Rolling Dog Farm

Bed Tester

I'll be the first to admit that blind Widget makes more than her fair share of appearances here on the blog.  Part of the reason -- okay, maybe the entire reason -- is that she is impossibly cute, with a personality to match. 

And yes, most of her blog moments involve sleeping in one form or another, because that is what she does 18 hours a day.  Take this photo, for instance.  Our friends at West Paw Design in Bozeman, Montana, make some of the finest pet beds anywhere, along with unique dog and cat toys.  (All made in Montana, by the way.)  About once a year they kindly send us some donated goodies, and the bed you see in this photo was in the box that just arrived. 

Widget, of course, fancies herself as a world-class 'bed tester' (who better than someone who can sleep 18 hours a day?), and while she's grateful for the annual shipment from West Paw, she's peeved the company has never put her on the payroll as an official tester.

That doesn't stop her from testing every bed in the box anyway.  I know -- and you know -- Widget looks a little ridiculous in this photo ... the bed's a bit too small, the dog's a bit too plump ... but she thought the bed was just divine.

Our favorite West Paw dog beds are their Nature Nap beds in the large or extra-large size. These fit perfectly on both the Kuranda cots our dogs use during the day and also in the crates they sleep in at night.  Plus they're durable, comfortable and easily washable.

Widget prefers something much more plush, pillowy and expensive like the Bumper Bed she's testing.  (Well, of course she does!)  She's just hoping that next time they'll send ... um ... a larger one.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Another TV News Story

The local CBS affiliate in Missoula, KPAX-TV, came out today to tape a story for their Sunday nightly newscast segment called 'Under The Big Sky.'  Ian Marquand, who produces the 'Under The Big Sky' feature stories, spent a couple of hours here this morning interviewing us and meeting the animals.  In this photo Ian is videotaping our trainer, Nichole Zupan, as she rides blind Nikki.  Nichole was wearing a microphone and conducting an interview with Ian at the same time about what it's like to train a blind horse.

The story is expected to air next Sunday, August 6th, on all the CBS local stations in Montana.  Most will run it on their 10 p.m. newscast, while a few will run it earlier on their evening newscasts.  Ian said he will send us a DVD with the story after it airs so we can post it on our Web site.

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By the way:  Still no word from ABC News on when the Good Morning America story will run!

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(Click on photo for larger image.)

Bye, Bye Beth!

Today is Beth's last day at the ranch, and I took this photo of her this afternoon, filling the water tanks in the horse pastures.  (Two of our blind horses, Hannah and Luna, are grazing in the background.)  Beth is moving to Missoula, where she is going to be working in retail part-time and hoping eventually to land a full-time teaching position.  She earned a Master's in Education from Boston College last year, and we knew her long-term goal was to teach. 

In the year she was here, we came to value Beth for her hard work, her wonderful way with the animals, and her cheery, upbeat personality.  She was always fun to have around, and we'll miss her!

Beth's departure has been planned for a while, and we have already hired her replacement, Mariah S. from Missoula.  Mariah officially starts next Tuesday and she'll be moving into the employee cabin on the ranch in the next couple of days.  We'll introduce Mariah here on the blog pretty soon.

In the meantime, I hope you'll join us in wishing Beth the very best for the future!

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Turning The Compost

Emily E. from Helena came out today to volunteer at the ranch; she worked here for all of August last summer, so she knows the ropes.  She just graduated from Boston College and is heading back East in a few weeks to start work, but in the meantime, she kindly offered to come by for a couple of days and help out.

And did I have the project for her:  turning our compost piles!  We compost all the horse manure from the corrals and the stalls, using wood shavings and straw as feedstocks to get the right carbon:nitrogen ratio.  Once the material "cooks" and then cures, we spread it on the fields in the fall as a soil amendment.  Every few weeks we turn the piles to aerate them and keep the composting process going. 

At any one time we are working three windrows, which are elongated piles each about 40 feet long.  One windrow is in the curing phase, one is just finishing the cooking stage, and the other is still actively cooking.  So Emily turned the last two windrows this afternoon, using our Kubota tractor.

I am one of the few people I know who gets really excited about composting, but then there's a reason I'm the Chief Manure Officer.  (That's "CMO" for those in the know.)

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Eyes, Hooves And Just About Everything In Between

Our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown, came out today to look at several of our horses.  In fact, our list for Bill had 13 items on it!  Some were minor issues (health exams on recent arrivals, re-checks on earlier cases, etc.), while others were major, such as laminitis in Rosie and an eye problem with Honey.  (And one of our blind geldings turned out to have a potentially cancerous growth on his penis, but it's a good thing I didn't get any photos of that, huh?)

