Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown, came out today to work on several of our blind horses in the medical suite at Beauty’s Barn.  The first patient was Hannah, whose right eye had become inflamed and painful and non-responsive to treatment.  We’ve learned that the best thing to do in this case, when the eye is already blind, is remove it.  In this first photo, Bill has sedated Hannah in the horse stock.  You can see why we call her "Big Red."

In this photo, Bill is prepping the eye for surgery.  Bill and his vet tech Lynn have clipped the hair around it, scrubbed it, and scrubbed it some more.  The orange color is from an antiseptic called Betadine.  At this point, Hannah’s ready for surgery.

Surgery is just beginning here.  I generally don’t post photos taken after this stage because it gets quite bloody, and if you’re not used to seeing this kind of thing, it can be disturbing.  The operation itself takes only about 30 minutes.

This is what Hannah looked like immediately afterwards.  She’s starting to wake up, and soon after I took the photo she was whinnying from the horse stock for her friend Luna.  It’s amazing how fast horses respond to the surgery to remove a painful eye … as serious as the operation is, they actually can feel better within an hour afterwards.

Following Hannah’s surgery, we took X-rays of a swollen knee on blind Laddie.  Then Bill did a dental on new arrival blind Darby, and also removed a small tumor above her left eye.  We’ll send that off for a biopsy to find out if it’s cancerous.

Then came the last event of the day … cleaning up blind baby Brynn.  Brynn has lots of medical issues, one being an ectopic ureter.  This means that the ureter, or tube, that is supposed to take urine from the kidney to the bladder is actually delivering the urine to someplace else — in Brynn’s case, her uterus.  (Her other kidney and ureter are working just fine.)  As a result she leaks urine constantly, and now that it’s winter, it’s become harder to keep her clean and dry.  She’ll have dried urine caked on her skin, which causes urine scalds on her rear end, around her vulva, and between her thighs. 

Brynn will let Alayne and me hose her down and clean up her flanks, but she does not like us cleaning between her legs and around her vulva.  The last time we tried this, she tolerated it for a bit but then let loose with a double-barreled kick that reached four feet up the wall.  (Missing me, thank heavens!)  So the plan today was to hose her down — we have hot and cold running water at Beauty’s Barn — then sedate her and do a thorough "deep clean."  We also trimmed her tail, which should help keep her drier.

In the photo Bill has finished cleaning her up and is applying antibiotic ointment to her skin.  Lynn is holding a twitch on Brynn’s nose, because even sedated this afternoon, she managed to slam me up against the wall while I was holding her when she didn’t like what Bill was doing.  (She may be small for a horse but she still weighs about 300 lbs, so it’s kind of like having an NFL offensive lineman plow into you … except with four legs, not two.)

To make it easier to keep her clean, we’re going to move her down to Beauty’s Barn so she can stay in the heated medical stall at night.  This will allow us to hose down her hindquarters every evening, then put her in the warm, dry stall.  Her ectopic ureter condition is potentially fixable with surgery, but it costs about $4,500 — which we can’t afford — and we need to wait to see what happens to her neck vertebrae anyway.  (See Brynn’s page for more on her medical issues.)

And that was how the afternoon went … working our way from one end of a horse all the way to the other end.

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Our farrier, Rich Boyle, came out today to trim the horses’ hooves … that would be 128 hooves total!  It was a cold, blustery day, with a stiff wind just blowing constantly (notice the all-important ear flaps on my hat).  Rich arrived at 9 a.m. and it was 2:30 p.m. before we were done — with no break in between.  That’s a lot of work for one farrier.  The bill came to $615.

Alayne took this photo of Rich working on blind Nikki, while I was holding her.  Blind Destiny came over to check things out and see if she could help.

Nikki is our two-year old filly we began training for riding earlier this year.  Like everything else about her, she’s always been an easy girl for trimming.  Destiny, on the other hand, was a real pistol about having her feet worked on, and Rich used to have to tie her legs up … and sometimes lay her down on the ground … to trim her.  Destiny, who turned one this past spring, has begun absorbing those early lessons and is now realizing that trimming is actually not the end of the world. 

Today was Destiny’s best day ever — Rich simply tapped on her flank and she picked up her rear foot for him!  Destiny knows Nikki is the star in the barn — we sort of have a teenage sister rivalry going on, with Nikki clearly the favored sibling — and maybe Destiny just wanted to show Nikki up for a change … who knows?  But it was a very impressive feat.  (Pun intended.)

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If you read my blog post the night I brought Daisy home just before Thanksgiving, you may remember that Bailey the mini Doxie was very interested in the young lady who had just arrived … but she paid him no attention at all.  Daisy was fixated on me. 

