Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary

Dinner Time!

Regular blog readers may remember a photo I posted a few weeks ago, showing the dogs all bunched up at the front door to Widget's House, waiting to go inside for dinner.  Well, here's what it looks like from the other side of the door.  Beth has opened the back door to Widget's House and is letting in the crew who spend their days playing in the dog paddock on the south side of the building. 

In the photo is blind Buddy looking for his crate.  Buddy has progressive retinal atrophy but can still see shapes and shadows, so he navigates pretty well.  The black dog in the background is a recent arrival, blind Levi, and the tan dog is blind Cedar.  Behind Cedar is blind Patti, who Beth is guiding over to her crate.  Still to come in the door is Travis, our character with the fused jaw.  All five of these guys came from Washington state. 

It just occurred to me as I'm writing this that we have the Washington contingent in one paddock and the Californians and Montanans in another.  I have no idea how that happened or why! 

We feed most of the dogs in their own individual crates, which gives them a private 'den' to enjoy while they dine.  You should hear what that building sounds like once all the dogs are in their crates with their bowls, munching away!  Twenty dogs going "CRUNCH-MUNCH-CRUNCH."  And then, pretty soon, the building falls quiet as, one by one, they finish eating and begin falling asleep.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Lonesome George: Not Doing Well

"What on earth is that?," you're probably wondering.  That's our delightful old mule, Lonesome George, preparing to undergo a dental today.

George has been at Dr. Bill Brown's clinic since last Sunday.  We had been in touch with Bill throughout the weekend because of growing concern about George's health.  He has been battling lymphoma and, as regular blog readers know, has been undergoing chemotherapy treatment.  In the past couple of weeks his appetite had diminished, we've had a couple of colic-like episodes, and we know from ongoing blood work that he is anemic, too.

So last Sunday, when George passed the 24-hour mark without eating, drinking or pooping, Bill told us to bring him in.  Bill found George had a rock-hard impaction in his intestine, which worked its way out thanks to the hefty doses of mineral oil that Bill poured into him.  But that didn't bring his appetite back, and George has continued to lose weight.  Every day this week Bill has given George IV fluids and provided other intensive care, yet George has not gone back to being his endearing, mule-ish self.

We had stopped his chemotherapy last week after Bill looked at George's latest blood work; Bill is worried that the chemo is trashing George's blood cells, and given his anemia and other issues, we should suspend the chemotherapy until we can turn him around.

I took these photos when I was at the clinic this morning to see how things were going.  Bill was taking another look at George's teeth, just in case he had worked a tooth loose or had some other dental issue that we didn't see in the initial evaluation.  The first photo is George in the dental headgear, which holds the equine's head up and mouth open.  In the second photo Bill is exploring to see if anything's amiss.  As it turned out, George needed a routine dental (filing or "floating" the teeth, etc.) but had no other problems there.

So the mystery continues. What is so puzzling is that he is bright-eyed and alert, and yet just isn't eating.  Bill was not comfortable sending George back to the ranch under the circumstances, and I left George there for continued observation and more diagnostics.

Road Trip!

Alayne hauled a truckload of animals to our vets in Helena this afternoon.  Heading off to the clinic were blind Babe, due to get spayed; blind Dusty for cryptorchid surgery (otherwise known as 'seek, find and destroy undescended testicle'); blind Evelyn for an eye exam (her left eye is bothering her); old Oscar the mini Doxie for a dental; Snowball the deaf cat for more dental work; and Shiloh, one of our 'personal' dogs, who needs more blood work to try and determine why he's become so fat!  (An earlier test ruled out hypothyroidism.)

I took the photo after Kathryn and I finished loading the dogs; Alayne was just about to climb in the truck and head out on the 70-mile trip to Helena.  If Kathryn looks wet, it's because we had just finished moving two tons of hay in the pouring rain.  Beth was on the tractor moving the last bales into Beauty's Barn when I took this shot.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Diving Into Dinner

This is Travis, our dog with a fused jaw, diving into his dinner this evening.  Although he has a stomach tube for feeding and medicating, we learned early on that he can slurp liquids from the left side of his mouth and that he much prefers to eat on his own.

He would get so upset watching the other dogs eat, and he just craved eating!  Using a syringe and the tube to slowly squirt liquid food into his stomach didn't do anything to satisfy that craving.  So we now fix him up a special liquid diet in the blender which he slurps to his heart's content. 

As you can see, it's a bit messy ... but he couldn't be happier.  He zooms into Widget's House, races into his crate, turns around, and plops his head in the bowl.  He was a little put out that I kept calling him so he'd raise his head for the photo. "Let me eat, will ya?!" is the look I was getting.

Pavlov may have trained his dog to associate the ringing of a bell with food -- Pavlov's dog would begin salivating when the bell rang -- but in Travis' case the response is triggered by ... the blender!  If he hears that blender whirring, he comes running!

His head looks thin and oddly shaped because his jaw muscle disease -- masticatory myositis -- also affects the muscles that run from the jaw up to the top of the skull.  These muscles atrophied, leaving his head looking a bit, well, pointy.

Pointy headed or not, this boy's a satisfied diner.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

New Slide Show Posted!

