Rolling Dog Farm

Update on Ella

Good news!  Ella had her surgery today at the Shreveport vet hospital and came through the operation in good shape.  The vet who performed the amputation, Dr. Keith Ratcliff, called me just before he took Ella into surgery for a pre-op update, and then one of his vet techs called me after the operation to let me know everything went well.  We had some increased risk for the anesthesia because Ella is heart-worm positive, but as Dr. Ratcliff said, we had to get the leg removed first and we will have to treat the heartworm condition after she gets to Montana.  He said Ella was also full of hookworms and tapeworms, so he began treating her for that and we will have to follow up when she gets here. 

The information I had from yesterday was apparently not correct, because Dr. Ratcliff believes her leg is the result of trauma, not a birth defect ... and trauma that had never been treated.  I can't even imagine.

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Please vote for the ranch in the Shelter Challenge -- and you can vote every day!  We're currently in third place, putting us on track to win $3,000 for the animals.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT, for Montana, and it will bring up our listing.

Vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Last year we won $3,000 in the first round and then won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the second round, so your votes really do add up and make for a wonderful gift for the animals here.

Thank you!

Ella

This is Ella, the other disabled dog in Shreveport who was scheduled to fly out to us on Friday.  We've been working with Rebecca Y. from Animal Welfare, Inc., a rescue group in Shreveport that tries to save animals at risk in the local municipal shelter.  (Rebecca had been the one who sent us Timmy and, a few years ago, Trooper.)  Ella had just arrived earlier this week at the shelter, along with three puppies.  The shelter was not going put her up for adoption, given her disability, though they are going to make her puppies available for adoption. 

Well, the shelter staff told Rebecca on Tuesday afternoon that Ella's crippled front leg was sore, infected and appeared very painful.  This is a photo taken at the shelter on Monday:

Here's another view:

So when Rebecca called me late Tuesday with the news, we decided to pull Ella out of the shelter immediately and get her to a vet clinic in Shreveport.  Yesterday morning, Rebecca picked up Ella and took her to a local vet.  I gave the clinic our credit card information to pay for whatever care she needed.

And what she needs, the vet determined after examining her leg, is to have it amputated -- and quickly.  The nub of her leg is infected and swollen, and has a raw, open wound.  In the photo at the top of this post, which Rebecca took at the vet clinic, you can see what the end of her leg looks like.  Here's a close-up of the open sore:

The vet thinks her leg is most likely a birth defect, born with a missing foot -- though there appears to be some kind of paw pad or dew claw near the nub.  She's been dragging the stump on the ground and banging it around, and the chronic trauma to the end of the stump has allowed infection to take hold.  The vet did not want to operate on her leg until he brought the infection under control, so the surgery is now scheduled for Friday. 

I spoke to one of the clinic staff members today, and Ella is doing okay.  She's on pain medications and antibiotics, and is now comfortable.  She will stay in the hospital over the weekend, and then Rebecca will be taking her home to recuperate for a week or two before sending her on to us.

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One of our blog readers posted a comment about another volunteer air transport group, Animal Rescue Flights.  Yes, we know about them, too.  From their Web site:  "Long transports present special challenges. Transports of over 500 miles require special planning and may require ground transportation for intermediate stops. Many times, the best way to transport an animal is by a combination of ground and air."  Again, there are reasons we use commercial airlines.  500 miles from Shreveport would have gotten Timmy to ... Kansas.

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Please vote for the ranch in the Shelter Challenge -- and you can vote every day!  We're currently in third place, putting us on track to win $3,000 for the animals.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT, for Montana, and it will bring up our listing.

Vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Last year we won $3,000 in the first round and then won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the second round, so your votes really do add up and make for a wonderful gift for the animals here.

Thank you!

Please Welcome ... Timmy!

Here's the little guy we flew in yesterday evening from Louisiana.  Because of his size and his crippled leg, the rescue group in Shreveport who pulled him from the local shelter had named him Tiny Tim, or Timmy.  His flight arrived right on schedule, just about 7 p.m.  We had flown him on Delta from Shreveport to Atlanta to Minneapolis and on to Missoula. 