Meet the new Daisy … who now loves the old Bailey.  These two play together all the time, and they get excited when the other one comes in the door from outside.  This afternoon, just before I took this photo of Bailey and Daisy in our living room, they had been romping together; I tried to get it on video but it didn’t work, so I had to settle for a still photo.  This was after the fun-and-games session was over, although Bailey was still chomping on a soft toy and shaking it when I got this shot.  (Daisy’s wearing the stylish ‘tossed ear’ look that’s very "in" this year in the Dachshund crowd.)

They’re so cute together that we’ve taken to calling them Brother Bailey and Sister Daisy.  Earlier this afternoon, Daisy had walked into Alayne’s office and started barking insistently, like she needed to go out.  So Alayne got up and Daisy led her through the kitchen and around to the back door.  (The front door was actually closer but for some reason Daisy wanted to go to the back door.)

Alayne opened the door … and in scooted Bailey!  Daisy took off after him, and they ran around in circles in the living room like they hadn’t seen each other in, well, minutes.  We figured out that Daisy knew Bailey was at the back door, wanting to come in — she must have heard him barking and we didn’t — and so she went and got Alayne to let him in.  Very clever little girl, eh?

[An aside:  The blog spellchecker is suggesting ‘Dixie’ or ‘Dioxide’ instead of ‘Doxie.’  Hmm.]

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This is blind Dusty, looking quite the part for a Montana snow dog.  I took the photo this weekend, when Dusty was in the front paddock of Widget’s House. 

Dusty had been a sled dog before he came to us a few years ago, and he was used to sleeping outside on the ground or in the barrels most mushers use for housing.  So being indoors was kind of an odd and unsettling thing for him at first.  Initially he was uncomfortable coming inside, even in harsh weather, and we’d have to go find him and bring him inside.  (You can read Dusty’s original story here.)

Well, that was then, this is now!  He’s become Mr. Let-Me-Inside-Now.  Dusty always makes sure he’s right up there with the other dogs when it’s time to go in for dinner or for bedtime.  As for roughing it weather-wise … he won’t leave the covered porch at Widget’s House if it’s snowing or raining!  (Smart, huh?)  A lot of the other dogs will still be milling around off the porch, getting wet, but not Dusty.  He’s all about staying warm and dry these days.

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The wonderful folks at Bark Magazine kindly emailed us a PDF of the terrific article on the ranch from their November/December 2006 issue and gave us permission to post it online.  So we did — this evening!  You can find it by going to our sanctuary Web site home page and clicking on the image that looks like this one.

And if you have friends or family members who would enjoy reading the article, please email them the link to our home page. 

Thanks to Bark for the great article and for being so generous in giving us permission to post it!

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Update on the KING TV story:  When I posted the item on our blog early Wednesday, I said the video was only available in Windows Media format and that Mac users would need to find a PC to view it.  One of the sanctuary’s supporters — like us, also a Mac user — emailed me to point out that there is a version of Windows Media Player for the Mac.  (Thanks, Mark!)  You can download the Mac version here.

Seattle’s KING TV aired a story about the sanctuary Monday night on their Evening Magazine program, and they’ve now posted it on their Web site.  They first ran the piece a few years ago, so we’ve definitely grown since then, but the story is superb and many of the animals you see in the piece are still with us.  We’ve had a terrific response from viewers who saw the segment Monday.  It’s been shown since then on KONG-TV, a sister affiliate, and on Northwest Cable News.  You will need Windows Media Player to watch it online.  (Sorry for you Mac people — like us! — out there.  You’ll have to find a PC somewhere to watch it.)

You can find the story here.

If that doesn’t work, you can go to the KING TV Evening Magazine home page here and look for the video archive.

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It’s 5 a.m. in San Antonio as I write this and Nichole and I are headed to the airport to fly back to Montana … we’re looking forward to being home!

Nichole and I had a special day at the equine vet convention in San Antonio today.  In the morning we met Dr. Dennis Brooks, a veterinary ophthalmologist at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, for the first time.  We’ve "met" Dr. Brooks many times via email but never in person; he provided a lot of information for our BlindHorses.org Web site when we launched it two years ago, and he has always been very generous with his time in helping me respond to emails we get from people with blind horse questions.  He also is very willing to talk with the media whenever I refer journalists to him.  I took this photo of Nichole with Dr. Brooks in front of our exhibit this morning.

Dr. Brooks has published a book called Ophthalmology for the Equine Practitioner, and he has pioneered corneal transplants in horses.  In fact, he’s done more of these specialized operations than any other veterinary ophthalmologist in the country.  During his talks and seminars at veterinary conferences, he frequently talks about blind horses and how they can have a great quality of life.  One of his patients was Valiant, the blind dressage horse we feature on our BlindHorses.org site.

