Rolling Dog Farm

I Think Someone's There

I got this shot of blind Evelyn yesterday on a warm Saturday afternoon, enjoying a shady spot.  In the past year Evelyn has lost most of her hearing, though she can still hear certain sounds -- like the click-click-click of the shutter.  She didn't know what it was but she could hear "something" out there, which is why she had this alert, almost quizzical expression on her face.

Evelyn was our star who liked to show off for visitors with her amazing ability to play fetch.  Few people could understand how a blind dog could play fetch, and Evelyn just loved showing visitors how she does it.  We would throw the ball, she would listen intently to hear where it landed, then go bounding after it.  Once she knew which direction the ball went, she'd switch to her nose to find it.  From that point on she could almost always track it down and retrieve it for us.

Unfortunately, now that her hearing is mostly gone, she can't hear the ball anymore and thus doesn't know where to start.  This makes her anxious and confused, because she knows that ball is out there somewhere!  This was, quite truthfully, a sad development to witness, because she took such incredible joy in playing fetch.

But it's in the nature of these disabled animals not to let these kinds of setbacks get to them.  No, life is all about living, and you pick yourself up and get going again.  So now that she can't play fetch any longer, she's settled on a new routine -- tug of war.  She'll find a big rubber bone or pull toy and bring it over to us, wave it around, and dare us to grab one end.  We'll take hold of it, and then she'll tug and tug on that thing.  A new game begins.

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

Happy Rolling To You, Too

While we're on the subject of dogs enjoying the new warmth of spring, here are some photos Alayne got the other day of blind Briggs rolling ... and rolling ... and rolling ... in the yard outside our house.  This is the latest installment in our series on, um, rolling dogs.  And they just love this fresh green grass -- there's nothing better for a good roll. 

He may be blind, he may be wobbly, but this boy can still roll!

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

A Few More Leaves, Please

We know summer is coming when we see Bailey starting to spend much of the day underneath his favorite shade tree, the aspen next to our house.  The other morning when I took the photo above, it was probably only about 9 a.m. and he was already outside.  His only complaint is that the leaves on the tree are still really small, and he isn't getting as much shade as he thought.  Many of our trees are only now leafing out -- spring arrives late up here in the north!

A couple of hours later, it was quite a bit warmer and now he was stretched out for a real nap:

You can see at some point he had wandered off, found one of his favorite chew toys, and brought it back to his bed for some play time.  Maybe that's what zonked him out and set him to napping?

Here's a close-up of our little guy:

That's a picture of pure contentment, isn't it?

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

Deaf Stuart Gets Adopted!

This past Saturday, we were delighted to have Dan and Cheryl W. from Whitefish, Montana, adopt our deaf boy, Stuart the Beagle.  Dan and Cheryl had recently lost their elderly blind and deaf Beagle, Penny, and were looking for another special dog.  It turns out that just about the same time they contacted us initially about Stuart, they also heard about another Beagle in their area named Daisy who was looking for a new home.  They went to see her last week, fell in love, and took her home.  That's Daisy on the left.

Well, Dan and Cheryl thought Daisy would like to have a boyfriend, and they drove out to the ranch on Saturday so the entire family could meet Stuart.  Daisy took to Stuart just fine, and pretty soon both Beagles and their new Mom and Dad were headed home to Whitefish!

Dan emailed on Sunday to say that Stuart has settled in and Daisy had already bonded with him.  In fact, when they first put Stuart in a kennel next to their bed Saturday night, Daisy grew frantic.  She wanted Stuart on the bed with her and Dan and Cheryl.  So Dan and Cheryl relented, and both Beagles spent the night on their bed.  (I don't know how well Dan and Cheryl slept but I'm sure the two Beagles slept really, really well!)

And, Dan told us, Stuart had already given Daisy two complete head baths Saturday evening.  No wonder she likes that boy!

Thank you, Dan and Cheryl!

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

Update on Callie

Last Thursday I took blind Callie in to see our internal medicine specialist in Missoula, Dr. Dave Bostwick, for her two-week check-up after her radiation therapy.  She continues to circle with a head tilt from the ear infection she developed at the WSU veterinary teaching hospital, though she is definitely improving.  Dave found no signs of infection and he said her ear drum is starting to heal up, but still has some perforations in it.  It may take a few more weeks for this vestibular issue to finally clear up.

In addition to the physical exam, Dave also took blood to check her serum phenobarbital levels.  That's what Dave is doing in the photo above, with vet tech Alex holding Callie for the blood draw.  (Callie is hoping that Alex will give her a head massage while she's at it.) 

