Rolling Dog Farm Blog

We ended up having to remove Madison’s eye today.  It turned out this blind mare had a ‘melting corneal ulcer,’ which is as painful as it sounds.  I told our vet, Dr. Bill Brown, it looked like someone had taken a small chisel and gouged out part of her cornea.  You could see the cornea sloughing off, which gave it the ‘melting’ look.  The best possible treatment in her case was enucleation, or removal of the eye.  Bill did the surgery in the medical room in Beauty’s Barn this morning.  In this photo Bill has just completed the surgery and sewn up her eyelids. 

Bill is able to do these surgeries with the horse under sedation and still standing in the horse stock, rather than under general anesthesia.  They don’t feel a thing, but are spared the risks of full-blown anesthesia.  Plus, they recover so much faster.  We took this second photo of Madison literally just 30 minutes after the surgery.  I walked her out to the corral, where she was eagerly greeted by her worried boyfriend Bridger ("What happened?  Where’d you go?  What did they do to you?").  She immediately began eating the hay left over from her breakfast. 

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Our blind mare Madison had a sudden flare-up in her left eye, as you can see from this photo.  I called our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown in Missoula, this afternoon to discuss initial treatment options.  The eye was too painful to try and treat in her regular stall, so Alayne and I put Madison into the horse stock in the medical room.  I tried repeatedly to get drops in that eye without much success.  She did not want me anywhere near it, and finally started rearing up in the stock.  To avoid a train wreck in the barn, we quit at that point and took her back to her own stall.

Sometimes you need to sedate horses for their comfort and your safety while treating them, and this was one of those times.  I gave Madison an oral dose of an anti-inflammatory/pain medication and we left her for the night.  In the morning I’ll call Bill and ask him to come out.  The eye looks really bad up close … it was very hard to get Madison to hold her head still long enough for a good look, but it appeared she has a corneal ulcer forming.

When Liz and I left Seattle this morning, the truck thermometer read 40 degrees.  When I arrived at the ranch in Montana tonight, it was 32 degrees BELOW zero.  It was rather brisk unloading the truck!

On the way back today, we stopped in Ellensburg, Washington to pick up a young cat with cerebellar hypoplasia.  Like our cat Wobbles, this little girl is a wobbler too.  She was in the womb when her mother had feline distemper, so she was born with an underdeveloped cerebellum.  This affects fine motor skills and balance.  These cats (and dogs, like our Allie) can get anywhere they want to go, it just takes them longer and they wobble and flop along the way.  They are happy, healthy and typically live normal lifespans. 

Michael Andersen, who runs her own private rescue at the Crooked Creek Ranch near Ellensburg, had e-mailed us yesterday while we were at the vet convention in Seattle.  She asked if we had room for this wobbler she had rescued and named Claire.  I had just heard from Alayne about Champagne Bob’s death.  Somehow it seemed fitting that we would learn about Claire on the same day and could offer her a spot at the sanctuary.

We took this photo of Michael and Claire when we met them at a truckstop just off I-90 in Ellensburg.  I was tickled to see that Claire looks just like Wobbles … in fact, they’re so similar in appearance they could have been from the same litter.  They also, it turns out, have exactly the same degree of ‘wobbliness.’  Wobbles was so excited to have a new friend tonight!  (Claire was, uh, a bit more reserved about the whole thing.)

Speaking of new friends, here are the ladies from the Cowgirl Spirit Rescue Drill Team who were at the vet convention as well.  They have a blind horse named Spirit who was featured in the Seattle Times article about us last Sunday.  If you didn’t see the article from our post that day, you can read it here.  From the left, that’s Juliane, Susan and Kathryn.  These gals rescue horses from slaughter, train them for their drill team, and then adopt them out.  We really enjoyed their company at the convention.

Finally, I just wanted to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who has written in with such sweet and wonderful messages about Champagne Bob.  Alayne and I really appreciate all the kind thoughts.  He was a special little guy and clearly touched a lot of people.

