Rolling Dog Farm Blog

For Alayne and me, this is the ultimate satisfaction:  giving a blind animal his or her sight back.  We've only had the opportunity to do this once before — several years ago with a blind puppy named Cody.  It was thrilling then, and it was just as thrilling today.  Charlie the blind Beagle is now Charlie the seeing Beagle.

I left the ranch this morning at 5 a.m. with Charlie and blind Gabe in the truck, headed for Washington state.  My first stop was Spokane, where I dropped off Charlie at the Animal Eye Clinic, and from there I continued on to Pullman, where I left Gabe at the WSU veterinary teaching hospital to start his three-week course of radiation therapy.  Then I made the return trip to Spokane.

While I was en route to Pullman and back, our veterinary ophthalmologist, Dr. Bill Yakely, performed cataract surgery on Charlie.  In late July our vet in Helena, Dr. Brenda Culver, had done an ERG, or electroretinogram, test on Charlie to see if his retinas were firing.  We had conflicting results the first time (we found out later it was due to an issue with one of the probes) and had to re-test.  The second time the ERGs were consistent for both eyes, and Dr. Yakely confirmed Charlie was a candidate for the phacoemulsification surgery to remove his cataracts.

Even in the exam room this afternoon, still groggy from the anesthesia, I watched Charlie walk right through the open door — and I could tell it wasn't a fluke, he could see where it was.  No bumping into the wall.  I took him outside for a brief walk in the parking lot, and I noticed he would walk right up to vehicles and stop a few inches from them, then look up.  I let him find his way between the parked cars, and again, he never bumped into anything as he walked.  He only had a little trouble with his depth perception when stepping off curbs, but that will come with time as his eyes and brain learn to work together again.

His biggest problem this evening is just that dang cone on his head.  That's the part he can't figure out.  He keeps catching the bottom of it on the ground and then thinks someone hit the brakes on him, so he stops.  I lift up his cone and off he goes again.  I took these outside shots after we got back to the hotel and I let him off leash in the big yard at the back of the building.  He'd see something happening off in the parking area and stand there looking at it:

I tell you, watching him actually see again just gives me goose-bumps.  

We have one complication from the surgery.  His lenses were very dense — about the worst Dr. Yakely had seen — presumably because he had these cataracts for a long, long time.  That made removing them tricky.  His left lens was loose, and to hold it in place for the surgery, Dr. Yakely had to insert a capsular tension ring to add rigidity to the lens capsule.  (It stays in with the new lens implant.)  During his pre-discharge exam this afternoon, Dr. Yakely noticed through his slit-lamp that the capsular tension ring had shifted.

Here's a photo of Dr. Yakeley and his vet tech Dawn D. doing that exam:

It's possible the ring may shift back into place on its own overnight, but if not, Dr. Yakely may have to do a follow-up procedure tomorrow to get the ring back into the correct position.  We won't know until he does another exam on Charlie tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, as I've been writing this post, Charlie has been wandering around the hotel room, never bumping into a thing.  It is just so amazing to watch him navigate around the coffee table, chairs, the suitcase on the floor … oh my, what a great feeling it is to see that.

Most interesting of all, he keeps returning to the full-length mirror on the closet door to stare at himself:

Is he saying to himself, "Goodness, what a handsome Beagle I am!"

Just like Teddy and Gabe and Helen and all the others for whom we can provide world-class veterinary care, it's only possible because of the generous gifts we receive for the animals.  Charlie's surgery will cost about $2,800 — and I know there is no one who thinks the gift of sight isn't worth that and a whole lot more.  Alayne and I are just so grateful for your donations that allow us to do something like this!  Thank you!

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Every morning blind Charlie and blind Austin engage in a wonderful play session that includes lots of wrestling and chasing and general tomfoolery.  We've tried repeatedly to get photos of these two Beagles in action, but whenever they hear us approaching with the camera, they stop playing and head towards us.  Well, Alayne finally got some of the photos we were after!  That's Charlie on the left and Austin on the right having a very spirited discussion.  I'm not sure what the topic was, but obviously there was a lot of emotion involved.  (Click on the photo for a larger version to really appreciate it!)

Here was the scene a few moments before — there's nothing like a good cheek-hold to subdue your opponent:

Occasionally Austin gets the bigger Charlie on the ground:

When it's all over, it's time to go have a beer together:

 

Blind Penny isn't the first dog we've had who seems to prefer a deep hole in gravel to a Kuranda cot with a bed on top … deaf Tyler (since adopted) took this to a new level … but what struck us is that she only recently developed a real affinity for this sleeping option.  And usually it's first thing in the morning, as you can tell from the early morning light shining on her in this photo I took a couple of days ago.  That hole she dug is actually now below the concrete slab that Widget's House sits on … almost a foot deep.  We've filled it in, and as usual, a few hours later it's dug up again.  So … the hole stays.  The dog enjoys.  Who are we to wonder why?

