're grateful doesn't do it justice.  We are, really, just completely blown away.  It's truly humbling to see these kinds of gifts come in.  We never imagined that we'd be able to raise the money for Brynn's surgery this soon.

Thank you!!!

My first call Monday morning will be to our equine vet in Missoula, Dr. Bill Brown, asking him to call Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and make the appointment for Brynn!