Then Dr. Ann Dwyer, an equine vet from upstate New York and another wonderful supporter of our work with blind horses, stopped by to visit.  Dr. Dwyer has a special interest in ophthalmology and frequently lectures on equine ophthalmology at veterinary conferences, sometimes in conjunction with Dr. Brooks.  Dr. Dwyer also provided a lot of material for our BlindHorses.org Web site and often closes her lectures by mentioning the site and referring vets to it. 

Dr. Dwyer owns a large equine practice called Genesee Valley Equine Clinic, and counts a number of blind horses among her patients.  She authored a chapter about caring for blind horses in a recent equine ophthalmology textbook, the first time anything on the subject has been written by a veterinarian.  She helped us get permission to post the chapter on our Web site.  Here’s Nichole with Dr. Dwyer this afternoon.

Nichole and I took turns today attending different seminars, so one of us was staffing the booth at all times.  Nichole attended a lecture on state-of-the-art treatment for colic in the morning, while I sat in on a talk Dr. Dwyer gave on ophthalmology for veterinary technicians.  This afternoon we traded off again, and Nichole joined a session on treating performance-related injuries.  Then I attended an ophthalmology seminar for veterinarians hosted jointly by Dr. Dwyer and Dr. Brooks.  At the end of the session, with some 200 equine veterinarians in attendance, Dr. Dwyer introduced me to the group (I wasn’t expecting that, needless to say) and then told them about BlindHorses.org.  After explaining what was on the site, she told the vets, "Now, write this Web site down, because you will need it for your clients!"

I can’t think of a better way to get the word out than that!

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We’re in San Antonio for the annual convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, i.e., all horse vets in the country.  Our horse trainer, Nichole Zupan, joined me for the trip.  As someone who has trained a born-blind horse for riding — our two-year old Nikki — Nichole is uniquely positoned to help tell people what blind horses are capable of doing.  Nichole and I came down this weekend to staff our exhibit display, hand out our brochure on blind horses ("Blind Horses:  Top 5 Tips and Top 5 Myths") and promote our BlindHorses.org Web site. 

The convention started today, and I took the photo of Nichole at our exhibit booth this morning.  We had a lot of folks stop by and visit with us today … vets from New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Michigan, Virginia, Florida, and plenty of other states I can’t even remember now that it’s 9:45 p.m. as I write this!  We also had veterinary students from schools like Cornell come by to talk.  There are about 4,000 vets attending the convention, so we have a lot of opportunity!

We’re here because we’ve learned we need to reach out to the equine vet community to let them know that blind horses CAN have a wonderful quality of life … and to give these vets useful, practical information they can also share with their clients.  Too many vets still assume that a blind horse is only going to be miserable, or dangerous, or can’t go out on pasture — there are a lot of myths about these wonderful animals — and as a result, they often tell the owners of newly blind horses that they should just put the animal down.  It’s sad that many vets still think blindness means a death sentence for a horse, and we want to help them understand that it doesn’t have to be that way at all.

Nichole and I will be here through Tuesday, returning to Montana on Wednesday.  Alayne is back at the ranch, keeping everything running smoothly!

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Blind Callie, Dachshund No. 4, offered up a hard-to-ignore photo op today.  Callie was apparently a bit miffed that she only had a passing mention in Monday’s blog about the "other" Dachshunds.  (All "minis," she points out a bit huffily.  "Not much to them.")  As this photo makes clear, there’s definitely a LOT to this plump young lady.  And yes, she is on a diet, believe me!

I walked out of my office this afternoon to get something in the kitchen and saw Callie like this, upside down on a West Paw bed, over in the dining room.  This is Callie’s favorite sleeping position, and it is utter relaxation for her. 

Don’t you wish you could sleep like this?

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I was moving 10 tons of big round hay bales this afternoon with the tractor and kept looking at the stunning view off in the distance.  So just before moving the final bale, I stopped at the house and picked up the camera to take this shot. 

The bale in front weighs about 1,200 pounds, and we lift it with a ’round bale spear’ that hooks onto the front loader — those arms on either side of the tractor hood.  Although we feed the horses small square bales these days (they’re 75 lbs), the round bales are left over from a previous season and were stored in a neighbor’s hay barn.  (See how fresh and green this one still is?)  So our neighbor hauled the remaining bales over today.  We’ll feed the round bales to our two Belgian draft horses and the handful of other sighted horses over the next few months.

The peaks in the distance are in the Scapegoat Wilderness, part of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.  The county gravel road at our south gate, Dry Gulch Road, eventually dead-ends at the trailhead into the Scapegoat.  The North Fork of the Blackfoot River flows out of these mountains and runs along the base of the ridge on the left.  Our valley is flat (it’s called Kleinschmidt Flat, after the earliest settlers in the 1880’s) because, long ago, a glacier once came out of the North Fork canyon and flattened everything in its path.

If it looks cold out there, it was … about 10 above zero in the sun.  As I write this, at 7:30 p.m., it’s 13 below zero and headed lower!

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