Rolling Dog Farm

Kodiak's Special Bed

If you've followed the story of Kodiak, you know that he is essentially paralyzed right now.  Keeping him clean and comfortable and on dry bedding is a daily challenge.  Well, one of the sanctuary's wonderful supporters, Mark C. from Missoula, offered today to buy a special bed designed for dogs in Kodiak's condition.

It's called the SleePee-Time Bed, and is basically a dog cot with a special mesh fabric that allows urine to flow through to a tray underneath the bed.  It's a new product and we had not seen it until Mark told us about it.  You can read about the bed here.

Mark ordered the bed in an extra-large version for Kodiak this afternoon -- thank you, Mark!

In Monday's post I mentioned we were expressing Kodiak's bladder.  This is not fun for either the 'expressee' ... big old Kodiak ... or the 'expresser' ... me.  I guarantee you that it cannot be comfortable having someone squeeze your bladder so hard it makes you pee.  (Don't try this at home.) 

To give you some idea of what kind of dog this Malamute is, here's a little story from this afternoon when Alayne and I went over to Widget's House to change his bedding again and clean him.  Kodiak knows what's coming first ... I'm going to express his bladder before we move him to fresh bedding.  So I'm hunkered down on the ground next to him, with my left arm underneath his body and reaching around to his groin, my right hand resting on the other side of his groin ... and my face is somewhere near his shoulders.  Just as I start to press ... he turns his head and licks my face.

I just melted.  Here I'm about to start this uncomfortable procedure that I know he doesn't like, but he licks me anyway as if to say, "It's okay, don't worry, I still like you." 

Horse Eyes and Dog Bladders

Today we've been treating two of our blind horses for new eye problems ... runny eyes, squinting, tearing.  Shasta, an old Appaloosa -- the second horse to arrive here -- developed this in his right eye.  Rocky, another blind Appy, had a similar problem in his left eye.  Then this evening when we went out to treat both horses again, we noticed Rocky's RIGHT eyelid was now suddenly big and puffy.   The conjunctiva was so swollen I couldn't even find his eye as I was probing around inside looking for it.  Yikes.  So I called our equine vet, Bill Brown, for advice.  He recommended some therapies and we'll see how Rocky looks tomorrow.  Ironically, the eye we had been treating ... the left one ... looked great this evening.

Over in the disabled dog building, Widget's House, Kodiak and I have been learning how to express his bladder.  He still can't walk or even stand up, and he naturally pees on his bedding.  So before we change his bedding, to keep him dry as long as possible, I express his bladder and try to empty out as much urine as I can.  We had a veterinarian and his wife from Kansas visiting here yesterday, and he showed me how to do this.  I already knew how to express cat bladders and bowels (we had a paralyzed cat, Gracie, who needed this done), but I hadn't done it on a dog before. 

Now, the challenge here is Kodiak's sheer size ... at 110 lbs, he's big and so is his bladder ... and the fact that he is laying down.  It's a lot easier to find and express a bladder when the animal is upright.  (And the urine is sure to follow gravity DOWN.  That's helpful.)  It's a tad more problematic when the dog is laying on his side.  But, Kodiak is a sweet, tolerant boy, and we are learning together how this works.  We roll him over on his side, Alayne holds him there, and then I reach around on both sides from underneath him and press gently but firmly with open hands where his bladder is. 

Once his bladder is expressed, we move him to fresh bedding ... and this is a two-person job.  Alayne lifts him with his shoulder harness and I use a sling that goes underneath his rear, and together we haul him up and over to his new bed.  Of course, the laundry machines in Widget's House are going around the clock now, washing and drying all his bedding!

Kodiak Comes Home to the Ranch

After five days in the surgery hospital in Spokane, Kodiak came home to the ranch this evening.  (See original post on his surgery here.)  Jerry Black, our fabulous volunteer who makes so many trips for us, drove to Spokane today to pick him up.

We slid Kodiak out of Jerry's truck on some bedding and gently set him down on the porch at Widget's House, our disabled dog building.  Jerry helped me while I washed him up.  Kodiak wanted to go for a walk, but his legs just wouldn't work at all ... we tried again and no luck.  So we helped him pee, I cleaned him up again, and then we moved him over to his bed on the porch. 

The surgeon had cautioned us that Kodiak would be very weak and might not be able to walk after the surgery ... that it might take days or weeks for him to get back to where he was before the surgery.  And there's a possibility he might never return to even that compromised level.  This evening his legs just folded up underneath him, and he couldn't pull them out by himself. 

Despite all this, Kodiak was very happy to be back at the ranch.  He drank lots of water, ate a full dinner, and ... as you can see in the photo above ... he enjoyed surveying his domain again from the porch.  (He had no idea I had stuffed his meal with several medications.)

