That's our new arrival Tanner with our internal medicine specialist at Peak, Dr. Marielle Goossens, who shepherded Tanner through a series of diagnostics last Tuesday. Other than the need to gain weight, his physical condition was pretty good. On ultrasound the radiologist found all his internal organs looked fine.
His regular bloodwork came back as normal, but on Friday Marielle got the results of the tick-borne diseases test: Tanner has high titers for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which is fairly prevalent in the South. (We had a previous case of this in blind Briggs, who had come from Georgia.) Tanner is not showing any clinical signs, however, so he most likely already suffered through an episode. We are starting him on treatment to get it out of his system.
After Tanner's other tests on Tuesday, our veterinary surgeon, Dr. Kurt Schulz, examined Tanner's leg:
You can tell by that look on Tanner's face he isn't too sure what's going on back there. But after Kurt finished his exam and started discussing his findings, Tanner suddenly spun around to give him a kiss:
I was already clicking away when it happened, and here's the next frame:
Kurt recommended we go ahead and remove the rest of the leg, since it is an on-going risk of chronic infection and suffers recurring mild trauma at the tip of the stump from Tanner trying to use it. We are scheduling that surgery for January, after we get some more weight on Tanner.
Overall, a pretty good report card on this boy!
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Final 2013 Shelter Challenge Underway
The final round of the Shelter Challenge for 2013 began on October 28th and runs until December 22. You can vote every day here. To search for us, type in our name, Rolling Dog Farm, and Lancaster, NH 03584. We just won another $1,000 in the previous round, so your daily votes do bring in serious money for our disabled animals!
Please note that I cannot help with technical or voting problems. I also do not have an "inside track" to anyone at the Shelter Challenge, and I don't know any more about the contest than anyone else does. So if you find yourself having issues, please consult their FAQ page here and their Rules page, which is a pop-up you can find linked on this page.
Thanks for your votes!
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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