Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Several days ago we noticed Samantha — our blind girl who likes to drink from a running faucet — had developed a new way to drink:  feet first.  After seeing her do this a few times (and of course I never had the camera ready) we realized this wasn't a fluke and for some reason, she really intended to drink with her feet in the bucket.  It's not like the bucket's low on water and she's trying to reach for the bottom; usually, it's at least half full.  Is this a way to cool off?

This afternoon, camera in hand, I captured the moment.  In the photo above, she's planted her feet in the bucket; then, she contemplates for a second…

…before lowering her head and drinking:

She still likes drinking from the faucet.  In fact, this morning when I was filling the bucket, she came over to drink from the stream of water.  But there's apparently something about sticking your feet in the bucket that adds a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to the drinking experience.  And yes, this new practice does mean more frequent bucket-cleaning and -filling, since we doubt the other dogs appreciate it as much as she does.

I can hardly wait to see what she comes up with next!

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
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.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

I got these photos the other evening as the last of the day's light was fading.  That's wobbly Mink catching the final rays in the cats' outdoor enclosure.  Like all the animals here, the cats are relishing the long days and warm temperatures.  As soon as we open the window to the enclosure in the morning, most of them go bolting — or, in Mink's case, wobbling — outside.

After I took the photo of Mink, I looked over and saw a black leg and tail sticking out of the cat tree next to him:

That's one-eyed Lulu in there, looking a bit cramped, I'd say!  As to why she'd want to stuff herself into a too-small kitty condo on a gorgeous spring evening … well, who knows?

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
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.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

I know it looks like maybe I put one of those nasal strips on blind Lena because the other horses were complaining she snores at night, but that actually isn't what happened.  No, Lena had to mark the first official day of grazing season by going face-first into a fence wire out on pasture and cutting a gouge across her nose.  When I went out to bring her in yesterday evening, I could see the blood on her nose from a distance away and thought, uh oh.  Yep, a nice deep cut, right in the center of her face.

I walked her and Nikki back to their corral, and Alayne came over to join me after she finished bringing in her pair of horses.  In eight years of being out on pasture, this is the first time I can remember that Lena ever got hurt in any way.

Now, all of our fences are smooth wire, and it is very rare that any of our blind horses get hurt.  In fact, as I've pointed out before, our handful of sighted horses typically are more prone to injury than our blind ones because they tend to be goofballs and do dumb things — like race up to a fence, misjudge the distance, and go right into it.  Or, they'll stand at the fence, paw at the ground because there's a horse on the other side, and hook a hoof over a wire.  Blind horses, on the other hand, tend to be very careful and cautious in their movements, so injuries are rare.  But, like Lena yesterday, they do happen.

At first I thought it was just a superficial cut, but as I put on surgical gloves to start treating it, I pulled the flap of skin away and saw white bone underneath.  I turned to Alayne and said, "Time to call Erin."  It was about 5 p.m.

Our equine vet Erin knows I think Lena is the prettiest horse in the universe, so she handles me accordingly — which usually means whenever we have a "Lena issue" she becomes Erin the shrink treating the neurotic client and not just Dr. Erin Taylor, DVM, MS, DACVS (she's a board-certified veterinary surgeon, too).  After I explained what happened and what the injury looked like, Erin peppered me with questions about the flap of skin, which way it's pointed, the size of the cut, etc., and then laid out what our treatment options were.  But, she assured me, "It will heal fine.  The bone is always very close to the surface in that part of the face.  These facial wounds usually look worse than they are and heal quickly."

Then she said, "There may be a scar, though."

I said, "We can't have a scar.  No scars.  No way."

Erin:  "Um, even with a scar, she will still be the prettiest horse in the universe.  Now chill."

Then she told me what I needed to do to dress the wound, what to give Lena for antibiotics and inflammation, and to call her in the morning with an update.  Alayne and I headed off to round up the various medical supplies.  Alayne took the photo above of me with my patient after I got Lena's wound bandaged up.

