Rolling Dog Farm

Hound In Hole

Yes, it's another dog-fits-perfectly-in-hole shot, this being blind Jake the hound. He's been in this play yard for three years now, and it's the first time we've ever seen him choosing to sleep in the ever-widening hole. Alayne took this photo on Saturday.

You can see that we're losing the battle to keep the dog yards green and grassy. If you compare the photo above to this next photo we took for a blog post back in 2010 of blind Austin the Beagle in the same -- and then much, much smaller hole -- you'll see how much grass we've lost in that area:

Jake says, "Well, at least the hole is the right size now."

What Are They Thinking?

I meant to post this for yesterday's blog but was on the road all day and just remembered this morning ... so here is a link to a fascinating New York Times story on the latest research into how dogs think. The focus of the piece is on Dr. Brian Hare of Duke University, who is also the chief scientific officer of "a new company called Dognition, which produces a Web site where people can test their dog’s cognition, learn about their pets and, Dr. Hare hopes, supply him and his colleagues with scientific data on tens of thousands of dogs." 

I thought you would enjoy reading this if you haven't already.

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I took Wilbur to Burlington yesterday for surgery to remove a small growth on his head. The surgery went well, and his blood pressure had finally hit the target we were looking for, so the little tyke is doing just great. We got back late yesterday afternoon.

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Shelter Challenge Contest -- Please Vote for the Farm!

The latest Shelter Challenge started Monday, January 7 and ends on April 28. Grand prize in this round is $10,000, $3,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

*** You will find us listed as Rolling Dog Farm.  The state is NH for New Hampshire. ***

Please remember, you can vote every day ... consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the current contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.  

Thank you for your votes! 

 

Sunbathing

Wendy M., who adopted blind and deaf Baron and blind Stoney from us several years ago, recently sent us this photo of Baron sunbathing. Now that is one relaxed and happy dog. (And no, he's not sunburned, that's the pinkness of his skin accentuated by the filter on the camera lens.) More proof that being blind and deaf sure doesn't take the enjoyment out of a dog's life.

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Shelter Challenge Contest -- Please Vote for the Farm!

The latest Shelter Challenge started Monday, January 7 and ends on April 28. Grand prize in this round is $10,000, $3,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

*** You will find us listed as Rolling Dog Farm.  The state is NH for New Hampshire. ***

Please remember, you can vote every day ... consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the current contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.  

Thank you for your votes! 

Widget's Mixed Results

Our queen bee Widget also went to Burlington last week for her annual geriatric screening. In the photo above, Dr. Tanya Donovan is doing an echocardiogram of her heart while Dr. Rachel Morgan on the right helps hold Widget still. The arms holding the other end of Widget belong to vet tech Katie.

Widget's been on heart meds for two years now, so we want to carefully monitor any changes. During this recheck,Tanya found mild progression in Widget's cardiac disease and some enlargement of the cardiac vessels. As a result, she's adding Lasix to Widget's daily meds. 

The more disturbing finding, though, came during the ultrasound of her other organs. Tanya discovered two nodules in the spleen. This could be bad news ... or might not be. It depends on how fast they are growing. We will know that answer when Tanya does a repeat scan in a month. At this point we are trying not to be alarmed or worry too much, but it's hard not to dwell on it.

If they aren't growing, or growing only slightly, it might be the sort of thing that she could live with for the rest of her life (she's 12). If they're very fast growing, surgery may or may not be an option. We're in this painful wait-and-see period.

But meanwhile, Her Royal Widgeness displays her usual high spirits. This morning, with a nice, sunny day at hand (finally!), she wandered around the front yard for almost two hours before summoning the household staff to come get her. Now if only the royal spleen will cooperate.

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Shelter Challenge Contest -- Please Vote for the Farm!

The latest Shelter Challenge started Monday, January 7 and ends on April 28. Grand prize in this round is $10,000, $3,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

*** You will find us listed as Rolling Dog Farm.  The state is NH for New Hampshire. ***

Please remember, you can vote every day ... consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the current contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.  

Thank you for your votes! 

Let Me Show You How Long My Tongue Is

I took Wilbur back to the clinic in Burlington last Thursday for a blood pressure recheck. In the photo our internal medicine specialist, Dr. Tanya Donovan, is holding Wilbur while vet tech Katie applies the blood pressure cuff to his leg.

Do you think that tongue of his could possibly be any longer? Such a tiny mouth, such a long tongue!

The good news is that his pressure has started to come down once we changed the medications. He was at 160, down from the 200 or so we started at. But Tanya wants to see him at 140, so she increased the dosage and we will recheck in a couple of weeks.

At that time Wilbur will also have surgery for a growth above his left eye socket that has been rapidly increasing in size in the past few weeks. Tanya took some cells out of it on Thursday and sent it off to a lab for analysis; the results came back on Saturday showing it's a low-grade tumor with only a few mast cells in it. Given how fast it's growing, though, the prudent thing to do is remove it before it becomes a major problem.

I also had Widget along for her annual "geriatric" screening, and I'll provide her update next time.

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Shelter Challenge Contest -- Please Vote for the Farm!