Even though the surgeon couldn't fix his problem, the operation was still a major one.  It opened his back right down to the sheath surrounding his spinal cord.  This is what his back looks like now.  The patch contains a transdermal pain medication.  We'll take Kodiak to our local vets to have his stitches removed in two weeks.

Of course, we had really hoped the surgery would help him walk again, but we knew there was a chance his condition wasn't operable.  Now our goal will be to keep him clean and comfortable.  We know his neurological problem is progressive, and only time will tell how far it will advance.  For now, we're going to help him enjoy his life the best he can.  We can tell he isn't ready to give up, and so neither are we.

Back to Boston She Goes

For all of August we've had a wonderful young lady working at the sanctuary.  Emily E., whose family lives in Helena and who attends Boston College, came to volunteer one day at the end of July.  We liked her so much we offered her a job for the rest of the summer.

Emily has done just about everything there is to do here, from horse care to grooming dogs to cleaning the cat house.  I took these photos of Emily this morning in "her" tractor, listening to her MP3 player while she's cleaning out the sighted horse corral.

Emily grew up with horses and is on the Equestrian Team at Boston College, so she was a natural at working with our blind horses.  She'd take them out to pasture every morning and bring them back in the evening.

Today is Emily's last day ... she goes back to Boston College for her senior year this weekend.  We'll miss her!

Another Hard Day at the Office

This is Widget, our blind Beagle/Dachshund mix, hard at work in her office this morning.  It's not easy deciding which bed to lay on, whether to choose a sunny spot or shade, and which side to sleep on.  Or at least that's what she tells us.

We tell her, "Widget, it's time to get a real job!"

Widget came to us a few years ago from a shelter in New York.  Although she's completely blind, she doesn't consider that a disability.  Blindness she can deal with.  Her real problem is she's a Beagle trapped inside a Dachshund body.  Widget says, "Now that is a true handicap!"

Brrr! 26 Degrees on August 25th!

For all of you sweltering in August heat somewhere, here's something to consider:  This morning when we got up, the temperature was 26 degrees and there was frost on the ground.  How's that for an August morning?

Here's a photo I took at 7 a.m., just before the sun rose above the mountain range to our east.  This is our disabled dog building, Widget's House.  You're looking west, and the Swan Range is in the distance.  If you click on the image for a larger version, you may be able to see the frost on the grass in the foreground.

Our first frosts are usually in August or in early September.  It's always a brisk reminder that winter in the northern Rockies is not far away!

Kodiak: The Day After

After yesterday's discouraging news about Kodiak, we are now just eagerly waiting until we can bring him back to the ranch.  This morning he was pretty doped up ... even though they didn't find anything operable, Kodiak still had the equivalent of major back surgery.  By this afternoon he was awake and feeling better, Dr. Lawrence told us.  We are going to leave him at the hospital in their care until Saturday, when our indispensable volunteer, Jerry Black, will drive over to Spokane to pick him up for us. 

Late this afternoon I received an e-mail with several images taken from Kodiak's myelogram.  Dr. Jeff Siems, a board-certified veterinary radiologist who works in the same building as our surgeons, had converted the myelogram images to jpegs and e-mailed them to us.  Dr. Siems then patiently walked me through the images on the phone and explained what I was looking at.  Thank you, Dr. Siems! 

The image here is probably the best one that illustrates the compression problem in Kodiak's spine.  (Click on photo for bigger version.)  You can see the vertebrae and the three vertical spaces ... the intervertebral discs ... between them, starting on the left.  Then, look for the horizontal sheath .. or dura mater ... that runs across the vertebrae from left to right. That's the watertight sac that holds the spinal cord.  Look for the second (or middle) intervertebral disc ... you can see where the sheath is compressed.

It appears more pinched underneath, right where the intervertebral disc is, but Dr. Siems explained that the biggest problem is the compression that occurs on the top side of the sheath.  The compression extends across parts of two vertebrae.  The sheath should be a uniform thickness from one end of this image to the other.  It's not.

Kodiak's Surgery: Not Good News

Our veterinary surgeon in Spokane, Dr. Howard Lawrence, called this afternoon at 2:30.  Kodiak was on the operating table with his back opened up.  What he had found wasn't good.

There is a sheath or membrane of connective tissue called the dura mater that surrounds the spinal cord and holds the spinal fluid.  It's basically a watertight sack that protects the cord.  This sheath had completely calcified in one spot  ... the surgeon said it was almost solid bone 2 millimeters thick ... and was compressing the cord.   

