Rolling Dog Farm

A Final Word About Chance

Alayne and I wanted to tell you how much we appreciated all the wonderful comments and thoughts so many kind-hearted people have sent our way after reading about Chance's death yesterday.  From the comments posted on the blog to the emails we've received, we have been very touched by the condolences and sentiments.  Thank you for sharing them with us. 

Many of you wrote about the "dignity" we gave Chance in how he died.  I thought about that a lot yesterday, too.  To us, every one of our animals deserves that kind of dignity at the end of their lives.  And sadly, it's the one thing too many horses don't get.

On average about 2,000 horses die in slaughterhouses every week in this country.  I've been checking the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Web site every day this week for their latest equine slaughter statistics because I knew we were going to reach a gruesome milestone.  Sure enough, the stats they released today showed that more than 100,000 horses were slaughtered in America in 2006.  To be precise, 101,502. That was for the week ending 12/16/06, so a few more thousand will have died a tragic death in a slaughterhouse since then. 

The reason I was thinking about this yesterday is because it struck me that every horse should be able to die like Chance did ... "peacefully, quickly, and gently, surrounded by people who loved him," as I described it.  Or, as many of you  called it, with "dignity."  I think we owe them that.  Not death in a slaughterhouse.

Rather than leave you on that grim note (sorry!), I wanted to close with one of our favorite video clips.  This is blind Chance in August this year, doing what he loved the most ... rolling around on his back.  He did this every morning when he first went out to pasture.  Bear in mind that this is a horse who was dying from lymphosarcoma and had no eyes in his head -- and yet you can see how much he still enjoyed the simple pleasures of a horsey life.

We Said Goodbye To Blind Chance Today

We asked our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown of Missoula, to come out today and put our blind horse Chance to sleep.  After almost two years of battling lymphosarcoma, the time had come ... and we wanted Chance to go peacefully, quickly, and gently, surrounded by people who loved him.  And that's how he died this afternoon.  Alayne took this photo of me with Chance a few minutes before we let him go.

Chance had held his own through the summer -- we had done chemotherapy this past spring, hoping to keep the cancer at bay -- but by this fall he had begun showing signs that the cancer was truly getting the better of him.  He really began going downhill in the past several weeks.  Although he was still eating, every day he seemed to drop more weight.  He began to look angular, and his ribs were beginning to stick out.  (I'm just glad that Alayne's photo doesn't show you just how skinny he really was.)  He was becoming listless.  Bill was surprised today by how much weight Chance had lost in just the two weeks since he had last seen him.

We knew Chance was already on borrowed time.  The veterinary literature says horses with lymphosarcoma typically live no more than 6 months after the initial diagnosis.  Chance had survived more than 18 months so far.  With the changes we were now seeing, we realized any day could be his last. 

We didn't want to come out and find him dead in his stall one morning ... or down and struggling.  We've been through that before.  Our old blind mare Beauty, dying from chronic renal failure, went down in her stall one night.  She had spent hours lying on the floor in manure and urine, alive but unable to stand.  That's how we found our beloved Beauty the next morning, cold and wet and struggling to get up.  I had already scheduled the vet to come out the following day to euthanize her, because I wanted to avoid exactly the situation we walked into that morning.  So I was distraught to realize I was one day too late.  I never wanted any of our other horses to go through what Beauty went through.

Over the past two weeks Alayne and I had wrestled with the question of "Is it time?"  Every morning we'd walk out to Lena's Barn and hold our breath until we got to Chance's stall.  But this week we realized he was just not himself, that he was deteriorating at a rapid clip, and that we needed to make the fateful decision.

Thus late this afternoon I cried as I clipped a lead rope to his halter for the last time.  I led him out of his corral, and we trudged down the drive together and through the snow to the grave site.  Bill gave him a light sedative first, then the euthanasia drug.  Chance stood on his feet for a few moments -- it seemed like an eternity, but was probably no more than 5 seconds -- before dropping to his knees and then keeling over on his side in one fluid motion.  And with that, Chance was gone.  Bless his heart.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

The Crime Scene. But He's Not The Guilty One.

Alayne and I were headed out this afternoon to start barn chores when we walked into this scene in our living room.  Mr. Pig, one of the squeaky toys we handed out on Christmas night, lay dead on the floor, its innards ripped out and scattered far and wide.  We had given Mr. Pig to Bailey, the miniature Dachshund, although to be fair, we never saw him ever try to shred it. 

We're not sure who did it, but we do know one thing -- the guilty party is NOT old Dillon, who you see in the photo.  Dillon doesn't play with toys, let alone chew them up.  He's too dignified for that.

Dillon is one of our original 'Seattle six-pack' of dogs who moved with us to Montana in 2000.  He was dog No. 3 actually.  Dillon had been in a no-kill shelter in Washington state for four years, living in an outdoor kennel.  He was considered unadoptable because he was truly terrified of people -- he'd been abused as a puppy and never got over it.  We had already adopted another dog, Dolly, from the same shelter a year earlier ... she was also an 'unadoptable' because of a history of severe abuse.  Dolly was still traumatized when we brought her home.  But Dolly had blossomed with us, and when we saw that Dillon was still at the shelter a year later, we went back to get him.