Dave got the blood results back on Friday and determined that we needed to increase her phenobarbital dose slightly to get her back in therapeutic range.  She turned out to be just below the threshold, which is why monitoring her serum phenobarbital levels is something we will have to routinely do. The good news is that even on such a low dose, she hasn't had any seizures, which is a sign the tumor has indeed shrunk.

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 Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

Trying On Her New Shoes

While I was in Missoula running errands today, Alayne was busy with our farrier, Rich Boyle, who had come out to trim the horses' hooves.  One of our blind horses, Rosie, has always had very thin soles on her feet, which can make her ouchy.  The first time we saw her like this, a few years ago right after she arrived, we thought she was developing laminitis, but it turned out to be chronically thin soles.  We found that the only thing that works for her is to put shoes on with a protective pad underneath.  She does fine during the winter on snow without them, but once spring rolls around, it's time to get her shoes on.

In the photo above that Alayne took this morning, Rich is sizing a horseshoe to get the right fit.  You can see Rosie is patiently standing there while he checks the fitting.

And here she is right after Rich has finished shoeing her:

That's a look that says, "Thanks for the new shoes, now can I get back to my breakfast?"

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Still No. 3 -- please keep voting!

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A side note:  Our main Web site at rollingdogranch.org was down from Tuesday evening through Wednesday night because of a server problem at our Web hosting company, and we heard from a lot of folks who were trying to access the blog via our Web site.  The blog is actually hosted by a different company, TypePad, and you can always access it directly at http://rollingdogranch.typepad.com/ if our main Web site is down.  So you might want to bookmark that link for future reference.

Oh, Girls, Puleeeze!

I apologize for the quality of these photos, but I shot them through the storm door at Widget's House the other evening -- and there are a lot of noses that get pressed up against the glass every day!  Our blind Poodle sisters, Priscilla on the left and Molly on the right, were wrestling like mad with each other.  Their erstwhile boyfriend Trooper was acting bored and ignoring the mayhem occurring right behind him as he stared at me through the door.  That's blind Cedar on the right, not too sure what the girls are up to, and on the far left is blind Samantha's rump. 

Trooper often launches into the fray when the girls are feeling this frisky, but not this time.  No, he just seemed vaguely ... well, above it all.  A minute or two before I took that previous shot, he had looked over his shoulder at them like this:

After they cleared off the porch, I stepped outside with the camera to see if I could get some more shots of the girls in action, but Molly had just taken off, leaving Priscilla wondering what had just happened to her sister:

When blind dogs are roughhousing with each other and one suddenly disengages, that is a very common body posture we see -- "Hey, where'd you go?!?"  You can tell Priscilla is poised to spring into action, except ... she's just realized she's all alone!

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Still No. 3 -- please keep voting!

I've Got Her Right Where I Want Her

Our usual routine in the afternoon is that Alayne and I feed the horses and do the other barn chores first, then we come in to feed the dogs.  A couple of weeks ago, as Alayne was standing at our dining table dishing out the food into the dog bowls, she felt this small object descend on her foot.  She looked down and saw Dexter lying on her shoe.  And he wasn't about to move.  Then the next evening, he did the same thing ... and every evening since then, including yesterday, when I got this photo of him.  It's a brand-new habit of his.  Dexter patiently waits like this while Alayne finishes getting the bowls ready, then he bounces up when he realizes she's ready to start handing them out.  Apparently he thinks this technique makes him -- shall we say -- a shoe-in to get fed first.

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Still No. 3 -- please keep voting!

Tremors

We had one of those Sundays where an animal's health prompted a flurry of calls to our vet in Helena.  Wobbly, blind Briggs had started showing slight tremors in the morning, so we took his temperature and found he was running a fever of 103°.  Not very high, yet still a fever.  But the tremors were unnerving, so we called our our clinic's emergency number and talked with our primary care vet, Dr. Brenda Culver.  Because of the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever he had for a long time before coming to us, Briggs' health can be a complicated affair.  He continues to be on doxycycline for the spotted fever, even a year after Brenda diagnosed it as the root cause of his disabilities.  The fact that he was on doxycycline and now running a fever again was also alarming.

Brenda explained that this can be one of the "legacy" issues of spotted fever, so she had us give him Baytril, a different type of antibiotic.  After having us describe his tremors -- slight trembling, like shivering -- she concluded that might be because of the fever.

About 90 minutes later after giving him the Baytril, Briggs threw up.  Another call to Brenda, who told us he would likely have absorbed most of the Baytril in that amount of time so it should still take effect.  We should continue to monitor him for any changes.