He weighs all of 30 pounds, if that, and seems to be a Shepherd mix of some sort but mostly "mix" ... and I'm not sure where all those spots came from, either!  He's a sweet boy with plenty of energy.  We think he's probably only about a year old, maybe a bit more.

It's hard to tell what's wrong with his leg.  It reminds us of Jasper, who had a contracted biceps tendon.  But it seems different, too -- less flexible, and it appears to get in his way.  Jasper at least could pull his leg up and out of the way to go sprinting off; Timmy can't seem to do that, and so it kind of hangs down and bangs on the ground as he walks or tries to run.  Thus I don't know if it's a birth defect or a condition caused by an injury of some sort.  Here's a close-up:

So we'll have a full work-up done at our vet clinic and make decisions on treatment then.

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It seems like every time we mention we flew an animal in on a commercial airline, someone always asks whether we know about the Pilots 'N Paws group.  Yes, we do.  But their focus is generally on shorter-haul transports.  From their Web site: "A good rule of thumb is approximately a 3 hour flight.  This equates to approximately 400 miles.  Anything beyond that would have to be coordinated with a second pilot and plane.  This is not impossible but can be difficult due to varying weather conditions in different areas." 

We've found it's a lot easier, faster and more convenient to fly animals in commercially, given our location and the distances we're usually working with.  And it's cost-effective, too:  Timmy's airfare was only $320, and the whole trip was done in one quick day.

The airlines still seem to get a bad rap about flying pets, but we've been doing this for 10 years and have never had a bad experience.  In fact, we have been very impressed with the attention these animals get along the way.  For example, a Delta employee in Minneapolis had cleaned out Timmy's crate, carefully wrapped the soiled bedding in a plastic bag and taped it to the top of the crate, and gave him clean, fresh bedding for the final leg of his trip.  A few years ago we had flown another dog, Cody, through Minneapolis as well.  An airline employee who takes care of the animals in the pet cargo area had noticed some drops of blood in his crate; she pulled Cody out, examined him, couldn't find any wound, but called us to see if we wanted her to take him to a vet before sending him on.  How's that for personalized attention?

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Please vote for the ranch in the Shelter Challenge -- and you can vote every day!  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT, for Montana, and it will bring up our listing.

Vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Last year we won $3,000 in the first round and then won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the second round, so your votes really do add up and make for a wonderful gift for the animals here.

Thank you!

On The Road...

I'm heading into Missoula today to pick up a disabled dog we're flying in this evening from a shelter in Shreveport, Louisiana, so I won't have a new post until sometime Wednesday.  The dog is a small Shepherd mix, his name is Timmy and he has a crippled front leg.  We have actually just committed to taking four disabled dogs from Louisiana.  Another one from Shreveport is arriving on Friday, and she also -- ironically -- has a crippled front leg, too.  The other two are blind-and-deaf Dachshund mixes who are coming from a New Orleans rescue group ... I still have to arrange their trip.  I'm not sure how we ended up with four from Louisiana, but I don't think it had anything to do with the Saints winning the Super Bowl.

Road To Recovery

I should have pointed this out in yesterday's post but somehow I got sidetracked with all that OCD symmetry discussion:  the fact that blind Callie is up in the chair is a major milestone in her recovery from her brain tumor.  Last week, in fact, was the first time we saw her climb up into that chair unassisted since coming back from WSU last April.  She used to love sleeping in those arm chairs all the time.  She'd climb first onto the cot below and then use that as a platform to stand on while she climbed into the chair.  But after her radiation, she no longer could do this -- why we're not entirely sure.  So the only time she'd be able to get in the chair was when we'd pick her up and put her there.  But then, finally, late last week Alayne saw her climb up on her own ... and this weekend marked only the second time she's done it.  It's been a long road for her, step by step, and we were delighted to see her able to do this again.

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Please vote for the ranch in the Shelter Challenge -- and you can vote every day!  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT, for Montana, and it will bring up our listing.

Vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Last year we won $3,000 in the first round and then won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the second round, so your votes really do add up and make for a wonderful gift for the animals here.

Thank you!

