Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary

Head In Feeder, Thermometer In Rear

Our blind foal Brynn, now 11 months old, has been experiencing dramatic temperature spikes in the past few weeks.  Ever since she came back from urinary tract surgery at Washington State University's veterinary teaching hospital in early March, I had taken her temperature every morning as an early warning indicator of potential infection.

Because she still had a minor leak, she dribbled occasionally onto her legs and a little down her backside, yet this was an enormous improvement on her condition prior to the surgery.  But it meant we also bathed her rear end and legs every day, so I always took her temperature at the same time.  We do this routine while she's eating her grain.

Her temperature was always normal until a few weeks ago.  Then one morning she suddenly had a fever of 105.6.  Normal temperature in a horse averages about 100 degrees, so 105 is a bad sign.  Fearing the worst -- the surgeons at WSU had told us that one risk with Brynn's surgery was the possibility of urine backing up into her kidneys -- we rushed her into our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown, for blood work.  The blood tests showed her kidney values were still fine. 

Yet even with such a high fever, Brynn didn't act sick, she had a great appetite, and she nickered up a storm.  After Brynn spent several hours at the clinic that day, Bill said, "You know, I've never seen a horse with a fever that high act so normal."  It turned out that this episode seemed to be associated with a flu, because she developed a snotty nose.  A course of antibiotics brought her fever down over the course of three days, and it remained steady.

Then last Tuesday, she spiked again overnight to 105.8 degrees ... with no snotty nose, no respiratory issues, no signs of any other illness.  And she still didn't act sick.  Brynn was perky, happy, nickering, eating, drinking, and being her usual sweet self.  More antibiotics, coupled with an anti-inflammatory, and her temperature returned to normal ... in ONE day.  That's weird. 

This morning, dang, another spike ... she was at 104 degrees ... while still ON antibiotics.  When I went into her stall I noticed she felt warm to the touch, and the thermometer confirmed it.  I called Bill, who by this point was as puzzled as we were by the rapid cycling of her temperature and the fact that it doesn't seem to affect her at all and make her "sick" -- even though she clearly is.  Bill spoke with Brynn's equine surgeon at WSU this afternoon, and they both concluded that she must still have an infection somewhere ... perhaps in her urinary system.  We're going to get blood work in the next day or two and see what her white blood cell count looks like.

Alayne took this photo of me taking Brynn's temperature this evening.  (Once she spikes a fever, we take her temperature three times a day to stay on top of it.)  Right after I pulled the thermometer out and started walking around Brynn's backside, she peed ... and the stream of urine splashed all over my pants.  That's actually how the day started, too:  Nevada the blind puppy peed all over me when I took her out of her crate this morning.  (Occupational hazard.)  So by this evening I was already on my second set of clothes!

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Are You Okay?

Alayne got this interesting shot this afternoon of Daisy the miniature Dachshund checking out a dead-to-the- world blind Joey.  We had a sunny, very warm 70-degree day -- that's unseasonably warm for us, where the average high temperature for April is only 54 degrees -- and the dogs were finding the shady spots to sack out.

Joey had found her shade, and was completely conked out when Daisy ... followed by Alayne ... went to visit.  In case you're wondering why Joey's face looks a bit different, she doesn't just have her eyes closed -- we had to have them removed a few weeks ago because they had become chronically painful.  But Joey is doing just fine, and since she was blind to begin with, all she knows is the pain is gone.

I'm not sure if Joey woke up because she heard the camera shutter clicking, or whether she just had this sensation of someone staring intensely at her, but a minute later she came awake.  At that point Daisy assured herself that everything was okay with Joey and she wandered off in search of more interesting pursuits.  Joey yawned, rolled back over, and went to sleep again.

Ah, springtime.

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Pleased To Meet You

Here's blind baby Nevada on the left, meeting wobbly Soba for the first time.  This is about as stable as we've ever seen Soba, although what the camera doesn't capture is the slight bob-and-weave as she tries to stand still.  Nevada was initially very submissive with Soba and all the other dogs she greeted for the first time.  (Good puppy behavior!)

