Rolling Dog Farm Blog

When our vet Dr. Brenda Culver came last Friday for our annual "cat day," she also brought three animals back from the clinic:  Claude the blind Great Dane puppy, Spirit the paralyzed Yorkie, and Oscar the elderly, deaf miniature Dachshund.  We got so caught up with Cinder the pregnant blind cat over the weekend I forgot I hadn’t posted medical updates on these three.

Claude

It turns out that Claude has something called carpal laxity syndrome, which is weakness in the carpal ligaments.  This is why he is still somewhat flat-footed, which contributes to his hunched appearance.  The good news is that he should grow out of it.  It certainly doesn’t bother him at all, as you can see from these photos Alayne took.  The first shot shows him sleeping on the cot by the ramp leading to our back door.  (We built the ramp for our geriatric gang who struggled with even the two steps up to the door.)

And here’s the close-up photo of that big squishy Dane nose smooshed right up against the post.  I don’t know about you, but I’d have a hard time sleeping like that!  We have several cots with beds on them scattered around the yard, and they are Claude’s favorite places to snooze.

Spirit

As for Spirit the little Yorkie with the paralyzed front legs, it turns out that her slurpy, noisy breathing is not from fistulas (or channels) running from her mouth into her nasal cavities.  Unfortunately, X-rays showed she had suffered trauma to her face at some point in the past.  (Not surprising, given her history of abuse.)  The blows broke the catacomb-like (or sponge-like) turbinate bones that divide the nasal airway into separate air passages.  The broken turbinates disrupt the airflow, causing the congested sound we hear when she breathes.  Brenda says that Spirit will be okay and that surgery is not required, but it’s hard to imagine this little thing getting hit in the face that hard.  It just makes us cringe.

Oscar

Oscar the mini Doxie’s oral surgery went fine, but his echocardiogram revealed a change in his heart rhythm.  This means that down the road he will most likely need a pacemaker.  Yes, you read that right: a pacemaker.  <Sigh>  We’ll need to recheck his heart every few months to monitor this, but Brenda thought we had a while to go before taking that step.

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As for Cinder … still only two kittens as of Monday morning!  She remains very big, so if there’s not another kitten waiting for us Tuesday morning, we’re taking her in for X-rays to find out what’s going on inside.

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(Click on photos for larger image.)