In this first photo, Bill is examining our blind American Quarter Horse mare Honey, who developed a very painful left eye ... so painful we had to sedate her for the exam.  Otherwise she wouldn't let you get near it. 

We'll end up having to remove Honey's eye.  We don't like doing it, but sometimes it's the only option left, and if the eye is blind anyway, the only thing the horse knows is that the pain is finally gone -- and for that, they are grateful. 

Rosie, another blind Quarter Horse mare who came a few weeks ago, seemed 'ouchy' on her feet from the minute she arrived.  We attributed this initially to the fact that she had her hooves heavily trimmed the day before she was trailered out to us, and that can be a recipe for hoof problems.  (Don't trim before you trailer!)

So we kept Rosie in a corral for weeks (green grass can exacerbate some hoof diseases like laminitis), treated her with an anti-inflammatory, and she seemed to get better.  But just when we thought Rosie was finally over it, she'd have a flare-up.  Thus it was time to get a definitive diagnosis.

From his exam Bill determined Rosie does have laminitis, a painful inflammation of the laminae, the soft tissue or membranes that hold the coffin bone to the hoof wall.  And in bad cases, the coffin bone can rotate out of its normal position, causing increased discomfort and complications.  The only way to find out whether rotation has begun is to X-ray the hoof, which is what we did today.  We couldn't process the radiographs at the ranch, so Bill will call us tomorrow with the results. 

For Rosie, this will mean special pads for her feet, corrective trimming, and other disease management techniques to help her cope with this problem.

After reading about a vet visit like today, plus all our other recent veterinary cases, it may not surprise you to learn that we've spent $19,464.68 (to be precise!) on veterinary care so far this year!

Stoney's Water Game

Losing Sammy on Friday really took the wind out of our sails, but one of the (many) benefits of running a place like this is always having an animal doing something to make us laugh.  I think there's no better way to cope with grief than to have a happy dog around. 

For instance, Kathryn and Alayne both recently discovered that blind Stoney is crazy about running water.  Whenever the yard hydrant is turned on, or a hose is running, she tries to "bite" the water as it's flowing. 

So this morning I videotaped Kathryn and Stoney playing the water game.  In the background you'll see Birdie, our Lab with muscular dystrophy, walking up with a tennis ball in her mouth.   She's hoping Kathryn will ignore Stoney and play fetch with her instead.  When she realizes that isn't going to happen, she drops the ball and wanders off to watch the show.  Here's the clip:

Sammy: A Note Of Thanks

Alayne and I wanted to say how deeply touched we were by all the heartfelt condolences and kind thoughts so many people posted about Sammy's passing on Friday.  The comments were very moving and really struck a chord with us.  We are so grateful for all the emotional support.  It meant a lot.  Thank you.

A Relaxed Cat With A New Name

Miss Cat, the blind girl who arrived here on Thursday, now has a new name:  Cinder!  Thanks to Ginger and Kathy, who both suggested Cinder in their blog comments.  We had a ton of great suggestions submitted via the blog and by email, and we appreciate everyone's wonderful ideas for a new name for this young lady.

Alayne took this photo of me with Cinder tonight in the cottage where she's currently in isolation for the next two weeks.  My experience has been that new cats need on average about three days after they arrive here to come out of their shell.  Sure enough, Cinder spent the last few days lurking in a litter box in the back of a crate in her cottage.  She wouldn't come out at all.

And then, when I went to feed her this morning, she was suddenly a different girl.  Cinder heard me open the crate door, and she immediately got up and came straight towards me, purring.  I started petting her, and the next thing I knew, she was rubbing her head on my beard, purring as loud as a lawn mower.  She climbed up on my shoulder, rolled around on my neck, and couldn't get enough loving. 

So I left her to roam around in the cottage all day, and by tonight, you can see just how relaxed she was.  (Bear in mind she's blind, yet still comfortable enough with me to lie upside down.)  The blue fleece blanket on that cot in the photo is all covered in her black fur because I'd been petting her there before we took the photo; she was rolling around on her back, purring away, while I scratched her tummy.

Sammy Died Today

Our little diabetic dog Sammy died suddenly today.  When I let him out of his crate this morning, I could tell he was not doing well.  But I had no idea how the day would unfold.

He had left some food in his automated pet feeder overnight, which was unusual. (We set up this feeder so he could have small amounts of food throughout the night, which helped keep him better regulated).  Then, as he walked around the yard, I noticed he seemed disoriented, and he would sometimes shuffle from side-to-side, and other times stagger for a few steps before righting himself.

I took him into the house for his morning insulin shots and his breakfast, and although he sat still for his injections, he had no interest in eating.  Usually he would do a whirling dervish-type dance while I got his breakfast ready, then wolf it down.  Indeed, that's how he was last night -- just his usual, energetic little self.  Not this morning.  Something was definitely wrong.

