Rolling Dog Farm Blog

When we got up this morning, we found Bailey had thrown up overnight in the dining room where he sleeps in his little alcove.  He looked and acted like he clearly didn't feel well.  His temperature was slightly elevated, at 102.8° (39.3° C).  We called our internal medicine specialist in Missoula, Dr. Dave Bostwick, who had seen Bailey a week ago for a leg problem.  Dave had us start him on Clavamox and wanted to see him tomorrow, Wednesday, when Alayne was going to be taking blind Goldie in for some minor surgery. 

But at lunchtime Bailey didn't look any better, so we took his temperature again — and found it had shot up to 104.7° (40.3° C).  Yikes!  To skyrocket like that after a few hours on antibiotics was truly alarming.  I called Dave again, and a few minutes later I had Bailey in the truck on the way to Missoula.

Here's Dave doing an initial physical exam:

Bailey's temperature was still 104° when we arrived at the clinic, and Dave found bacteria in some fluid he pulled from Bailey's leg (a sac around his hock that recently developed and was the cause of Bailey's previous visit to Dave).  But because the sac was fully contained and protected by a thick callus of skin, the question was where the bacteria might have come from.

Before Alayne and I took Bailey's temperature this morning, I had expressed his bladder and noticed his urine smelled, so Dave used his ultrasound to pinpoint Bailey's bladder to get a urine sample:

Dave began culturing the urine sample, and also submitted bloodwork to the lab.  We will get the lab results in the morning, but the urine culture will take longer.  It's possible that a bladder infection could have worked its way back up into the kidneys and then into his bloodstream … or the bacteria could have started somewhere else entirely.  At this point we just don't know.

Meanwhile, Dave started Bailey on a stronger antibiotic and fluids, and I had to leave him at the clinic for the night.  Before I left, though, I filled his cage with a big, fleece blanket from the truck so he'd have plenty to burrow under.  And he will be very happy to see Alayne in the morning!

But the whole time I was there this afternoon, this was the look I was getting … the "Dad, why are we here?" look:

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Amazing — now we're No. 1!

Please keep voting for us every
day in The Animal Rescue
Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
Thanks
to your votes, we came in third nationwide and won $3,000 for the
animals in the previous contest.  Now we have a shot at No. 1 and the
$20,000 grand prize!  Enter
"Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana,
and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Please ask
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After yesterday's upsetting blog, I figured we could all use something lighthearted today … so here is a photo of blind Widget happily scampering across the yard.  Everyone in the photo is actually in motion — that's blind Evelyn in the back and blind Austin on the right. 

On many mornings when Alayne lets the dogs out of Kelly's Cottage, Widget goes bounding off with a kind of hop-skip-and-jump motion that could only be possible with legs so short.  Alayne has tried repeatedly with the camera to capture the exact moment when all four little feet are off the ground, but it's tough to get that shot.  These photos are as close as she could get to "the moment."

In the second photo, that's blind Callie in the lower left corner, wondering who's hurtling past.  In the several years we've had her, I can't recall ever seeing Callie move at a high rate of speed … except when we're placing her food dish on the floor.  Then it's Katie-bar-the-door.

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Thank you to everyone who posted such wonderful and kind comments on the blog or sent us emails about Teddy.  Alayne and I are still in a daze over losing him so quickly yesterday.  My office felt a little lonely today in Teddy's absence.  But all of the comments were so heartwarming, and they helped give us a real lift.  Thank you!

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Wow — still No. 2!

Please keep voting for us every
day in The Animal Rescue
Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
Thanks
to your votes, we won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest and
would like to repeat that win — or do even better — in this one! 
Enter
"Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana,
and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Thank you!

Our little survivor made it as far as he could go.  And today his body finally gave out.  It happened so fast I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye.

Yesterday Teddy had been his usual happy self.  He was eager for his dinner, and had been barking at Alayne in the kitchen to hurry up with the feeding.  Last night he had been breathing a little heavier than normal, but nothing we hadn't seen before — especially on a warm evening.  Yet just to make sure he didn't have a fever, we took his temperature and it was normal at 101 (38.3 C).  By the time we put him up for the night, his breathing had subsided.

But this morning when we got up Teddy had very labored breathing, with his mouth open and head pointed up.  This was the same thing that sent him back to the hospital almost a month ago to the day.  After a week there, our vets could find nothing in the imaging or lab results to explain the breathing difficulty.  He quickly recovered from it and came home in great shape.