This morning the bandage was off but the wound looked pretty good.  We dressed it again, gave her the antibiotics, and then I called Erin with an update. 

Me, still neurotically fretting about a scar:  "Do you think we should, um, you know, find a cosmetic surgeon?"

[Pause.  Long pause.  I could sense eyes rolling on the other end of the line.]

Erin:  "I can do cosmetic, too.  But I don't think that will be necessary.  Relax."

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
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.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

In some years we have turned the horses out for grazing on Memorial Day weekend if the grass was doing well, but our "official" start to the grazing season has been June 1 … and this year, we waited until today to start turning them all out.  I took the photo of blind Bridger grazing this afternoon.

Our grass isn't really as tall or lush as we need it to be at this point in the year — it should be a few inches higher than it is in the photo.  So we held off until today to give the pastures another week of growth before all those equine mouths hit the grass.  We have had only one significant rainfall in the second half of May, coupled with warmer than usual weather and too much wind.  It's the wind that just sucks the moisture right out of the soil and robs the grass of what it needs to grow.  It's especially bad for soil moisture when the wind's blowing while it's warm and sunny — which is what we've had in recent weeks.  It should have been cool and wet.

Ironically, with the exception of one small part of the state, Montana is now officially out of drought, as you can see from this map.  So we feel a bit odd complaining about not getting enough rain in May and having grass that isn't tall enough yet.  Fortunately, the weather pattern just changed today and this week is forecast to be cooler and cloudier for the next several days.

The horses, of course, think we're being too fussy about forage quality.  Their view is, "quit worrying about the grass and turn us loose!"

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About Evelyn:  Thanks to everyone who suggested various ideas for her game of fetch, but believe me, we've tried them all! 

—

Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
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.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

I got this shot of blind Evelyn yesterday on a warm Saturday afternoon, enjoying a shady spot.  In the past year Evelyn has lost most of her hearing, though she can still hear certain sounds — like the click-click-click of the shutter.  She didn't know what it was but she could hear "something" out there, which is why she had this alert, almost quizzical expression on her face.

Evelyn was our star who liked to show off for visitors with her amazing ability to play fetch.  Few people could understand how a blind dog could play fetch, and Evelyn just loved showing visitors how she does it.  We would throw the ball, she would listen intently to hear where it landed, then go bounding after it.  Once she knew which direction the ball went, she'd switch to her nose to find it.  From that point on she could almost always track it down and retrieve it for us.

Unfortunately, now that her hearing is mostly gone, she can't hear the ball anymore and thus doesn't know where to start.  This makes her anxious and confused, because she knows that ball is out there somewhere!  This was, quite truthfully, a sad development to witness, because she took such incredible joy in playing fetch.

But it's in the nature of these disabled animals not to let these kinds of setbacks get to them.  No, life is all about living, and you pick yourself up and get going again.  So now that she can't play fetch any longer, she's settled on a new routine — tug of war.  She'll find a big rubber bone or pull toy and bring it over to us, wave it around, and dare us to grab one end.  We'll take hold of it, and then she'll tug and tug on that thing.  A new game begins.

—

Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
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.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

While we're on the subject of dogs enjoying the new warmth of spring, here are some photos Alayne got the other day of blind Briggs rolling … and rolling … and rolling … in the yard outside our house.  This is the latest installment in our series on, um, rolling dogs.  And they just love this fresh green grass — there's nothing better for a good roll. 

He may be blind, he may be wobbly, but this boy can still roll!

—

Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
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.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

We know summer is coming when we see Bailey starting to spend much of the day underneath his favorite shade tree, the aspen next to our house.  The other morning when I took the photo above, it was probably only about 9 a.m. and he was already outside.  His only complaint is that the leaves on the tree are still really small, and he isn't getting as much shade as he thought.  Many of our trees are only now leafing out — spring arrives late up here in the north!