Matched Set

I have this issue about symmetry.  I like things to be arranged symmetrically.  Neatly.  In matching order. Over the years I have driven volunteers, employees and contractors crazy with my need for symmetry.  When we built the first cat house on the ranch in 1999 we were still living in Seattle and weren't here when the building went up.  But when we drove out, turned down the drive and saw it for the first time from 1/4 mile away, my immediate reaction was ... "Ohmigod, it's off by 4 degrees!"  It wasn't lined up exactly on the same north/south axis as the house or the wood shed.  I wanted to hook a chain to it and jerk it into the correct alignment.  I didn't, nor did I make the contractors move it to its proper place in the universe, but I have noticed that 4-degree misalignment ever since.  It's just not right, if you know what I mean.  (If you don't, that's okay.) 

Some people have rolled their eyes when I insist our compost windrows need to be lined up in perfectly parallel rows, running east/west, evenly spaced apart.  Others ... well, I could go on but it's probably better if I stop here.

One person who has lived with me for a long, long time suggests my need for symmetry borders on OCD.  I won't mention the source of that presumed diagnosis, but I think she might exaggerate just a wee bit.  Nevertheless, there is a positive side to this -- I knew you were wondering -- and that is, I notice when things are, quite by chance, arranged symmetrically.  It is so pleasing to the eye, so in tune with the way it should be, that I think, "Oh, look, how wonderful!  I should take a photo of that!"

Which is what I was thinking when I looked over and saw this matched set of Dachshunds in the living room on Saturday morning.  That's blind Callie on the left and Daisy on the right.  I will admit, it did bug me just a little that the color of the throw on Callie's chair was a shade off from the throw on Daisy's chair, but as I've gotten older (much older, alas), I've learned to step back and appreciate the bigger picture symmetry and not let the details get in the way.

So there you have it.  Matching Dachsunds, curled up in the exact same way, on matching chairs.  The Gods of Symmetry were much pleased.

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Some folks asked why Moose didn't have "house privileges" any longer, i.e., why he was over at Widget's House and not in our home.  The short answer:  Just not enough room.  There's only so much space in a 1,400 square foot home, and he is one very big boy.  When Gabe moved in (we always keep the blind-and-deaf ones here with us) and then Willie came back, there was no more room left at the inn.  It is not true that because we already had one yellow Lab (Brody) at Widget's House, I wanted to add a second yellow Lab to achieve some kind of symmetry.

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Please vote for the ranch in the Shelter Challenge -- and you can vote every day!  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT, for Montana, and it will bring up our listing.

Vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Last year we won $3,000 in the first round and then won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the second round, so your votes really do add up and make for a wonderful gift for the animals here.

Thank you!

Weather Wuss

I got this photo this morning of blind Moose and blind Penny drinking from the water bucket on the Widget's House porch.  I had let the dogs out just a few moments before.  (On Penny, you can see the shaved area where the growth was removed.  She's doing fine.)

Moose is a real wuss when it comes to the weather -- if it's below 60° (15°C) outside, he thinks it's impossibly, frightfully cold.  So when we put them outdoors, he rarely leaves that dog house on the porch, which has a heated bed in it and is covered with blankets to better hold the warmth in.

After 8 hours in a crate for the night, he heads out the front door, makes an immediate right turn into the area where the water bucket is, and disappears into the dog house.  No stopping to pee first!  Then, when I bring out the water bucket (we keep it in the building overnight), he comes out only halfway from the dog house to drink ... and then disappears back inside it.  He'd much prefer I hand the bucket to him inside the dog house so he doesn't have to come out at all.  He'll stay in there for a couple of hours longer before finally coming out to pee.  (Another amazing bladder.)

At night, when I put them back outside for the final potty break before bedtime, I actually have to close the gate to this area because he will go straight into the dog house rather than wander off into the yard to do his business.  (Then, at 1 a.m., he'll realize he needs to pee really, really badly in his crate!  And you-know-who has a crate to clean the next morning.)

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Please vote for the ranch in the Shelter Challenge -- and you can vote every day!  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT, for Montana, and it will bring up our listing.

Vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Last year we won $3,000 in the first round and then won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the second round, so your votes really do add up and make for a wonderful gift for the animals here.

Thank you!