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I was planning to write a really upbeat post about our final day at the Seattle vet convention until Alayne called from the ranch this morning with awful news.  Champagne Bob, our little handicapped cat who had beaten the odds his entire life, died late last night.  He had a rare disease called Mucopolysaccharidosis Type VI.  Cats typically live no longer than 2 to 3 years maximum with this condition.  Champagne Bob was by our reckoning at least 5 years old and perhaps as old as 8 (we never had a definitive age when he arrived).  Our vets were always amazed at how well he did and how long he was living past the age when no cat was expected to survive.  You can read his original story here.

Alayne said Champagne Bob seemed a bit out of sorts yesterday evening, a little stiff in his legs (bear in mind he couldn’t walk at all, so this refers to his ability to move his legs while lying down), and he didn’t want his dinner at first.  He looked straight past the food on his plate, as if he were staring off into space.  That was very unusual, because this little guy absolutely LOVED to eat.  But he finally did eat later in the evening, and he was moving his legs around, so she figured he was okay.  Alayne then went out about 10 p.m. to let the dogs out one last time for the night and close up the barns.  When she got back to the house, she found he had just died … he was curled up in a little ball on his bed. He seemed peaceful, and there was no sign of any struggling or thrashing.  It was like he had just taken a last breath and slipped away.

He was without a doubt the most disabled animal at the ranch, and he lived a very constrained life in his special crib.  Yet there were still two things he loved about life: being petted and being fed.  We figured that as long as he had those, he had a good quality of life for a tiny guy who couldn’t walk. He was a survivor, and we’re glad we had the time we did with him. 

Goodbye, little friend.

We had another great day at the equine vet convention in Seattle.  Here’s a photo of our volunteer Liz  S. at our exhibit that I took this evening just as we were getting ready to leave.  In the photo I posted yesterday, you couldn’t see either Liz or the exhibit display very well, so I wanted to make sure you had a chance to see both of them!  Liz and I had an incredible number of vets come by today … many to get information, but others stopped by to tell us about their own blind horse success stories.  They either had clients with blind horses, or in a couple of cases, the vet had actually rescued a blind horse.  We heard many heart-warming stories.  In all, I’d have to say that the response has far exceeded our expectations.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Montana, Alayne was getting buried in a new snowstorm with an Arctic front moving in.  Tuesday night the temperatures are forecast to be from 25 below zero to 32 below zero.  On Wednesday, when Liz and I drive back, the Weather Service forecast says "Sunny.  Highs 4 to 11."  For Wednesday night, temperatures are forecast to be 23 below zero to 30 below zero.  I think that’s a warming trend. 

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Our wonderful volunteer Liz S. and I are in Seattle today for the 51st annual convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners — all the horse vets in the country.  There are about 2,500 at the convention.  We’re here to communicate our message about blind horses … that they can have a wonderful quality of life if only they’re given a chance.  We have a beautiful exhibit display featuring blind horses and also handed out our brochure called Blind Horses: Top 5 Tips and Top 5 Myths.

One of the sanctuary’s friends, Amber C. from Seattle, came by to take some photos of us at the exhibit. In the photo we’re talking with two vets who stopped by.  Interestingly enough, the vet on the left with the cowboy hat told Liz he had a client who was given a blind horse.  He admitted he’d told the client she should just put the horse down.  (That’s exactly why we’re at this convention.)  As it turned out, his client refused to euthanize the animal and is insisting on training and riding her blind horse.  So he stopped by to talk with us and pick up our brochure, and seemed genuinely pleased to get the information.  He said his client would be delighted to hear about us and our BlindHorses.org Web site.

In the exhibit you see behind Liz and me, the big photo is one that Amber took of our beautiful blind mare Lena this past summer.

Also today, the Seattle Times carried a great story about blind horses and our presence at the vet convention.  When we were doing the interview for the article while still in Montana, the Times reporter said they needed to have a local blind horse from Seattle in the story.  Did we know of one? 