(At the time, Alayne thought two dogs was plenty, thank you very much.  I had to work on her to let me get Dolly, for heaven's sake.  Three dogs were -- ohmigosh -- a LOT of dogs!  And now....)

Dillon needed more time than Dolly to come around -- it took two years before we could let him off-leash and he wouldn't run from us -- but come around he finally did.  Even now -- at age 15 -- he is timid around people he doesn't know, but no longer a nervous wreck.

It's not just people who give Dillon the willies.  It's also cameras.  So I was lucky to get this shot before he high-tailed it out of the living room!

(Click on photo for larger image.)

It's For Me. I Just Know It.

We were opening gifts Christmas evening when blind Widget decided to climb on top of one present and claim it for herself.  She moved around all over that box, as if to make sure everyone knew she was on it and it was hers.  (An aside:  From this photo you can see why Widget is a founding member of the Short-Legs Society.)

Over on the cot is blind Goldie, who is looking for the pink squeaky toy that's on the floor next to the box.  And back there by the wall is blind Willie the Beagle, who has no idea what's going on but thinks it sounds like a lot of fun.

Willie's eye is glowing because the camera flash is reflecting directly off the retina in the back of his eye.  Willie is blind from progressive retinal atrophy, and to compensate, the eye completely dilates to let as much light in as possible.  That's why we often get the "glow eye" around here with the camera flash instead of "red eye."

The dogs had a blast  Christmas evening with the presents ... there were more squeaky toys to destroy in one night than Goldie ever thought possible.  By the time we went to bed, little Bailey the miniature Dachshund had gathered all of Goldie's now dead (i.e., squeakerless) toys around him on his bed.  He's not into the squeaker-annihilation frenzy that Goldie is; Bailey's into numbers.  As in, he who goes to bed with the most toys wins.

Widget finally climbed down from the present -- I think she realized it was a little hard to open this way! -- and quickly settled for a soft chew toy of her own.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Merry Christmas -- It's Snowing!

We woke up to a light, gentle snow this morning, and it's continued to drift down all day.  Can't ask for more than that on Christmas Day!  This is what it looked like outside ... that's Widget's House, our main disabled dog building.  I took this photo from our front step late morning, after we finished all the chores.  We had put the dogs back up after letting them run around, playing in the snow. 

As you can see, we already had plenty of snow on the ground so we were going to have a white Christmas anyway ... but a new snowfall just makes it all that much better!

And this is what it looked like inside, in the area formerly known as 'our living room' and now taken over by sleeping dogs.  That's Willie the blind Beagle on the cot, blind Goldie on the floor resting her head on the bed, and Bailey the miniature Dachshund doing his half-in/half-out thing under the fleece blanket.  They were all really snuggly because we had the wood stove going, so it was warm and toasty in the house.  (Not that they need an excuse to sleep in the middle of the day, of course.)

Merry Christmas from Montana!

(Click on photos for larger image.)

TV Story On Sanctuary Now Online!

KSPS TV, the PBS station in Spokane, Washington, aired a wonderful feature story about the ranch and our animals on Thanksgiving during their Northwest Profiles broadcast.  We just saw the piece for the first time last week when we received a DVD from the station -- and loved it!  Their story gives you a real feel for the animals and what goes on here at the sanctuary.  KSPS TV kindly gave us permission to digitize the video and post it on our Web site.  We just got the digital video files today and posted them tonight on our "In The News" page.  You can watch the video in either Windows Media Player or in QuickTime.

To see the video, go to our In The News page and look for the story at the top of the page with this Northwest Profiles image.

Happy viewing!

A Swollen Eye

We noticed yesterday evening that blind Darby had a swollen left eyelid where our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown, had removed a cancerous growth last week.  Bill had closed up the incision with surgical staples, and everything looked good until we saw it all puffed up.  Bill and I connected by phone around noon today, and of course his first concern was infection.  He asked me to see if I could remove the staples at the outer edges of the incision, then lance it ... the objective being to get some drainage going. 

I was a bit dubious because we don't have the specialized staple removers (your office desk kind won't do!).  Surgical staples are like a box with four corners to them, extending all the way into the flesh and up underneath in a 360 degree "grab."  But Bill explained how I could use two hemostats to pull the staples out.  We do happen to have hemostats here, so I figured we'd give it a try and see if Darby would cooperate.  (From Wikipedia:  a hemostat "is a surgical tool which resembles a set of scissors with a locking clamp replacing the blade.")  I also needed to start her on antibiotics.

If you click on this second photo to enlarge it, you should be able to see the start of the row of staples above Darby's eye.  There were more staples than this, but because of the swollen curvature, most of them are "around the corner."

So this evening after we finished putting all the horses up and feeding them, we walked Darby from Scout's Barn to the medical stall in Beauty's Barn.  We loaded her into the horse stock, closed the butt plate behind her, and she immediately became a brat:  Pawing with her hooves, tossing her head up and down, and pushing at us with her face.  Alayne was doing everything she could to get Darby to settle down.  This did not look like a horse who was going to cooperate with some improvised medical procedure that involved ripping metal staples out of her flesh.  Hmm.