Soba was fascinated with Nevada's face, and would run her nose across Nevada's cheeks, first on one side and then along the other.  She very slowly and deliberately checked out Nevada's face.  I wonder if it was because she just couldn't figure out why this puppy didn't have eyes.

After maintaining this sitting position while Soba gave her the once-over, Nevada lied down, rolled over, and stayed that way for what she thought was an appropriately respectful amount of time.  Then, quite done with being submissive, she leaped to her feet and bounded back over to Soba, racing around her legs just like she does with us.  She seemed to be saying, "Okay, enough of that deference stuff, let's play!"

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Here, Let Me Help You With That

A wonderful friend and supporter of the sanctuary, Randi S. in northern Virginia, just sent us a big box of peanut butter dog cookies.  Blind Goldie did her instant sniff test and determined there were no soft chew toys inside, so there was no need to start shredding the cardboard with her teeth.  Her nose told her it was the next best thing, though, dog cookies!  But she decided to wait patiently (i.e., for a few minutes) for Alayne to open the box.

Well, right after opening the box, Alayne went to answer the phone.  A couple of minutes later she came back to find Goldie standing inside the box, on top of all the packing paper, as if she were guarding the contents.

Alayne headed to my office to get the camera, and when she returned, it was apparent what Goldie was up to.  No, she wasn't guarding the contents at all.  She had decided to help unpack the box, since Alayne wasn't making much apparent progress.  (Patience does have its limits.)  Goldie was probably inside the box trying to assess how much packing material was in there.  When she realized Alayne had returned, Goldie scampered out of the box and then went to work.  That's when Alayne got these shots of Goldie "helping."

In the first photo Goldie is getting a mouthful of all that packing paper.  (I think she's also trying to figure out how hard it would be to break into one of the cookie boxes and help herself ... speaking of "helping.")  In the second photo she's in full unpacking mode ... "Mom, let me show you how to unpack this thing quickly."

And finally, Goldie has all of the paper out of the box and ... oh so very helpfully .... has managed to drag it through the big water bowl on the floor and then pile it in the water bowl!  Okay, so maybe we'll cut Goldie a little slack because she's blind and maybe she didn't realize the water bowl was right there ... or maybe she just decided it didn't matter, because "there's a lot of ridiculous paper here and I've got to put it somewhere!"

Sometimes you get more help than you can stand, you know?

(Click on photos for larger image.)

Do You Know What's Underneath Your Desk?

Every afternoon, between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., this is what rises up from underneath my desk.  Blind Widget has a daily routine, which is to wander into my office, mill around my desk chair, then stand up on her little short legs and put her front paws on my lap.  Her expression is inevitably, "So, what are you doing up there?"

My answer is usually the same:  "Widget, I'm responding to emails, what are YOU doing?"

She always times this visit for late in the afternoon, when I'm trying to finish up emails and other office tasks so I can head outside for evening chores.  For all I know, she just may be assuring herself that I've put in a full day's worth of work while she's been sleeping all day. 

So after I give her a thorough ear scratch and some loving, she drops back down to the floor, only to mill around briefly and ... reappear!  Once is never enough.  This time she had a good flap o' the ears before climbing up again, giving her the windswept ears-back look.

Having satisfied herself that I really am working hard, she typically heads over to a dog bed in my office for a snooze.  If both of the beds are occupied, she'll wander back out to the living room, content to know she's made her afternoon rounds and that all is as it should be.

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The Wobbly Sisters

It's a good thing these two sisters have different markings, because it would be hard to tell them apart sometimes!  It's like they're programmed to give us the same looks.  These girls are the cerebellar hypoplasia pups who came to us from an Iowa shelter a few weeks ago.  That's Noodle on the left and her sister, the-one-formerly-known-as-Wobbles, now renamed Soba.  (Get it?  Soba ... Noodle.  Okay, well, maybe that's a little too much inside-Asian-cuisine ... soba is a Japanese noodle made from buckwheat.) 