A couple of hours later, it was quite a bit warmer and now he was stretched out for a real nap:

You can see at some point he had wandered off, found one of his favorite chew toys, and brought it back to his bed for some play time.  Maybe that's what zonked him out and set him to napping?

Here's a close-up of our little guy:

That's a picture of pure contentment, isn't it?

—

Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
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.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

This past Saturday, we were delighted to have Dan and Cheryl W. from Whitefish, Montana, adopt our deaf boy, Stuart the Beagle.  Dan and Cheryl had recently lost their elderly blind and deaf Beagle, Penny, and were looking for another special dog.  It turns out that just about the same time they contacted us initially about Stuart, they also heard about another Beagle in their area named Daisy who was looking for a new home.  They went to see her last week, fell in love, and took her home.  That's Daisy on the left.

Well, Dan and Cheryl thought Daisy would like to have a boyfriend, and they drove out to the ranch on Saturday so the entire family could meet Stuart.  Daisy took to Stuart just fine, and pretty soon both Beagles and their new Mom and Dad were headed home to Whitefish!

Dan emailed on Sunday to say that Stuart has settled in and Daisy had already bonded with him.  In fact, when they first put Stuart in a kennel next to their bed Saturday night, Daisy grew frantic.  She wanted Stuart on the bed with her and Dan and Cheryl.  So Dan and Cheryl relented, and both Beagles spent the night on their bed.  (I don't know how well Dan and Cheryl slept but I'm sure the two Beagles slept really, really well!)

And, Dan told us, Stuart had already given Daisy two complete head baths Saturday evening.  No wonder she likes that boy!

Thank you, Dan and Cheryl!

— 

Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
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.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

Last Thursday I took blind Callie in to see our internal medicine specialist in Missoula, Dr. Dave Bostwick, for her two-week check-up after her radiation therapy.  She continues to circle with a head tilt from the ear infection she developed at the WSU veterinary teaching hospital, though she is definitely improving.  Dave found no signs of infection and he said her ear drum is starting to heal up, but still has some perforations in it.  It may take a few more weeks for this vestibular issue to finally clear up.

In addition to the physical exam, Dave also took blood to check her serum phenobarbital levels.  That's what Dave is doing in the photo above, with vet tech Alex holding Callie for the blood draw.  (Callie is hoping that Alex will give her a head massage while she's at it.) 

Dave got the blood results back on Friday and determined that we needed to increase her phenobarbital dose slightly to get her back in therapeutic range.  She turned out to be just below the threshold, which is why monitoring her serum phenobarbital levels is something we will have to routinely do. The good news is that even on such a low dose, she hasn't had any seizures, which is a sign the tumor has indeed shrunk.

—

 Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
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.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3!  Please keep voting!

While I was in Missoula running errands today, Alayne was busy with our farrier, Rich Boyle, who had come out to trim the horses' hooves.  One of our blind horses, Rosie, has always had very thin soles on her feet, which can make her ouchy.  The first time we saw her like this, a few years ago right after she arrived, we thought she was developing laminitis, but it turned out to be chronically thin soles.  We found that the only thing that works for her is to put shoes on with a protective pad underneath.  She does fine during the winter on snow without them, but once spring rolls around, it's time to get her shoes on.

In the photo above that Alayne took this morning, Rich is sizing a horseshoe to get the right fit.  You can see Rosie is patiently standing there while he checks the fitting.

And here she is right after Rich has finished shoeing her:

That's a look that says, "Thanks for the new shoes, now can I get back to my breakfast?"

—

Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. 
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.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Still No. 3 — please keep voting!

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A side note:  Our main Web site at rollingdogranch.org was down from Tuesday evening through Wednesday night because of a server problem at our Web hosting company, and we heard from a lot of folks who were trying to access the blog via our Web site.  The blog is actually hosted by a different company, TypePad, and you can always access it directly at http://rollingdogranch.typepad.com/ if our main Web site is down.  So you might want to bookmark that link for future reference.