Rolling Dog Farm Blog

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  • Introducing … Blind Darla!

    Darla on steps

    This beautiful girl arrived last week from Michigan, and wow, what a doll she is. Her name is Darla and she is a real love — so affectionate and sweet. We don't know how long she's been blind from her cataracts, but judging from how tentative she is in her movements, we doubt she's been blind for very long. In fact, we suspect that without those cataracts she may be able to see, judging from how she reacted to a flashlight I shined into her eyes the other evening. I have a call in to our ophthalmologist about scheduling an electroretinogram (ERG) to determine if she would be a candidate for cataract surgery.

    Darla is smaller than she appears in the photo, just under 50 pounds. She gets along great with everyone, and is a girl who loves to wag her tail as soon as she realizes we're about to love her up.

    The story behind her is both interesting and maddening. We had agreed to take her in February 2012, after she had been found wandering in an industrial area and left unclaimed at the county animal control shelter for weeks. Just a couple of days before our transport was due to pick her up, her owner finally showed up and demanded the shelter return her. The shelter director declined, given the fact that a) the owner had somehow left her — a blind dog — to fend for herself, b) had failed to search for her and left her for weeks unclaimed, and c) we had already agreed to take her and had paid for her transport.

    Well, as it turned out the owner was also a county employee, and he called a county commissioner and the county administrator to complain that the shelter was not giving the dog back. The county administrator ordered the shelter to return Darla, which they reluctantly did.

    Fast forward a year. 

    Another person brought the same dog back in to the shelter last month, and the staff recognized Darla as the dog they were forced to return to the original owner the previous year. You can tell where this is going, right? The owner who fought to get her back subsequently moved and, naturally, didn't want to take Darla with him. He gave her to friends … who eventually took her to the shelter and signed her over.

    The shelter contacted us as soon as she showed up, and we agreed — again — to take this sweet girl.

    So now Darla is finally safe with us, where she gets a whole new start in life, thanks to our wonderful donors!

  • Caring For Blind Horses

    The Horse article on blind horses

    Last fall I did a lengthy interview with a writer from The Horse magazine for a feature story on blind horses. The article ran last November but was behind a paywall on The Horse website until just recently. That's a screenshot above, and the link to read the full article is here. One of the other people interviewed extensively for the story is Dr. Ann Dwyer, a New York state equine veterinarian who is the leading authority in the veterinary world on how to care for blind horses. She's been a long-time friend and supporter of the sanctuary, and someone I was delighted to meet at conferences over the years.

    It's nice to see our overall message about blind horses — that they can still have a wonderful quality of life — getting out in the equine media again.

  • I Can Do This Too

    Bentley with tongue

    Bentley our once-blind Yorkie apparently heard that Wilbur got plenty of points for the "cuteness factor" with his tongue sticking out all the time, so he's showing us he can be just as darn cute with his tongue. We had to do about $700 worth of oral surgery on Bentley while he was still with the rescue group in Louisiana because his mouth was such a mess. He had lots of teeth removed in the process, allowing room for a free-flowing tongue to escape.  So what he lost in teeth … well, yes, he made up for in cuteness.

  • It’s Okay, I’ll Just Help Myself

    Lena at RTV

    She may be completely blind, but Lena knows there's hay on the utility vehicle — and when I drive up into her paddock, she comes slowly trotting after it.

    No, she's not going to run into it — she can tell exactly where she is, relative to the vehicle, by the sound. And Lena's a smart girl, so she slows down when she realizes she's close, then walks gingerly up to it.

    Her moment of opportunity comes when I've stopped to fill up Cash's water tank in the adjacent paddock. Unlike Cash, she's not interested in exploring the manufacturing quality or engineering skills behind the Kubota RTV. Lena wants a head-start on the hay, and she knows it's waiting in the cargo box. So while I'm dispensing water to Cash, she's self-dispensing hay to herself. I said she's a smart girl, eh?

  • Evolution

    Clyde on bed

    This is little blind Clyde enjoying the sun coming through the solarium the other morning. He's come a long way since he first arrived, when he was more Yorkshire Terror than Terrier. Clyde would routinely — and without any provocation — attack other dogs, especially any big dogs who happened to be around. (A death wish, we reckoned.) Once he raced up to Allie, our blind 80 lb black Lab, and bit her on the nose … for no reason at all. Clyde also liked to sneak around the house and very discreetly lift his leg to pee on everything.

    We got him neutered right away, began to teach him manners, and then let time work to his (and our) advantage. Somewhere it began to click for him, and he's turned into a sweet guy who gets along with everyone.

    His biggest issues these days are medical — heart problems and a collapsing trachea that Yorkies are prone to developing. He's under the care of our specialists in Burlington, and his medications seem to be helping him cope pretty well. 

    But it's just nice to see how he's evolved from a difficult, "there-goes-Clyde-again" kind of dog to one who is mellow and likes nothing more than quietly hanging out in the morning sun.

  • Checking It Out

    Cash checking out RTV

    I took this photo with my phone yesterday morning when I was taking hay and water out to the horses. That's blind Cash inspecting the RTV utility vehicle. Cash has always been a very inquisitive character, and because he's blind, he uses his muzzle to explore things in his environment. He's always fascinated when I pull up in the RTV, and loves to reach through the fence to run his nose and lips over it. (Um, that's one problem with using smooth wire fences for blind horses — they can always reach through them if they really want to!)

    We've had an incredible run of several days of warm, dry and sunny weather, so I've been able to start cleaning out the corrals and spreading manure. Because winter was so persistent and the weather didn't really "break" until last week, the grass hasn't grown much — so putting the horses out early like this isn't affecting the grass growth yet. Typically we wouldn't do this because they'd eat all the young fresh shoots, setting back pasture regrowth. We've left them out around the clock for days, and they are loving it.

    And this is actually helping the pastures, because the grass is getting lots of manure just at the right time, plus the "litter" of left-over bits of hay on the ground that decomposes into the soil.

    Meanwhile, someone gets to check out an interesting piece of equipment a couple of times a day.

  • Hound In Hole

    Jake 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:

    Austin in hole from 2010

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

  • What Are They Thinking?

    Dognition from NYT

    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.

    —

    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.

    —

    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

    Baron 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.

    —

    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

    Widget echo

    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.

    —

    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!