Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Here’s little Wilbur, who arrived at the ranch late yesterday evening.  He came to us from a rescue group in Salt Lake City.  Our awesome volunteer, Jerry Black, drove down to Idaho to pick Wilbur up for us.  Jerry met Kim J. from the rescue group in Dubois, Idaho, which we reckoned was about halfway between Salt Lake City and Missoula.

Wilbur has cerebellar hypoplasia, which makes him wobble and flop when he walks, just like Allie.  Wilbur’s a toy Poodle/Jack Russell mix (uh oh) and only about 14 weeks old (double uh oh).  In the two weeks Kim had him, Wilbur had already improved his balance and coordination.

This is consistent with what we’ve seen in our other cerebellar hypoplasia animals, who have all come to us as puppies or kittens.  As they grow older, their brains learn to compensate for the lack of fine motor skills.  For example, they learn to adopt a wider stance — particularly with their front feet — for increased stability when standing still.  And standing still is the hardest thing for them to do, ironically. 

Thus eating is a challenge, so we often need to hold them while they eat.  When they’re very young, like Wilbur, we also need to hold their heads still so they can get to the food.  One of the odd things about cerebellar hypoplasia is that when the body is kept still — for instance, if you pick the animal up and hold it — the head starts bobbing.  It’s almost as if the brain has to transfer the motion somewhere else.  That makes eating even more problematic!  With Wilbur tonight, I held his body in place with one hand and gently held his head still with my other hand.  That allowed him to concentrate on just putting his head down and into the bowl.

After dinner, this little tyke followed me all the way out to the pasture on a long walk and back again.  He wasn’t on a leash but never left my side.  He was absolutely intrepid.  Wilbur was ready for a post-dinner puppy nap by the time we returned!

(Click on photo for larger image.)