A couple of hours later, his tremors suddenly became more pronounced.  As he lay on the floor, he began rhythmically pulling his legs in towards his body and then flexing them out again.  We didn't like the looks of that, so we called Brenda again.  Since we're 70 miles from the clinic, we do quite a lot of "tele-medicine" with our vets and try to give them as much accurate information as possible so they can decide if we need to bring the animal in.  Other than his tremors and fever, Briggs was otherwise what vets call BAR -- bright, alert and responsive.  We did some quick neuro assessments for Brenda -- no dragging of paws, etc.  So it didn't feel like we needed to rush him over to Helena, but clearly something was amiss with his tremors.

Brenda wanted to give him a steroid to "quiet" the tremors and give the Baytril a chance to kick in.

What next ensued is a conversation we've had many times with Brenda and with our equine vet, Dr. Erin Taylor.  We have a well-stocked "pharmacy" here for scenarios exactly like this one, and while we don't always have the first medication they ask for, we usually have something in the same class of drugs. 

Brenda:  "Do you have any injectable prednisone?"

Me:  "No.  But I think we have Depo-Medrol.  Let me go look."

(Sounds of Steve rummaging through the medical cabinet, shuffling bottles of this and that around.)

Me again:  "Hey, wait, I just found some injectable Dexamethsone.  But it's the SP type."

Brenda:  "Perfect!  That's just what we want.  It's the 4 mg per ml version, right?"

Me:  "Yes, it is.  How much should I give him?"

(Sounds of Brenda doing the dosage/weight calculations in her head.  This is why she went to vet school and I didn't.)

Brenda:  "Let's give him 6 mls sub-Q (under the skin) and see how he does."

I thanked her for all her help and went off to find the syringe I needed.  Alayne took the photo above of Briggs getting his injection.

A short while later, his tremors were gone.  He got up off the cot, wobbled into the kitchen to drink from the water bowl, and suddenly seemed much spunkier.

Yesterday evening, he ate his dinner just fine and kept his second dose of Baytril down.  Today he is much better -- his temperature is normal, no tremors, and a happier boy all around!

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Still No. 3 -- please keep voting!

Rolling Along

May is a particularly hectic month for us because we have multiple pasture and grounds maintenance chores to do in the brief interim between the snow melting (and the ground drying out enough to drive tractors over) and the beginning of grazing season on Memorial Day weekend.  We're cleaning out all the corrals, building the compost windrows, maintaining the drives, planting grass seed, dragging pastures that didn't get finished in the fall before the snow arrived, and fertilizing.

This weekend I was planting grass seed in areas where we had newly turned earth as well as in pastures that needed some renovation.  We use a seed spreader towed behind the tractor that can hold about 75 lbs (34 kg) of grass seed.  One of the areas where I planted seed was in the Widget's House yard, where we had just put in a gravel lane from the gate along our main drive all the way to the front of the building, along with a gravel "pad" off the porch.  This is about 200 feet (61 m) worth of lane, so it's quite a stretch.  Without a gravel lane for vehicles, the yard had become rutted and beaten up, and it was nearly impossible to maintain vehicle access in winter time.  (Our method of transport in winter?  We actually had to load supplies like dog food, laundry detergent and cases of paper towels on a sled and pull it by hand across the snow to the building!  The dogs declined to pull for us.)

So after the lane went in last week, we had an area of bare dirt that needed to be seeded with grass.  Once I put the seed down with the spreader, I hitched up the ground roller that presses the seed into the ground to ensure firm contact with the dirt.  This thing is huge -- about 7 feet wide and weighing about 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg) empty.  But wait, that's not heavy enough for the job!  We actually fill it with water using a hose -- there are pipe fittings on either end -- to add additional weight, because you really want to squish the seed down. 

Completely full of water, the ground roller would weigh about 7,000 lbs (3,175 kg) which is a lot of weight to pull around with a compact utility tractor like our Kubotas.  And if the equipment you're pulling is too heavy, it can end up controlling the tractor -- tipping you over on a grade, for instance.  Although this ground roller is "rated" for our Kubota tractors, it would make me too nervous to have it that heavy, so we generally only fill it about half-full -- which is still plenty heavy.

How do we get the water out of it?  We open the pipe fittings on either end, let as much water drain out as possible, and then roll it up and down the drive to get the last water out.

Alayne got these photos of me rolling the seed into the ground at Widget's House on Saturday.  We put some of the dogs up in the pen on the porch, others in the side yard and a couple of them inside the building.  We might be the Rolling Dog, but the last thing we'd want to do is end up, well, rolling a dog!

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Still No. 3 -- please keep voting!