A few weeks ago blind Madison developed a new and rather odd habit of sticking her head through the fence to drink from the water bucket in the adjoining dog yard.  Now, when she comes out of Widget's House in the morning for the first time, she always goes straight to the water bucket on the front porch and drinks there.  But then she'll wander around the front yard for a bit, do her potty business, and eventually make her way over to the fence to look for that bucket on the other side.  She figures out where it is, sticks her head through the nearest square in the fence, and then lowers her face into the bucket to start lapping it up.

Blind Samantha — she of the feet-in-the-bucket drinking style and the straight-from-the-tap method — may not be able to see Madison but she knows what she's doing.  Samantha says, "You people think my drinking habits are strange?"

This is blind Callie, showing off what she thinks is her svelte figure to Gabe.  Unfortunately, she doesn't realize Gabe is blind like she is and thus can't appreciate her, um, slender form.  All Gabe knows is that something is rolling around on the floor below him.

Isn't it amazing how much thinner a thick object can appear when it's … you know … stretched out?

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And speaking of such things, I must rise to the defense of our barn cat Smudge.  Several people posted comments on yesterday's blog post about how "fat" she was, sitting on that fencepost.  Actually, Smudge is not fat at all but very trim.  She only appeared plump because she had pulled her feet together to squeeze onto a four-inch wide fencepost and was leaning forward, hunched over.  Boy, did I have one unhappy barn cat this morning when she read all those blog comments.  Sheesh.

What was the very first thing we noticed when Gabe arrived home from the hospital Thursday evening?  He started sniffing the ground the minute he came through the gate into the yard.  We had never seen him smelling anything before … because he couldn't.  Alayne and I watched this blind boy walk around the back yard that evening, smelling everything underfoot — with as many dogs as we have here, there are a lot of different scents to take in! — and honestly, we almost teared up.

That's when it struck us just how much of his world the nasal tumor had taken from him.  He had already lost his vision and most of his hearing, and then to lose his sense of smell — so critical to a dog's ability to "know" his environment — well, that had to be, in it's own way, a devastating disability too.

Wonderful friends of the ranch, Shirley L. and James C. from Portland, Oregon, kindly offered to pick up Gabe at Washington State University's vet hospital in Pullman and bring him out to us on Thursday.  That saved us a 10-hour round trip — thank you, Shirley and James!

In addition to seeing Gabe walk around on his first evening home, sniffing his new world, we could also tell from the look on his face that he was just a much happier dog.  And no wonder!  Not only can he breathe through his nose again, but all the fluid that was packed into his head and dammed up by the tumor is now gone.  I can't imagine how much better he must feel.

Given the invasive nature of the surgery, we thought his head would look much worse post-operatively than it actually does.  Here's a close-up of the surgery site:

Not too bad, is it?  I took both these photos this afternoon.  The hardest thing was trying to keep him far enough back to get photos; all he wants to do is nuzzle into us.

Because his sense of smell has returned, so has his appetite.  Just like the other dogs now, Gabe starts getting excited at meal-time.  But it's not the sound of the dishes being prepared that gets him going — he's too deaf to hear it — it's the smell of the food in the air that's getting him worked up!

We will be taking him back to WSU in a couple of weeks to begin his three-week course of radiation therapy.  It's the radiation that will do the "clean-up" and get the rest of the microscopic cancer cells that the surgeons couldn't completely remove.

Meanwhile, we are just so happy to see Gabe wandering the yard, sniffing at the grass and trees and anything else his nose picks up!

Here’s another heartwarming story … a wonderful new follow-up on deaf Stuart, who Dan and Cheryl W. adopted from us a few months ago.  Dan and Cheryl wrote in an email to us:

“Been a while since we last wrote and gave an update on Stuart. From the attached photos you can see that he has settled in and gone back to his belly up sleeping pattern! He is an absolutely great companion and continues to thrive alongside Daisy. These two have bonded extremely well. They go for a long walk every evening and have become a hit in the neighborhood. Everyone wants to pet the Beagles and always comments on how they are just perfect together. Stuart usually draws the most attention, to the dismay of Daisy who has a bit of a jealous streak. She retaliates by nibbling at his shoulders once they get home.

They've established a routine of playtime where they chase each other all over the house and mock fight. So far, in all their battles they are more in danger of being whipped by wagging tails than by getting nipped by an off-target nibble! Stuart is so much stronger than Daisy…he's a bundle of muscle and not afraid to use his strength to hold Daisy down while he gives her a good bath. Yes, the ear and head baths continue to be a big part of Stuart's repertoire.

They have both become quite good "alarms" as well and let us know if someone or something is on the deck or coming down the driveway. Daisy hears it and we think Stuart's elevated sense of touch allows him to "feel" vibrations of the intrusion. He certainly reacts to Daisy's actions and will mimic her howling. In fact, in just the last few weeks he's started howling if I'm a little late at dinner time or in delivering their "before bedtime treat".

What more can we say? Stuart is just perfect! He is thriving on the special attention we give him and returns the love 10 fold. He sleeps on the bed every night and so far has not had any accidents. We couldn't have found a more perfect addition to our family. Thanks again for taking care of him until we found each other!!!”

Thank you, Dan and Cheryl — and Daisy!

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Note:  Because of the Labor Day holiday weekend, I’m going to take a ‘blog break’ from Friday through Monday, and will resume posting for Tuesday the 8th.