Rolling Dog Farm

Spreading The Word About Blind Horses

Alayne took two calls in the last 24 hours from people whose horses had gone blind, and their vets had told them they should just put the animals down.  Both individuals actually wanted to keep their blind horses, and had called us seeking more information on how to care for them.

This, unfortunately, we see a lot.  Too often equine vets immediately tell their clients to euthanize their blind horses, and they trot out (no pun intended) all the old myths about blind horses -- they're dangerous, they can't have a good quality of life, it's inhumane to keep them alive, etc. 

It's not because these vets lack compassion or don't care.  It's usually because they simply don't know any better and have very limited experience with blind horses.  Much of their experience is confined to the initial period when a horse is losing its vision, and the animal is frightened and upset at the encroaching blindness.  That's generally when the client calls the vet.

What happens is that too many vets extrapolate from this early stressful period that the horse will ALWAYS be like this, rather than seeing it as a temporary phase and allowing the horse time to adjust.  (Wouldn't you be scared to death if YOU started going blind?)  Thus they end up counseling their clients to euthanize their blind horses as the "only humane thing to do."

So we've realized that we need to reach out to the equine vet community with our message about blind horses.  To that end, we are going to attend the annual convention of equine vets (the American Association of Equine Practitioners) this December in Seattle.  We will have an exhibit at their trade show to promote our BlindHorses.org Web site, hand out our blind horse brochure, and talk with as many vets as possible.  The image you see here is a mock-up of what our 8-foot wide exhibit display looks like.  The dominant photo is our beautiful blind mare Lena.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

One Bed, Two Ways to Enjoy It

Who ever came up with the saying, 'working like a dog?'  Really, do you think they had a dog?  The only thing our guys work hard at is sleeping.  Alayne fixed up a new bed last weekend ... actually a couple of West Paw beds piled on top of a Kuranda dog cot, topped with a flannel sheet ... and it's been a big hit.

In the first photo you see the ever-ready sleeper herself, Widget, showing her sunny-side up sleeping style.  Then there's our old Shepherd, Pappy, trying out the new bed, too.  His only problem is the bed is so deep and plush, and his hind legs so weak, that he can't get out of the bed without some help from us!

In the photo behind Pappy is little Goldie, one of our original 'six-pack' of dogs who moved to Montana with us from Seattle in 2000.  Goldie is completely blind but has the same kind of fearless personality that Widget has.  Just to the left in that photo is 14-year old Dillon, also part of the 'six-pack' from Seattle.  He had spent 5 years in a small pen and was scared to death of people when we adopted him.

Finally, if you saw our last post about the Standoff of the Short-Legs, here is a photo of Widget in that same chair yesterday morning.  She  brow-beat Oscar the miniature Dachshund into making way for her.  We're not sure what to call this sleeping position.  If the one above is 'sunny-side up,' would this one be 'back-side out'?

Standoff of the Short-Legs

This is a scene that happens often around the house.  Burrowed deep in a pile of dog bedding on the favorite 'sleeping chair' is Oscar the elderly miniature Dachshund.  Looming over him is Widget, our blind Beagle/Dachshund mix.  She is determined to sleep in that chair.  So her chair-stealing strategy is to climb up the ramp, plant her front feet on the cushion, and stand there, looming silently and indefinitely, until Oscar finally gets nervous and abandons his perch. 

We call this the 'Standoff of the Short-Legs.'  Widget never physically pushes Oscar out or sits on him.  No, sir.  Her technique is simply to wait him out until he can no longer stand the tension and skitters off, tossing a Mini Doxie growl over his shoulder at her.

Widget always wins in the end.  Until this morning, when I took the photo.  For some reason she gave up, turned around and headed down the ramp.  I think it was because she heard the camera clicking, and maybe thought this was not portraying her at her best.  I'm not sure.  But for the first time I can remember, Oscar won the standoff.  I think Widget just wanted to appear magnanimous on camera.

Another Sneak Preview

We just learned yesterday afternoon that a kind person donated $200 worth of advertising for the sanctuary on an innovative Web site called New West.  The site is "devoted to the culture, economy, politics, environment and overall atmosphere of the Rocky Mountain West."  If you want to know what's going on across the Rockies, this is the place to find out.  This wonderful donor wanted to support both us and New West, and offered us the free ad buy as a way to help spread the word about the sanctuary. 

So our incredibly talented designer, Terrel Armstrong, developed this ad tonight.  It will begin appearing on New West next week.  As an online ad, it will link directly to the sanctuary's Web site. 

(Terrel designed our site and helps maintain it, too, and also designs our newsletter.  All pro bono.  She is fabulous.)

We have never done any advertising like this before, so it will be very interesting to see what kind of response we get. We thought you might enjoy a sneak preview of our very first ad!

Bonnie and Clyde Arrive at the Ranch

Bonnie and Clyde, a brother and sister pair of cats, arrived at the ranch last night.  Jerry Black, our awesome volunteer who serves as 'animal chauffeur,' picked them up at the Missoula airport and brought them out to the ranch. These cats have cerebellar hypoplasia, a neurological condition that affects their fine motor skills and balance.  Our beloved cat, Wobbles, and our recent arrival Allie, were both born with the same condition. 

Bonnie and Clyde were tiny kittens when a college student from Austin, Texas found them on the street one rainy night two years ago.  He took them home to his parents.  Now his folks are 'downsizing'  and had been trying to find a place that would take these two cats.  They finally  learned about us, and we agreed to take them.  After first Wobbles and then Allie stole our hearts, we developed a real soft spot for cerebellar hypoplasia animals.