The latest Shelter Challenge started Monday, January 7 and ends on April 28. Grand prize in this round is $10,000, $3,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

*** You will find us listed as Rolling Dog Farm.  The state is NH for New Hampshire. ***

Please remember, you can vote every day ... consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the current contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.  

Thank you for your votes! 

Smooch

We were taking photos on Sunday for the spring print newsletter. I was framing the shot to see how it would look when I got that photo of blind Jake giving Alayne a kiss. 

Here they are in the very next frame, post-smooch:

I'd like to give that face a kiss, too. (The woman, not the dog.)

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Shelter Challenge Contest -- Please Vote for the Farm!

The latest Shelter Challenge started Monday, January 7 and ends on April 28. Grand prize in this round is $10,000, $3,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

*** You will find us listed as Rolling Dog Farm.  The state is NH for New Hampshire. ***

Please remember, you can vote every day ... consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the current contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.  

Thank you for your votes! 

Wilbur Update

Back in early March I had a post on how we found out that Wilbur had high blood pressure, and the implications for his health and in particular, the retina in his remaining eye. Since then things have only become more of a mystery. I recently took him back to see our internal medicine specialist in Burlington, Dr. Tanya Donovan, for a recheck after he'd been on his blood pressure medication for two weeks. That's Tanya with Wilbur in the photo above, along with fourth-year vet student Jennifer S.

But "recheck" sounds too benign, because he had also started developing edema, where fluid was developing in his belly and then migrating down one rear leg. The only thing that had changed was Wilbur starting the blood pressure medication, which in itself isn't known to cause those kinds of complications.

Here's Wilbur during part of the physical with Tanya and Jennifer:

And here he is during another ultrasound, where Tanya was looking to see if anyting had changed since his last scan that could explain the new signs we were seeing:

In short:  Not really.

But the latest bloodwork that day showed his glucose levels were suddenly almost twice the high end of normal range. Was he now diabetic?

To confirm that finding, Tanya sent his bloodwork to an outside lab for a specialized test that can do a historical look-back at the previous 30 days of glucose levels in the blood. A couple of days later, on a Saturday, the results came back -- and showed his glucose had been normal during that period. Odd indeed.

So that weekend Tanya asked me to take his glucose readings just to double-check the lab findings. We know how to do this because we have a glucometer from previous diabetes cases we've had in the past (Teddy and Sammy, among others). Wilbur's glucose level was perfectly normal!

His edema had also started resolving on his own, and by that weekend was completely gone. Tanya had already switched him to a completely different blood pressure medication, so we don't know if that was the issue or not. I'll be taking him back shortly for another recheck, and hopefully more answers then.

In the meantime, Wilbur is his usual happy, adorable self!

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Shelter Challenge Contest -- Please Vote for the Farm!

The latest Shelter Challenge started Monday, January 7 and ends on April 28. Grand prize in this round is $10,000, $3,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

*** You will find us listed as Rolling Dog Farm.  The state is NH for New Hampshire. ***

Please remember, you can vote every day ... consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the current contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.  

Thank you for your votes! 

Maple Sugaring

Here in New England, it's maple sugaring season again -- days above freezing (um, sometimes) and nights below freezing. Our friends at Jon Parks Tractor in Lancaster, who service our tractors and other equipment, also make maple syrup each spring. This year they asked if they could tap our sugar maples to add to their annual harvest, and of course we said yes. We'll also get some delicious maple syrup from the deal! Alayne and I took these photos this past weekend of some of the trees they've tapped here at the farm. (Click on photos for a larger image.)

In the view above, this is looking south with Mount Washington looming high and white in the background. Here's a close-up taken from the pasture beyond:

It's actually way bigger -- and closer -- than it looks in the photo, but for some reason this angle makes that impressive peak shrink a bit.

Here are a couple of other trees in this north view, with the farm buildings in the background:

And more:

Maple sugaring is not something we have the time or skills to do, so we are delighted that the Parks family is able to put our sugar maples to good use like this. As to why it's still called maple sugaring, read this bit of history.

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Shelter Challenge Contest -- Please Vote for the Farm!

The latest Shelter Challenge started Monday, January 7 and ends on April 28. Grand prize in this round is $10,000, $3,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

*** You will find us listed as Rolling Dog Farm.  The state is NH for New Hampshire. ***

Please remember, you can vote every day ... consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the current contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.  

Thank you for your votes! 

 

But Will They Still Call Me Fuzzy?

That's blind Fuzzy looking none too happy during his grooming on Friday. Our groomer, Lori Fillion, came out to the farm to do several of the dogs for their regularly scheduled "spa sessions." 

Here's Lori working on him:

The body language in that photo above suggests Fuzzy doesn't think his beard needs any trimming, a sentiment I know all too well.

The grooming "salon" is actually the large laundry room next to the dog room. It is equipped with a big utility sink and the expansive, deep shelf Fuzzy is on. 

And here's Lori with the "finished product":

It won't be long until he's fuzzy again!

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Shelter Challenge Contest -- Please Vote for the Farm!

The latest Shelter Challenge started Monday, January 7 and ends on April 28. Grand prize in this round is $10,000, $3,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

*** You will find us listed as Rolling Dog Farm.  The state is NH for New Hampshire. ***

Please remember, you can vote every day ... consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the current contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.  

Thank you for your votes!