Still, we were concerned by a repeat episode, so Alayne and I tested his glucose level and it was at 283 — pretty low for Teddy.  But his temperature was now 98.9 (37.1 C), too low for comfort given the other signs we were seeing.  Just to make sure there wasn't a problem with the thermometer, a few minutes later we took it again … and it had dropped to 98.6.  Uh oh.

I called our clinic's emergency number, and our vet, Dr. Brenda Culver, soon called back.  Alayne was already preparing to rush Teddy to the clinic, and I told Brenda that Alayne would call her as soon as she got over MacDonald Pass and near Helena so she'd know when to meet her at the clinic.

I took Teddy outside so he could pee while I went to get the truck ready.  When I got back to the house, Teddy was sitting up next to the wall of the house, soaking in the early morning sun, but panting heavily.  I picked him up and started carrying him out to the truck.  About halfway there, his body went rigid, his front legs paddled furiously, and then his head flopped over to the side.  I dropped to my knees on the drive to cradle him, and yelled to Alayne to hurry outside. 

Teddy's body lay limp in my hands, and I thought we had lost him.  Then, to my astonishment, he regained consciousness.  He picked his head up and put his legs down.  I set him on the ground and he stood on all fours, as if nothing had happened.  At that point Alayne came up, and I said, "I thought he had died but he came back.  We're running out of time."  

We rushed over to the truck parked in the vehicle shed, but as we got there, he went limp in my hands again and his head fell over.  I cradled him once more, but this time he didn't bounce back.  I got down on my knees and held him in my arms.  I told Alayne, "We've lost him."  She started crying.  "Oh, Teddy, no!  Please!"  She scooped him up so she could hold him against her chest.  A few seconds later, as she was holding him, she said, "Wait! I can hear him breathing!"  And sure enough, he had just started to breathe again.  We were incredulous.  He was still fighting.

She threw her things in the front seat of the truck while I wrapped him in blankets and laid him in the back seat.  A minute later, there was a cloud of dust as Alayne raced down the road towards Highway 200.

I called Brenda to let her know what had happened so she could be prepared.

I headed out to the barns to do morning chores.  About 20 minutes later the phone rang.  It was Alayne calling from the truck.  She said, "We lost him about Helmville.  He just stopped breathing altogether."  (Helmville is a little town like Ovando, south of us on the way to Helena.)  Alayne had kept reaching into the back seat to check on Teddy, and that's when she realized she could no longer feel or hear him breathing.

We decided there and then to have her continue on to Helena so Brenda could do a necropsy — an autopsy — to find out what happened. 

Brenda did the necropsy this afternoon and emailed me with her findings. 

Brenda said she "found very little on the gross level to explain his sudden death. I have submitted multiple tissue samples for histopathology which will give us more definitive answers. On gross necropsy (those changes visible to the naked eye), the liver appeared enlarged and the pancreas was discolored…changes consistent with diabetes and not necessarily specific explanations for his death this morning."

She thought the series of events "can be consistent with a thromboembolic accident ('stroke'). The histopathology will help to determine if this is the possible cause of death as well as any other pathologies involved."

Brenda said we should have the full necropsy report by the end of this week, and she'll let us know if the results come in sooner.  For background she had written, "In order to get the
necessary tissue samples, I used routine surgical approaches and
delicate tissue handling for optimal histopathology results. His body
was treated with the utmost respect while performing this procedure."

At the clinic, Brenda had told Alayne that diabetes takes a systemic toll on the body, and the older the patient is, the harder it is on them.  She said, "We know he was already old, but he may have been even older than we thought."  In which case, she said, "his little body could have just worn out."

Still, it seems so danged unfair.  Here he went for so long with untreated diabetes, which blinded him; then he was nearly starved to death; and finally he was dumped out on a curb to fend for himself — only to be rescued and brought to us, where he was able to get the best possible medical care and as much love as he could handle.  We had Teddy for just over 10 weeks — and four of those he spent in the hospital, where he underwent major bladder and gallbladder surgery.

I guess that's what seems so unfair … late in life, his luck finally changed, but he didn't get to enjoy it for more than a few weeks.  And he had been doing so well recently!  He was spunky and bossy and loved his new life here.