Then an amazing thing happened. As soon as I attached the hemostat to the first staple, she became motionless.  Absolutely still.  I pried one edge of the staple up and out in a butterfly-like motion.  She didn't budge.  I did the other side.  And out came the staple. 

Then she started being a brat again. 

I cupped my hand over Darby's eye and she immediately quieted down ... and when she felt the hemostat on her skin, she went still again.  Then I began removing the other staple ... with equal success.  Whew.  But we weren't done -- I still had to lance it!  I took a scalpel and gently inserted it into each corner of the incision site.  I thought she'd rear up as soon as I pierced her skin, but again, she didn't budge.  Alayne and I were astonished.

When she realized we were finished, she went right back to brat-mode.  I guess if she's going to be a model patient for when it counts, she can be a brat the rest of the time, huh?

(Click on photos for larger image.)

The Morning Commute

Now that we've moved our blind 6-month old foal Brynn to the heated medical stall in Beauty's Barn, we have a new routine in the morning:  She commutes down the drive to Lena's Barn, about 150 yards away, where she joins three of our other blind girls -- Lena, Nikki and Destiny -- in their corral for the day.  Alayne took this photo of Brynn and me on our morning commute today. 

As you may recall from our post last Wednesday, Brynn leaks urine because of a medical condition. Now that winter is here, it's become increasingly difficult to keep her clean and dry.  So we decided to convert our medical stall into a new home for Brynn, and this is where she'll spend her evenings until spring.  We can still use the stall for medical purposes when we need to; we can take down what we set up for her in about 5 minutes. 

To be honest, we're not wild about having her in a heated stall, because horses can sometimes develop respiratory problems without enough fresh air.  And even though it's heated to less than 50 degrees, it's still an abrupt change when we take her out in the morning. 

But she's only inside overnight and during bad weather; the rest of the time she's outdoors.  We think that will help keep her from getting any respiratory illness.  We deal with the temperature change by waiting to take her outside until it's warmed up (we waited until mid-morning today, for instance).  We also have a beautiful horse blanket that some wonderful kids from Billings, Montana, recently bought and donated for Brynn, so we have that to use with her, too.

We'll have to manage this carefully and see how she does.  But I can tell you that at 5 p.m. this evening, when the sun had dropped below the Garnet Range to our southwest and the temperature plunged, Brynn was ready for the evening commute back to her heated stall in Beauty's Barn!

(Click on photo for larger image.)

 

Hauling Hay While The Sun Shines

Alayne and I headed over late this afternoon (well, late when the sun goes down around 5 p.m.!) to pick up a load of our hay that's stored in our neighbor's hay barn.  It had 'warmed up' to 8 above zero, from 10 below zero when we got up this morning.

As we stood there looking at the wall of hay bales, it did occur to us that maybe we should have done this yesterday when we had volunteer help ... but we had plenty of things that needed to get done then, too!

I took the first photo of Alayne standing on the flatbed trailer just before we got started.  Our goal was to load enough hay to get us through until next weekend, which should be a couple of tons.  To see just how long it would take to stack on the trailer, I timed us.  We started at 3:39 p.m. exactly.  When we finished, with 66 bales on the trailer stacked three high in two rows, it was 3:55.  That worked out to just under 2.5 tons (each bale is about 75 pounds).  Not bad for 16 minutes, eh?  Like we say around here, who needs a gym?

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Another Day, Another Way To Sleep

Having already won honors for the most-blogged Rolling Dog Ranch animal two years running, blind Widget wanted to close out 2006 with yet another appearance ... this one in the 'Creative Sleeping' category.  (Come to think of it, most of her blog moments involve sleeping.)

I found her like this yesterday morning, having made a complete mess of the living room chair in an effort to arrange everything 'just so.'  The bedding we wrap the chair in to protect it from too much 'dogginess' simply becomes bedding to pull down and rearrange for a more comfy nap.  I managed to get three quick shots with the camera before she stirred ... then she rolled back and forth, over and over again, before settling into a new position.

Because Widget sleeps all day, by night she is wide awake and wired -- so when we put her up in Kelly's Cottage for bedtime, she is rarin' to go.  She runs around in circles outside the cottage door while we're gathering up the other dogs, doing her 'woo-woo-woo' with her best Beagle voice.  Widget then races in the door and rummages through the crates to see if anyone didn't eat their cookie from the night before.  Convinced there are no left-over snacks, she heads back out again when we come through the door with another dog.  (FYI:  Blind dogs always know when the door is open.)  Free again, Widget makes her way over to Birdie's Cottage and slips inside to check things out. 

When we finally corral Widget, get her back in Kelly's Cottage and close the door -- whew! -- she lets loose with another chorus of woo-woo-woo's.  As we're heading back to the house, we can hear Widget inside the cottage, barking and woo-ing and trying to stir things up.  I'm sure the other dogs are muttering, "Shut up, Widg, we want to go to sleep!"

The reason Widget spends the night in the cottage is because she used to do this in our house at night, too.  And that used to be us yelling from the bedroom, "Shut up, Widg, we want to go to sleep!"

(Click on photo for larger image.)