Well, we had just found out that a local rescue group in Seattle, the Cowgirl Spirit Rescue Drill Team, had saved a blind horse from slaughter earlier this year.  To make it even better, the Cowgirl Spirit gals were going to be at the vet convention, too, with a table right across from us.  So we put the reporter in touch with the Cowgirl Spirit team and the Times sent a photographer out to get a photo of their blind horse.  As you’ll read, they got some great publicity, too.

You can read the Seattle Times story here.  In the print edition, the headline read: "A clearer view of blind horses:  A couple who run a Montana sanctuary hope to educate veterinarians at a convention in Seattle this week about such animals’ value — and dispel a few myths about their care and disability."

Liz and I will be at the vet convention through Tuesday, returning to Montana on Wednesday.

All in all, the first day turned out great, and we are very glad we decided to come.

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We heard little blind Ashley the puppy barking like mad quite a distance from the house this afternoon.  Usually she doesn’t venture far from the front or back door, but today she wandered off until she was 20 yards from the house and deep in snow.  She had been trying to figure out how to get out of all the snow and make it back to the house.  Finally she gave up, deciding to bark non-stop until we came and ‘rescued’ her.

Of course, I had to get the camera first and take her photo.  Once she realized I was there — just seconds after I got this shot — she got a renewed burst of energy and plowed her way towards me.  Then she ran circles around my feet, all excited to have made it out on her own.

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One of the things Alayne and I spend a lot of time doing is responding to calls and e-mails from people across the country who have blind horses.  Often they are asking if we can take the animal, but other times they’re asking us for advice or just re-assurance because they want to keep the blind horse.  Here’s an e-mail we received yesterday that warmed our hearts:

My name is Jodi, and I spoke with you several months ago about a blind pony named Jasper that I was fostering who was seized by Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society in Texas.  I just wanted to thank you for your help and advice as I have adopted him and found a little seeing-eye donkey to keep him company.  Jasper has adapted well and his cognitive mapping is amazing.  He’s gained confidence and trots around tossing his head, but follows me everywhere when I’m in his pasture.  When he hears my voice, he calls to me and has learned various commands to help him with his disability.   I’ve attached a picture of him with his donkey—thank you again for your help.

Here’s a photo Jodi sent us of Jasper and his seeing-eye donkey friend Pepe.  Notice the twine holding the bell around the donkey’s neck, so Jasper can hear his buddy.

What Jodi found is what we have seen so often — if you give a blind horse a chance, it will show you just how much it can enjoy life.  Just like any disabled animal.

Thank you, Jodi!

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Alayne came home this afternoon with Callie, the blind Dachshund the Bitterroot Humane Association called us about.  Callie is sweet, affectionate, and just a little doll (if a bit plump!).  She gets along well with all the other dogs, from large to small, although she is tough enough to stand up for herself.  This evening she let several of the dogs know they were crowding her with some fierce Doxie growls.  Everyone scattered.

Callie turned out to be something of a food hound.  In other words, there’s a reason she’s plump.  She found the open bag of puppy chow for blind Ashley, grabbed it with her teeth, and started dragging it across the floor in the kitchen.  Apparently she wasn’t happy with our dinner service and was ready to help herself. 

We can’t imagine why anyone would give up on an adorable little dog like this, but we’re glad she’s going to get another chance here.

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We just agreed to take a blind, 9-year old female Dachshund named Callie.  The Bitterroot Humane Association in Hamilton, Montana, called us about her yesterday.  We had the shelter drop her off at a vet clinic in Missoula today for a medical and eye exam, and Alayne will go into town tomorrow to pick her up.  Callie’s story is a sad one:  Her owner moved and left Callie behind with some guy the owner knew.  This fellow didn’t want the blind Dachshund either and promptly took her to the shelter.  (Wouldn’t you like to find the owner and have a few words?)

So tomorrow we’ll welcome Callie to the ranch, where she’ll be cherished.  More info — and photos — on this girl once we see her!