Teddy had a particular attachment to me, and followed me around the house so he could stay close.  He loved nothing more than lying on my lap.  On those evenings when I had time to sit in the recliner in the living room to read, Teddy would come over, stand up on his hind feet, put his front paws on the edge of the chair, and look at me with this quizzical expression that said, "Well?  Here I am!"  I'd reach down and pull him up so he could sit with me while I read.  When I was working in the office, he'd come in to sleep on one of the beds in here.  Often he'd come over to the desk chair, stand up on his hind feet, and demand to be picked up and held.  It didn't matter to him whether it was a recliner or desk chair, all he knew was that I was sitting down … and that meant my lap was available.

I kept thinking I needed to get a photo of his scruffy little face appearing over the edge of my chair … but I never did.

So just over two months was all we got with him.  Bless his little heart.

We love you, Teddy.  We miss you already.

I took Charlie to our vet in Helena, Dr. Brenda Culver, for a thorough follow-up eye exam this afternoon.  Typically our ophthalmologist, Dr. Bill Yakely in Spokane, wants to see his patients one week after the cataract surgery to assess how their eyes are doing.  In our case, given our distance from Spokane and Brenda's ophthalmology skills and diagnostic tools, she can do the exam for Dr. Yakely and then report back to him.

A couple of days ago he talked with Brenda about the complication he had with the capsular tension ring in Charlie's left eye, and he sent her a drawing explaining what to look for and how to determine whether it had migrated any further.

In the photo at top, Brenda is checking Charlie's eye pressures with her Tono-Pen while vet tech Jayme holds him.  His eye pressures were perfectly normal. 

In this next photo, Brenda is using her slit-lamp (an ophthalmic microscope) to examine his eyes and in particular, the location of the capsular tension ring in his left eye:

She found it was still in the same spot Dr. Yakely had indicated it should be, meaning it hasn't migrated any further.  That is good news, and means we won't need another round of surgery to re-set it.

We are very fortunate to have Brenda as our primary care vet for many reasons, but this was yet another example of why we feel that way:  She's the only veterinarian in Montana that could do this kind of exam on behalf of an ophthalmologist … and that saved us another trip back to Spokane!

Finally, here's a close-up of a Beagle eye that can now see:

—

Wow — still No. 2!

Please keep voting for us every
day in The Animal Rescue
Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
Thanks
to your votes, we won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest and
would like to repeat that win — or do even better — in this one! 
Enter
"Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana,
and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Thank you!

I took Teddy out the front door this morning so he could go pee and looked over to see this sight — three Dachshunds flying low in close formation.  Amazingly, they were still like this when I came back out with the camera.  That's lead pilot Bailey in the center and his wingmen Oliver on the left and Belvie on the right. All three were enjoying the bright morning sunshine.

Teddy is doing great, by the way.  It's still a challenge keeping his glucose levels at a consistently low level, but he has gained plenty of weight, has a terrific appetite, and is full of life (and attitude!).

—

Wow — still No. 2!

Please vote for us every
day in The Animal Rescue
Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
Thanks
to your votes, we won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest and
would like to repeat that win — or do even better — in this one! 
Enter
"Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana,
and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Thank you!

This is blind Cedar.  Mostly deaf now, too.  But this photo captures his very spirit — one of pure, total happiness.  What a big love.  No more narrative needed!

—

Wow — still No. 2!
Please vote for us every
day in The Animal Rescue
Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
Thanks
to your votes, we won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest and
would like to repeat that win — or do even better — in this one! 
Enter
"Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana,
and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Thank you!

It took longer than usual, but we finally had our first "real" frost last night, and woke up to 21° (-6° C) this morning.  In the past couple of weeks we've had some 25° and 28° mornings, but without any white stuff on the ground, so we are officially logging this as the first real one.  Usually we get them in the last week of August, or at the latest by the end of the first week in September, so this is definitely late for us.  Alayne got these shots while I was over at Widget's House scooping the yards on morning poop patrol.  That's blind Austin in the photo above, wondering what happened to the warm summer mornings he's been used to enjoying.  You can see the sun had started burning through the light frosty fog we woke up to.

Here's another shot of the fog drifting through the cottonwoods in the distance:

And finally, here's Charlie-the-conehead exploring the front yard this morning:

It's nothing short of a miracle:  He finally figured out that if he just raised his head up an inch or two, he wouldn't catch the bottom of the cone on the ground, and could move about at will!  That took only about 72 hours of continual "teachable moments" to grasp.  But now he zooms around at a very fast clip, still very excited about all the new sights in his world.  When Alayne lets him out of Kelly's Cottage in the morning, he literally races out the door to run around exploring.  Since he's supposed to be on "quiet time," we have to pull him back inside long before he's ready to go in.  But within minutes, he's asleep on a bed in the living room.  (In case you don't know, Beagles are binary.  On or off.  That's it.)