These two cats are very shy and 24 hours after arriving, are still lurking in a crate, even though they are free to come and go in the animal cottage.  I took this photo about 5 p.m. today.  Bonnie, the all-black one, is bigger, more outgoing, and has less of the 'wobbles.'  Her brother Clyde is the wallflower of the two and has the more pronounced case of the wobbles. 

Our experience is that it takes the shy ones about 3 days on average to gain their confidence, come out and begin exploring their new world. 

Blood Donors

We got up this morning and found that Allie, our wobbly puppy with cerebellar hypoplasia, had managed overnight to chew open her spay sutures.  We had just brought her and the other recently spayed girls back from the clinic yesterday afternoon.  Not only did she have a wide-open slit into her abdomen, but it had already become infected.

I didn't have time to rush her back to our vets in Helena, so I called our other specialist, Dr. Dave Bostwick in Missoula, and asked if he had a spare moment this morning to suture her closed.  He said, "Sure, but I need a couple of blood donors!"  Turns out that a dog had just arrived at his hospital with a horrendous autoimmune disorder that causes the body to destroy its own red blood cells.  Part of the therapy involves repeated blood transfusions.  Dave had already drawn blood from his own dog and needed more.

Dave said he'd prefer "lean and calm" dogs as donors, so Alayne and I loaded up blind Buddy and blind Dusty for the trip to Missoula, along with Allie.

In the first photo with Buddy are vet techs Sherrie on the left and Traci on the right, with Dave holding Buddy's half-litre of blood we'd just drawn.  In the second photo is Dusty, wondering what the heck is going on.  We hadn't pulled his blood yet. The sick dog who was getting the blood is in the background behind Dusty with the cone on his head.  Dave put his dog in the kennel on the left while we were working with Buddy and Dusty.

After all this, Dave patched up Allie.  Because of the infection we couldn't close up her with sutures, so we had to use bandages and wraps.  We started her on an antibotic as well.  We'll have to change her bandages twice a day for the next several days.

Finally the three dogs and I headed back to the ranch.

We just hope this sick dog makes it. 

Blind Madison Gets X-Rayed

Our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown, came out today to examine our blind mare Madison.  The Idaho Humane Society brought Madison to us a couple of months ago.  Shortly before leaving their Boise rescue ranch for the trip to Montana, Madison had been kicked in the jaw by another horse.  The Idaho Humane Society folks had a vet work on her there and she arrived with the jaw looking pretty much healed.  We finished out her prescribed medications with no sign of any continued problem.  Just recently, however, an abscess-like swelling developed at the injury site on her jaw.  The usual medications did not make a difference. 

Our vet suspects that a bone fragment has broken off and Madison's body is now trying to reject it as a 'foreign object.'  We took Madison down to the medical suite in Beauty's Barn so she could be sedated for a physical exam and X-rays.  The photo shows Bill with his portable X-ray machine, while vet tech Vicky Cruz is holding the film against Madison's jaw.  We can't develop the radiographs on the ranch so it will be another day before we know what the problem is.

Ready, Set, Spay!

This morning Alayne hauled a truckload of animals to our vets in Helena at Montana Veterinary Specialists.  In the photo are blind and deaf  Spinner on the left and Allie with cerebellar hypoplasia on the right (look for pink tongue, that's all you can see!).  Behind them in a crate is deaf Scooter, and in a smaller crate are Fluff and Puff Hooligan, kittens who are "barn-cats-in-training" for Beauty's Barn.  (Click on photo for larger image.)  You can see Fluff and Puff on page 2 of the digital version of our fall newsletter.

The object of today's vet run:  spay these girls!  Mission accomplished!

While Alayne was on her way to Helena, I drove to the Ovando post office and put the fall newsletters in the mail.

If you aren't already receiving the newsletter, please e-mail me at steve@rollingdogranch.org with your postal address and we'll be happy to send you a copy.  Also, don't forget to let us know about your animal-loving friends and family members who might enjoy getting the newsletter.  (We don't share our mailing list with anyone, ever.)

 

36 Stall Mats, 20 Corral Panels, 1 Volunteer

One of our fabulous volunteers, Laura W. from Helena, came out today to give us a hand.  The weather was cold and drizzly.  I had the perfect project for a day like this:  setting up the stalls in Beauty's Barn. 

Murdoch's, a farm and ranch supply outfit in Helena, last week had delivered $5,900 worth of corral panels and stall mats.  Most of the corral panels would be used for the corrals we need to set up outside the barn, while the rest were for the interior stalls.

Alayne took care of all the usual Saturday chores so Laura and I could set to work.  First we had to grade the gravel bed for each stall so the mats would lay completely flat.  Then we lifted each stall mat, one by one, and moved it into position.  This is harder than it sounds, with each mat measuring 6 feet x 4 feet and weighing 96 lbs.  Awkward to say the least!   We laid 36 mats down, edge to edge, on both sides of the barn.

Next we set up the corral panels to form the stalls.  We use Priefert's utility horse panels, which are lightweight and have smooth, rounded edges.  It took a total of 20 panels to create the six horse stalls.  Four stalls on the east side, two on the west side.

We started about 10 a.m., took a quick lunch break, and by 2 p.m. we were finished.  The photo shows Laura standing at the south door of the barn, with our handiwork behind her.  Towards the other end on the left side you can see where the medical stall and medical room are.

Thanks, Laura!

(Click on photo for larger image.)