We just posted a new slide show on our main Web site.  The slide show features seven photos taken by Amber Chenoweth of Seattle, a friend and supporter of the sanctuary.  She took these photos during visits to the ranch last summer and graciously gave us permission to use them.  We've posted some of her photos in earlier slide shows, and this is the latest set of images. 

If you looked at our previous slide show recently, you may still get it when you click on the new slide show link.  That's because it's probably still in your browser's cache memory.  If you see the older slide show, you'll need to clear your cache and then click again.

To view the slide show, go to our Web site home page here and look for the image you see above.

A Cat And His Bath

Here's our sweet, deaf cat Snowball getting an unwelcome bath with the help of Kathryn.  Snowball has had a recurring case of oral stomatitis, and the strain he has of this infection unfortunately doesn't respond to antibiotics.  Pulling the teeth has turned out to be the only permanent 'cure.'  We've had three other cats go through this and the oral surgery is the only thing that's worked. 

Snowball has had two rounds of surgery to remove teeth, and now only has his front canine teeth left.  Our vet said she left those intact because they weren't infected, and since the canines are directly connected to the jaw bone, trying to remove them when they are healthy could lead to a break in the jawbone itself.  And THAT would be a major medical problem.

After the last surgery he really started to bounce back, but in the last week his mouth has become inflamed again.  Once this happens, cats with stomatitis begin to ooze icky stuff from their mouths, they paw at their faces, and basically it gets all over them.

So this afternoon Kathryn helped me give Snowball a bath.  Bless his little heart, most cats will try to climb right out of the sink and up the wall (or up your face if it's closer), but not Snowball.  He is so gentle and mellow, he pretty much sat in the sink and rarely even squirmed.  I think he made one half-hearted attempt to get out.

I suspect his stomatitis has finally migrated to his canines, which means they may have to go, too.  We'll take him back to the vet this coming week and find out what our next step is.

You can read his original story here.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Laying In The Sun, Chewing On My Ball

Beth just handed out a fresh set of tennis balls to the gang at Widget's House, and a short while later she took this photo.  That's blind Cedar in the background, happily chomping on his new tennis ball like it's a cigar.  (You'll have to click on the photo to get the larger version to see it more easily.) 

In the foreground is blind Buddy, looking over his shoulder at Cedar as if to say, "What, they gave YOU a new ball too?!?"  Or maybe he was telling Cedar, "Quit chewing so loud!"

The weather is finally warming up ... we've been in the 40's for a few days ... so the big melt is on.  The dogs are enjoying these warm, sunny days!

Spokane's Inlander Writes About The Ranch

Spokane's weekly newspaper, The Pacific Northwest Inlander, published a great story about the sanctuary in its latest edition that came out today.  We loved the headline:  "At Rolling Dog Ranch near Missoula, disabled dogs finally have their day."  The article was written by Gina Knudson, a freelance writer from Salmon, Idaho, who visited us last year.  The newspaper used one of our photos of Travis, our dog with a fused jaw who came from Spokane, to illustrate the story. 

You can read the article here.

Let's Take A Close Look At Those Hooves

Our old blind horse Scout is continuing to act "ouchy" on his feet.  We had started treating him for Cushing's disease, which I mentioned in a post last week.  We've been giving him a twice-daily anti-inflammatory called Banamine, plus his Cushing's medication.  But he still seemed uncomfortable on his feet.  When Kathryn and I trailered Chance and Lonesome George in to Dr. Bill Brown's clinic this afternoon for their chemotherapy, I took Scout along as well.  I wanted Bill to take another look at his hooves.

In the photo Bill is shooting X-rays of his feet, while Kathryn is holding Scout still.  Bill has placed Scout's front feet on wooden blocks to get a complete view of each hoof.  The X-rays revealed what we feared -- that Scout's laminitis has now caused the bones in his feet to begin turning.  Specifically, the coffin bone is rotating down and away from the hoof wall.  This is painful and explains what we've been seeing in Scout.

Bill trimmed Scout's hooves in a special way to make him more comfortable walking with this condition.  Other than that, at this point all we can really do is hope the Cushing's medication starts kicking in soon, and we'll continue with the Banamine.  The April issue of Equus magazine has a great  article on Cushing's, and it gave us hope that if we can get Scout's Cushing's under control, we can turn the corner on his chronic laminitis, too.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Clancy Gets Adopted

Sweet, deaf Clancy went to a loving new home in Helena today.  Rich and Aletha M. came out to meet Clancy, fell in love with him (just as we expected!), and took him home this morning. 

Rich and Aletha have had terriers for years, and recently lost their Glen of Imaal terrier Clancy (yes, same name).  Our deaf Clancy looks a lot like a Glen of Imaal, a rare breed from Ireland, even though we know he's just a little terrier mix from the Bitterroot!   So when Aletha saw Clancy on the Web, somehow she knew it was meant to be.

They do intend to change Clancy's name, which we assured them was no problem at all for a deaf dog!  In fact, his name had been 'Spud' before he came here.  For some reason he never seemed to notice we changed it.

To see Clancy's original story, click here.

(Click on photo for larger image.)