The condition is called dural ossification.  Dr. Lawrence said this is the first case he's seen where it is so severe that it compresses the spinal cord.  This is why Kodiak can't get up on his own and why he falls down once he starts walking for more than a short distance. 

Unfortunately, there isn't anything he can do to relieve the pressure.  Trying to chip away at the calcified sheath could damage the spinal cord itself.  Kodiak has multiple areas along the spine where the dural ossification is occurring, but only one area where it's causing cord compression.

He will most likely get worse as the ossification continues.  Given the prognosis, Dr. Lawrence said we should consider not bringing Kodiak out of anesthesia but putting him to sleep while he was still on the operating table.

I didn't know what to think or even say.  We had already scheduled euthanasia for this dog once before.  I wasn't ready then to let him go then.  I finally decided this wasn't the time either.  I just see too much happiness in this dog's face ... despite his problems, he still enjoys life.

I asked Dr. Lawrence to close Kodiak up and bring him out of anesthesia.  I told him that I want Kodiak at least to get a chance to enjoy the rest of summer, laying on his bed on the porch.  If we see a rapid decline, or any sign of suffering, then we'll let him go.

But not yet.  He's coming home in a couple of days.

To Jan and Wayne in Seattle, who paid for the myelogram and surgery, thank you for letting us give him this chance. 

Kodiak Leaves for Spokane

Kodiak, the big Husky who came to us from Missoula Animal Control 10 days ago, is on his way to Spokane to see our board-certified veterinary surgeons.  We loaded this hefty boy into the back of the truck and Alayne left about 11 a.m.  Kodiak looked pretty happy sitting on his big bed.  You can see our first post on Kodiak here.

His appointment is tomorrow morning.  The surgeons will first do a myelogram (injecting traceable fluid into the sac surrounding the spinal cord), which should help them identify where the neurological problem is.  It will also tell them if it's operable.  If it is, Kodiak will go straight into surgery.

For more background information on myelograms in dogs, go here.

There is a chance the myelogram may not reveal anything, and also a chance that even if it does pinpoint a tumor or lesion, the surgeon can't operate on it.  So at this point all we can do is wait and keep our fingers crossed.

Lena's Eye Problem

Today we discovered that our beautiful blind mare Lena has developed a problem with her right eye. We noticed a small eruption on the surface of her cornea.  I could see at a distance that something was wrong because her eyelids were a little puffy, and she just didn't look at me the way she normally does.  (Blind horses still look, they just don't see.)  So I went up to investigate and found a strange looking thing on her eye.

This is a photo I took this evening ... click on the photo to enlarge it and you may be able to see what I'm talking about.  The spot is at about the 10 o'clock position ... if you see the light oblong shape in the back of the eye, it's on the left side of that.  The inside of her eye also now looks very different from the inside of her left eye.  Something odd is going on.

Small eye problems can quickly mushroom into major problems, and they're often painful as well.  Thus I called our equine vet, Bill Brown, and found him enjoying a beautful Saturday afternoon on his sailboat on Flathead Lake.  We discussed what I was seeing occur in her eye, and he thought it might be a corneal stromal abscess.

With Bill on the phone, I pulled out our favorite medical book (Brian Gilger's Equine Ophthalmology) and started reviewing with him the treatment options recommended in the book for these abscesses.  Of course, Bill is at a disadvantage because he can't see the horse and has to rely on my description of the problem, but we've been through lots of eye issues together.

Bill also knows that I am neurotic about Lena ... I am absolutely certain that she is the most beautiful horse in the universe.  I also call her my 'red-headed girlfriend.'  (Alayne just rolls her eyes.)  This second photo of Lena was taken earlier this summer by Amber Chenoweth, a friend and supporter of the sanctuary from Seattle.  (And a wonderful photographer!)  Click on the photo for a larger image.  This is horse perfection, ladies and gentlemen.  She is as sweet and adorable as she is beautiful. 

So Bill suggests we begin treating her with two types of eye ointment, a systemic antibiotic (trimethoprim-sulfa), and bute to make her comfortable.  He also has me take a Q-tip soaked in a solution and gently tap the eruption point with it; this may help it open up and drain to the exterior of the eye, rather than rupture inside.

Alayne and I gathered up the supplies and headed out to treat this gorgeous horse.  (There I go again.)  Gentle Lena patiently let me tap her eyeball with the damp Q-tip, squirt copious amounts of ointment in her eyes, flush a 60 cc syringe of oral antibiotics down her throat, and top it off with 2 grams of bute paste in her mouth. 

We'll have a better idea tomorrow of what we're dealing with.  And Bill offered to cut his weekend short and head back to Missoula if things got worse.  Hopefully we can keep the eye stable and comfortable until Monday.