Get Me Outta Here

I spent today in Missoula on the weekly run, driving in with a truck full of dogs -- the blind Poodle sisters Molly and Priscilla to the groomers (finally!), and blind Penny and Dexter the Dachshund to our internal medicine specialist, Dr. Dave Bostwick.  While the dogs were all being attended to, I did grocery shopping, went to Costco for supplies, took deposits to the bank, interviewed a horse trainer we're going to use to work with blind Cash (more later), and made a few other stops along the way. 

Penny needed yet another growth removed from her lower back.  Dave thinks it was benign but sent it off for a biopsy to confirm.  As for Dexter ... well, there turned out to be nothing at all wrong with him, which is why he was probably more indignant than usual about being in a cage. 

The other day Alayne felt a lump on his neck under his jaw, and when Dexter turned his head towards the light, she could see it as well.  She had me look at him, and I could definitely feel it ... and another one on the other side of his neck, too.  Swollen lymph nodes ... uh oh ... was my first thought.

Then I remembered something.  When I took blind Callie to WSU for her brain tumor radiation, the 4th year vet student who did Callie's initial pre-intake physical exam felt lumps under her jaw on both sides ... and she was concerned that Callie's cancer might have spread to her lymph nodes.  The vet student wanted to know if the referring vet -- in this case, it was Dave -- had mentioned these lumps to us.  By the time I got Dave on the phone to ask about them, the oncologist had already walked into the room, felt the lumps, and said, "Oh, those are just very pronounced salivary glands!"  Which is exactly what Dave was telling me, between chuckles, on the phone.  It was a good learning for both the vet student and me.

So when I dropped Dexter off this morning with Penny, I told Alex, Dave's vet tech, that I was 99% sure these were salivary glands I was feeling on Dexter ... but just in case, let's have Dave do an exam and he can have another chuckle at my expense.  What made me just a tad bit nervous was the fact that after first feeling the lumps on Dexter, I went around and examined all the other Dachshunds -- and not one had lumps like that.  Alayne and I thought, hmm, we'd better find out and not make an assumption.

Sure enough, they were salivary glands.

So when I went back to the clinic this afternoon to pick up Penny and Dexter, the wee-one was very vocal about being locked up for no reason at all.  And since I didn't move fast enough to get him out, he threw his head back to let rip:

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Please vote for the ranch in the Shelter Challenge -- and you can vote every day!  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT, for Montana, and it will bring up our listing.

Vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Last year we won $3,000 in the first round and then won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the second round, so your votes really do add up and make for a wonderful gift for the animals here.

Thank you!

Bun Bun

Tia and Karl M. in Washington state, who adopted beautiful little Bunny from us in 2008, sent us these new photos of the cat they now also call Bun Bun.  Tia wrote, "I've said this before, she has to be one of the most photogenic animals I have ever had, and again, this cat knows how to relax!"

And ...

And if that's not enough relaxation, how about:

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Please vote for the ranch in the Shelter Challenge -- and you can vote every day!  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT, for Montana, and it will bring up our listing.

Vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Last year we won $3,000 in the first round and then won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the second round, so your votes really do add up and make for a wonderful gift for the animals here.

Thank you!

I Was Supposed To Be Sunning Myself

Now that the sun is starting to come up earlier in the mornings, the barn cats are often waiting on the hay bales on the south side of Lena's Barn to catch the first rays as the sun crests the ridge to the east of us.  But this winter, what's been happening with annoying frequency is that just as the sun rises over the ridge ... an ice-fog moves in and blocks the rays, putting us back into a bone-chilling mist.  And then the fog hangs around for hours, so the day never warms up as much as it was forecast.  Alayne got this photo the other morning of Skitter, one of our barn cats, who had positioned herself on the hay bales and was patiently waiting for the sun.  Alas, as on many mornings before, the fog had moved in and wasn't lifting.  By the time we finished morning chores, Skitter had given up and retreated to her heated igloo in the barn.  Oh well.  Better luck next time.

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Please vote for the ranch in the Shelter Challenge -- and you can vote every day!  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT, for Montana, and it will bring up our listing.

Vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Last year we won $3,000 in the first round and then won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the second round, so your votes really do add up and make for a wonderful gift for the animals here.

Thank you!