Noodle surprised us the other day and managed to get on a cot all by herself.  She is definitely much more compromised than her sister Soba, and we didn't think she could climb up, but one afternoon we came out of the house and there she was, happily lying on the cot.  Now it's her favorite spot.

Just in case you thought the photo above was a fluke, here's another one.  These two girls do a lot of things in unison.  No matter where I moved with the camera, I got the same expression from each of them.  Photo after photo.

Notice how far apart Noodle's front legs are in the first photo.  There are times when her legs look like they are sticking out at unnatural, 45-degree angles from her body.  We had our vet, Dr. Brenda Culver, X-ray Noodle's joints to make sure they were okay, and they were.  Most cerebellar hypoplasia animals adopt a wide stance with their legs (the front ones in particular) to achieve added stability, but Noodle is the most extreme case we've seen. 

Everything was looking pretty much the same here until Soba decided to try and steal her sister's bed and pull it over to her cot.  It's a good thing she doesn't have great motor skills, because she wasn't able to get it, though try she did!

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Brody and Nevada Come Home

On Saturday our wonderful volunteer Laura B. from Helena picked up Brody and Nevada at the vet clinic and brought them out to us.  Joining Laura at the ranch to volunteer was her daughter Kate, who lives in Missoula.  Together they make volunteering a regular mother/daughter event ... one drives east, one drives west, and they meet at the ranch!  Laura and Kate get so much done, we're always amazed after they leave how much they accomplished.

In the photo is Laura on the left, holding wobbly Rudy, a little guy with cerebellar hypoplasia who came to us from a Utah rescue group last year.  Laura adopted him just a few weeks after he arrived.  Now he comes back to the ranch to "volunteer," too.  In the foreground is Brody, who was enjoying the sunshine after several days in a vet clinic kennel.  Kate is holding baby Nevada.  Sneaking in from the left is blind Widget, who heard the camera clicking and figured if there was going to be a photo, she might as well be in it.

Our vet in Helena, Dr. Brenda Culver, found that the lens in Brody's right eye had detached and was rubbing up against the cornea (ouch), causing the pain and discomfort we were suddenly seeing.  She went ahead and removed his eye, which is why he's wearing a cone on his head.  Brenda had just completed an eye exam on him a few weeks ago, which shows you how fast these things can develop in an eye that has other chronic problems.

Brenda also did exploratory surgery on Nevada's eyes, and as we suspected, there were no eyeballs behind those sealed lids.  Brenda removed the tear glands, which will eliminate the constant discharge from Nevada's eyes.  It turns out that Nevada didn't even have normal orbits, or eye sockets ... they just never fully developed.  Brenda was going to put a prosthesis, like a little marble, in each eye socket to keep the eyelid from sinking in, creating a concave look.  But unfortunately Nevada's orbits were so small and ill-formed there wasn't room to put the prosthesis in either socket.  We also had Nevada spayed at the same time.  All her bloodwork looks great ... so aside from her eyes, she's one healthy little puppy.

I took this photo of Brody a short while after taking the photo above.  He was really happy to be home, and all he wanted to do was crash in the living room.  Which, as you can see, he had no problem doing!  (That's Bailey snoozing in the background.)

Blind Horses: Getting The Word To Vets

One of the things we do here, in addition to directly taking care of 80 animals, is communicating our basic message that disabled animals can have a wonderful quality of life.  (Regular blog readers don't need to be convinced of that, of course!)

The biggest challenge we have is helping people in the horse world understand that this is true of blind horses, too.  Most people assume that a blind horse is going to be dangerous, hard to handle, and miserable.  Of course, we have 25 blind horses who prove this isn't the case.

Now, we're the first to admit that there are some horses that just won't adjust well to blindness.  If you have a high-strung, spooky stallion, for example, that animal might not cope with blindness.  But the fact is that most horses, if given time to adjust, can and do adapt very well to being blind.  How well they adjust has everything to do with their personality, not the disability itself.

