I drove over to our vet clinic in Helena, Montana Veterinary Specialists, this afternoon to pick up three animals we’d never seen before but had agreed to take last week. In this photo I took at the clinic, vet tech Heather A. on the left is holding a blind cat that the Lewis & Clark Humane Society in Helena had asked if we could take. Although the cat doesn’t look happy — he just had surgery yesterday to remove a painful, glaucoma eye — he in fact was purring up a storm.
Vet tech Jayme J. is holding two Dachshunds (what? more Dachshunds?) who came from a bad situation here in Montana — a woman had more than 100 Dachshunds and Jack Russell Terriers at her place. Yes, she was breeding, and clearly things had gotten way out of hand, as these backyard breeder situations often do. Another lady had convinced her to start letting go of some of the dogs. This lady was able to get 20 of the dogs out last week, and she called us when she realized that two of the Dachshunds had medical problems.
The clinic staff had named them Hairy and Smoothy, for obvious reasons, although Alayne had since decided to name them Oliver and Twist. We often say that Widget claims to be a Beagle trapped in a Dachshund body, and Oliver would appear to be an Airedale trapped in a Dachshund body, too. He’s one very long-haired guy … he’s got curls, too! He has intervertebral disk disease, with weakness in his limbs. He hops when he walks, although this is more from poor conformation than from an neurological problem. You’ll see in this photo of Oliver kissing Jayme how his back legs go out:
Oliver also needed to be neutered. Did someone mention "breeding"?
Twist’s left rear leg is his major problem. In the photo at the top of the post, you can see how it juts straight out. Our vets took X-rays yesterday and said it looks like his joints were "installed" backwards in that leg. So when he walks, the leg is twisted (hence the name) outwards at an angle, stiff as a board. Yet he doesn’t seem to be in any pain, and our vets didn’t think there was any need at this point to remove it. He seems to get around fine with it. Twist is also developing disk problems, and although his back is impossibly long, right now he is not showing any neurological damage.
If Oliver’s a bold kisser, Twist is really shy. I was trying to get a photo of him so you could see all of him, but the only thing he wanted to do was hide behind Heather’s legs:
And the cat … he needs a name! The shelter had named him "Seer," but we’d like something different, so suggestions are welcome for this one, too. (We’ve enjoyed all the suggestions for the three-legged girl and will make a decision next week on her name!) Everyone at the clinic described him as just a sweet little lovebug. As soon as I put my hands on him this afternoon, his purr engine roared to life. (And he can’t feel very good anyway, having just had an eye removed yesterday.)
Here’s what he looked like in a photo the shelter director emailed me last week:
The left eye turned out to have very high internal pressure from glaucoma, and the pain meant it needed to come out. Inside that socket on the right-hand side he does have an eyeball, but it is very small and not functional. It doesn’t appear to be painful.
Here’s the final shot of the day, with Heather holding the-cat-who-needs-a-name:
I also brought blind Allie the Lab home tonight. She had her eyes removed last week, but she is feeling a lot better than she has in a long time — she’s frisky and bouncy and has a real spark again. So it was a full truck headed back to the ranch!
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