—

Wow — still No. 2!

Please vote for us every
day in The Animal Rescue
Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
Thanks
to your votes, we won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest and
would like to repeat that win — or do even better — in this one! 
Enter
"Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana,
and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Thank you!

The 4th year vet student at WSU who is Gabe's case manager, Katherine W., kindly emailed me these photos of Gabe going through radiation treatment on Thursday.  As it turned out, Katherine was Gabe's case manager earlier when he went through the operation a few weeks ago to remove the nasal tumor; she was on surgery rotation then and is now on oncology rotation, so she's had Gabe both times.

Katherine wrote, "Here are several pictures that we took of Gabe today.  He is doing very well, and received his third dose of radiation.  Ten minutes later, he was trotting down the hall and hungry for his breakfast (which he ate happily)."

She described the photos as follows:

— "The first picture [above] is Gabe being put under anesthesia for the procedure.  We administer the anesthetic gas with the mask and then once they are asleep we place the endotracheal tube through which they receive anesthetic gas during the radiation itself."  [That's Katherine on the left; I don't have a name for the person on the right.]

— "The second picture is Gabe all set up on the radiation table.  The strap across his back adds stability, the tubes supply his anesthetic gas, the blue clip on his tongue monitors his oxygenation and pulse, and the "bite block" that his teeth are sitting on is his own special mold which holds his head in just the right spot to deliver accurate radiation.  The pad that he is sitting on is also his for the time he is here and has been vacuum molded to his body to keep him perfectly positioned."

— "The third picture is our radiology technician putting the final touches on setting the table to Gabe's specifications."

— "The fourth picture is Gabe all ready for us to step out of the room and administer his radiation."

— "The last picture in this set is the monitor display while Gabe receives his treatment.  The linear accelerator is above him, giving his radiation.  The linear accelerator rotates between doses and allows the radiation to be administered to Gabe from above and also from each side.  We watch the screen in this picture as well as the machine monitoring his pulse and oxygenation from across the insulated wall during his treatment."

Katherine ended her note by saying, "Gabe has such a bright personality and is a joy to work with."

Thank you, Katherine!

Gabe will have 18 daily treatments of the radiation and if all goes well, he should be ready to come home on October 9.

—

Wow — still No. 2!

Please vote for us every
day in The Animal Rescue
Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
Thanks
to your votes, we won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest and
would like to repeat that win — or do even better — in this one! 
Enter
"Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana,
and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Thank you!

I got this shot this evening of Charlie seeing Alayne for the first time.  His tail was wagging and he was jumping up and down, trying to get closer to her face.  He was so excited he could barely contain himself.

We had just returned from Spokane, and Charlie was walking around the house "in awe," as Alayne described it.  He was inspecting everything, fascinated by the sights of a house he had known well but never seen before.

Dr. Yakely did a detailed examination of Charlie this morning and concluded that it was okay for us to return to the ranch.  The capsular tension ring that shifted yesterday during the initial post-op phase had mostly, but not completely, migrated back into position by the time of today's exam.  Dr. Yakely thought it better to wait and see what happened than to open up the eye again so soon.  Our vet in Helena, Dr. Brenda Culver, will do a check-up exam next week and report back to Dr. Yakely.

Functionally the capsular tension ring being slightly "off" doesn't make any difference to Charlie's vision, and vision he has!  The final part of the discharge process is "the obstacle course."  Dr. Yakely's vet tech clutters a hallway with traffic cones and other objects, and then they turn the dog loose to see if he or she can navigate down the hall without walking into anything.  Charlie walked through the obstacle course with no problems at all. Twice.

We have not let him out to play with his buddies like blind Austin because Charlie needs to be on "quiet time" for the next two weeks.

When Charlie realized I was taking photos of him and Alayne, he turned and rushed over to check me out, too (though no surprise by now what I looked like!):

 

—

Please vote for us every
day in The Animal Rescue
Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
Thanks to your votes, we won $3,000 for the animals in the last contest and would like to repeat that win — or do even better — in this one!  Enter
"Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana,
and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Thank you!