Our most important target audience for our blind horse message is the equine vet community, because too many vets still buy into the old myths about blind horses.  We hear, far too often, that an equine vet has told a client that the "most humane thing you can do is put the animal down."  What we want is for the vet to discuss all the options for a blind horse, not just recommend euthanasia as the first and only course of action the owner should take.  We think many equine vets do this because they honestly just haven't considered all the other options, and they may not know what else to recommend.  We want equine vets to be the "first line of defense" for a blind horse, not the first one saying, "better to put it down."

This is why we participate in the annual convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the equine vet association, with an exhibit booth and materials promoting our BlindHorses.org Web site.  But even though we reach a good number of the vets who attend the convention, we realized we needed to do more to get the word out. 

So tomorrow, on Friday, we are stepping up our education campaign with a mailing to all equine vets in the U.S., as well as those in Canada and overseas who are members of the American Association of Equine Practitioners.  This is a sneak preview of the postcard we're sending out to these vets to promote our BlindHorses.org Web site.

By the way, that's our beautiful blind Lena on the cover of the postcard.  You can see why I call her the "prettiest horse in the universe"!

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I Want That Chair. Now.

Many months ago I posted an item and a still photo about blind Widget "looming" over the other dogs until they give up their bed or chair to her.  Widget will quietly walk up to them, stand there motionless (except for her little tail bobbing), and stare intently at them.  (Hey, she's blind, but a stare is a stare!)  She will maintain this posture for what seems like an eternity ... it may be only a few minutes, but it's almost always more stress than the other dogs can bear.  Sooner rather than later, they crack under the pressure and surrender their spot to Widget.

She does this with all dogs, large and small, blind or sighted.  Only two dogs withstand "The Loom" as we call it ... big, blind Kenai and our old boy, Dillon, who's pretty much oblivious to all sorts of things going on around him.  Eventually Widget will give up, dropping her tail in a sign of waning confidence in her ability to intimidate, and wander off, or she'll just climb up and settle down next to them (but that's NOT the same as winning the stare-down and having the bed or chair to oneself!).

So when I saw Widget looming over Oscar just the other day, this time I dashed to the office to get the video camera.  This showdown had been going on for a while, so unfortunately I captured only the last few seconds, missing out on all the tension that was buzzing in the air!

Nevada and Brody Go To The Vet

Alayne drove new arrivals Nevada the blind puppy and Brody the blind Lab to our vet clinic in Helena today.  We took these photos shortly before Alayne hit the road.

Nevada is going in for an eye exam, general medical check-up, blood work and a spay.  We are a bit concerned about the chronic discharge from her eyes.  We've had puppies born without eyes before, but have not seen this kind of discharge.

So our vet Dr. Brenda Culver will be figuring out -- probably through either exploratory surgery or ultrasound -- what's going on behind Nevada's sealed eyelids.  But otherwise Nevada is healthy, happy, and playful.  Her eyes don't seem to bother her at all.

(In the photo behind me are two of our three barns -- that's Lena's Barn on the left and Scout's Barn on the right.  Beauty's Barn is about 150 yards down the drive to the right.)

Here's a close-up I took of this little girl today before she went to the clinic.  It's hard to get a good shot of Nevada because she's always swirling around our feet and trying to climb up our legs!

Brody, on the other hand, is clearly having some kind of problem with his eyes.  He seems uncomfortable, squinting at times, occasionally rubbing his eyes with his paws.  He'll lie on the floor with his eyes mostly closed ... not dozing, he'll be wide awake ... but looking like they're bothering him.  Even in some of these photos I took today he was squinting.  Yet they don't seem red or inflamed.

During her eye exam on Brody a couple of weeks ago, Brenda detected through ultrasound that his retinas were detaching.  We could be seeing complications from that.

Alayne left both Nevada and Brody at the clinic this afternoon, and we'll post an update on these two adorable animals as soon as we have any news.

(Click on photos for larger image.)