It looked to us like he was crashing again, and we had seen this before.  Several weeks ago Sammy had experienced the 'Somogyi effect,' when the body rapidly fluctuates between low blood sugar and high blood sugar.  The wild glucose swings are too much for the body to handle, and it requires immediate medical attention.

Thinking that was what Sammy was going through again, I called our internal medicine specialist in Helena, Dr. Britt Culver, and said I was rushing Sammy into the clinic.  I took this photo just before Sammy and I hit the road.  By the time I arrived at the clinic, Sammy was motionless in his crate in the back seat.  I pulled on his leg to try and get him to turn around, but he wouldn't budge.  There was no resistance in his leg.  I called to him, then reached in and pulled him towards me, and finally he started to stir.

I carried him into the clinic in my arms.  Britt's colleague, Dr. Jennifer Rockwell, was waiting for us.  I told Deana, the vet tech who took Sammy from me, "He needs help now.  He's in bad shape."  She said, "I know, they're ready for him," and she turned to take Sammy to the medical suite in the back.  It was the last time I saw Sammy alive. 

A few minutes later Deana returned and said Sammy had a temperature of 107 degrees and they were putting an IV in him to get fluids and antibiotics on board.  Oddly, his glucose level was 116, which is right in the normal range.  That was puzzling.  Jennifer was also taking an X-ray to see how his chest looked.  I knew a fever that high was potentially life-threatening, but I was still thinking we were dealing with a diabetes issue.

A short while later I was in the truck, ready to run some errands in Helena, when Deana came running out and asked me to wait.  She said, "Jennifer wants you to stay around because it's not going well."  Ohmigod.  I suddenly got a pit in my stomach.  I pulled the truck back into the parking lot and headed inside.  I could feel the tears coming.  Damn it.

When I walked in, Deana had just come back out from the medical suite and told me Jennifer was doing CPR on Sammy.  I was dumbfounded.  "CPR?", I asked, not sure I heard her correctly, or more likely just hoping I had misunderstood her.  Yes, CPR.  I stared at the wall, my mind just spinning, while I tried to process that information.

I went into an exam room, closed the door and sat down.  Less than three minutes later, Jennifer walked in and said, "We lost him."  I was incredulous.  "Lost him to what?," I asked.  Jennifer said, "I don't know."

By this time, of course, I was a wreck and in tears.  Jennifer picked up a Kleenex box and handed it to me, then tried to comfort me.  I held my head in my hands and cried.  I just couldn't believe this little character -- who  was with us for all of three months -- was dead.  Sammy had spent almost half that time in the hospital. 

Jennifer asked if we wanted to do an autopsy to find out what happened, and which might also help explain why his diabetes had been so difficult to regulate.  I said yes. 

Another vet tech, Jayme, brought Sammy into the exam room so I could be with him for a while.  He was lying in a small white cardboard coffin, his head propped up on a rolled-up towel.  I kissed his little face and told him how sorry I was, and that we would always love him.

This photo is how we will always remember him, as a spark of life.  He was cute, playful, and energetic.

Here's a link to a blog posting with a video of Sammy I made about a month after he arrived, when he seemed to be stable and we had high hopes for him.  I posted this just before he began making repeated trips to the hospital for his diabetes.  He came home from the hospital for the last time on June 30th, when I posted this item.

He was a wonderful little dog, and he was here for too short a time.

Sammy, we love you, sweetheart.

Her Eyes Are Bright, But She Can't See

The Bitterroot Humane Association in Hamilton, Montana, called us a few days ago about a blind female cat that had come into the shelter.  They found her as a stray in early June, but no one came to claim her, and no one would adopt her. 

We agreed to take her, and arranged for the shelter to drop the cat off at Dr. Dave Bostwick's clinic in Missoula this afternoon.  I drove into town to pick her up, and we got back to the ranch about 7 p.m.  Alayne took this photo of me and Miss Cat late this evening as the sun was going down.

While at the clinic Dave looked at her eyes and concluded she has progressive retinal atrophy, or PRA.  With PRA the retinas basically degenerate over time, resulting in eventual blindness.  We placed her on the floor and did the 'cotton ball test,' in which we drop a cotton ball in front of the animal to see if she noticed it.  She didn't.  Then, a bit frightened, she tried to get away from us and walked right into the wall.  That's we call the "wall test."  (Just kidding!)

Even though she's very blind, her pupils still dilate when exposed to light, and her eyes appear bright and otherwise normal.  That is also characteristic of progressive retinal atrophy.

I called her "Miss Cat" because she doesn't have a name, so please help give this girl a name!  We welcome your suggestions -- you can either post a comment on the blog or email me at [email protected].