Good News/Bad News

The Good News...I now have my own flocklet! Last weekend I brought home 4 ewes, a ewe lamb, and a wether lamb from my instructor. They are living at my boss' place, a short mile from my house. My sheep are dorset x cheviot, which seems to be an interesting cross: some of them favor the dorset in look and disposition, some favor the cheviot (*ahem*, running thru electonet), and the lambs are cute little muttley types. Dad was here and we put in a lot of work to build Ella a training pen. There was a wooden horse pen in place, so we put up some interior wire fencing and rounded it out to make an oval pen, about 60' by 90'.

I use Rae to move the sheep from their home paddock, down a little chute, and into the oval pen. Sometimes we gate sort; that is, when the neighboring goats aren't hanging around causing trouble. Other times we shed prior to pushing them down the chute. .

Last week Ella was getting to work 1-2 times a day, and was getting better each time out. Her flanks were shaped nicely (though still a little zippy), she was taking her downs well, and we were doing a lot of wearing. When she's excited she has a tendancy to overflank. It's not that she is loose-eyed, moreso that she's just not thinking as much as she ought to. When she settles down she comes in on balance nicely and walks confidently onto her sheep. She is very keen to get to their heads, so I often have to remind her to stay behind them and not sneak up to catch the lead ewe.

Rae and I have been working on a lot of paddock work, since right now I don't have big fields on site. For me, she has had a tendancy to get the zoomies when working up close, being slicey and fast. So we are working on corner work and on widening her out when she feels tense. I am also practicing shedding with her.

Sorry, Rae, no big field to work in here.

The Bad News...after working Thursday, Ella came in the house, got a drink, lied on the floor for 30 seconds, then got up nearly 3-legged lame...on her leg that had extensive shoulder repair!!! I freaked out. She walked it off a little, but was still very noticeably lame. By Friday morning she had improved, but I still could see that she was off. I took her in to the clinic and had everyone watch her go. The equine vet joked at how hard it was to watch a dog lameness exam vs. a horse, dogs being so much smaller and quicker! Everyone did see what I was talking about...a very subtle shortened stride and a mis-step when turning to her left. One vet manipulated her leg and we decided it was definitely that bad shoulder that was painful. Ugh.

I've been trying to contact her surgeon and am having a difficult time. Ella is 9 months post-op radio-frequency treatment of medial shoulder instability. All that means is that her "rotator cuff" was hamburger and needed to be repaired via arthroscopic surgery. She was operated on by the very famous Sherman Canapp at Veterinary Orthopedics Sports Medicine in MD. The rehab was extensive and included hobbles for 3 months, daily exercises, severe activity restriction (not allowed off leash for 5 months), and magnetic/laser/massage therapy.

Two days post-op. Hobbles on, scope portals covered by yellow Ioban. The bare patch on her thigh is where the laser was grounded.

The hobbles were to prevent shoulder abduction (moving away from the body) in order to allow the tendons to scar and tighten up the joint.

By September we'd worked back to some agility (no contacts or weaves), and she looked so good that I trialed her in a few runs. She ran very well for me, Q'ing and winning 3/4 classes, and earning her first title! Since then, she's been running, hiking, and playing ball at full strength. This incident is the very first time I've seen her off.

Photo by Carl Photography

I have been resting her and she seems to be getting better. One of these days I'll have everyone watch her go again. I need to see what Canapp says about all this. Should I be panicking? Will she need another surgery? If so, it's likely she'll need the "tightrope" procedure, which is to reconstruct the shoulder vs. just repairing it. Will that mean the end of working sheep and agility? Canapp has left me a message in which he kept using the word "tweak," so I'm hoping that it's not a big deal, but I need to discuss with him what I can look for to see if she needs to be hauled 6hrs back up to VOSM. I'm also going to get in touch with her sports rehab vet Chris Zink. She told me that Ella would be able to do any activity and never look back, but I'm certainly worried.

I don't know what happened Thursday to make her go lame. I wonder if the way she moves her body when she's feeling her sheep at top speed is hard on her shoulder. There's a lot of one-legged juking and jiving, and I guess it would be the same kind of stress that would come with too much weaving in agility. The weaves were to be the last piece of equipment to add back, and I actually haven't weaved at all with her since her surgery. I don't know if 2x a day on sheep was too much, or maybe she slipped in the mud or got tangled in her line. I don't know if this surgery ever "fails;" it was emphasized to me how well dogs do and that they have no trouble returning to top levels of competition.

Funky weave photo, showing her "slalom" style. A bad motion for shoulders, I could maybe re-train hopping for weaving, not so much for stockwork.

I sure hope that Ella will be able to continue both activities, I'm so worried.

Sheep peak

Details to follow...

All Work, No Play

I missed out on the Rural Hill trial last weekend. Four out of six doctors were at a continuing education event in Raleigh, and as a new grad I don't need CE this year, so I had to stay behind at work. I was really bummed.

So was Rae.

On Friday and Saturday there were times when I was the only doctor in the hospital, as the other had to run out to some farm calls. And on Saturday evening and all day Sunday I was on-call with a college student to help me. It figures that during those times I saw some difficult cases: a dog with retinal detachment in one eye and glaucoma in the other, a dog with a pyometra, a kicked-by-cow cattle dog, a vestibular dog, and a seizuring dog. There was a fading puppy, a chihuahua who weighed 0.4 lbs at one month of age, had a huge open fontanel (hole in skull where the bones don't fuse), heart murmur, pneumonia, and constipation. There was a pyrenees who was found under the porch foaming at the mouth and unable to get up. It came to the clinic and was very neurologic as we tried to examine it. The dog became maniacal; luckily we'd gotten a muzzle on it. It was flinging foamy saliva everywhere, biting and chewing at every inanimate object in sight, and becoming violent towards us. It was screaming and thrashing about in response to me grabbing it's tail in order to take it's temp. He was falling all over himself, knuckling, getting stuck in the corners and hung up on table legs. I was scared, and it was only me and my one helper at the time, who was also freaked out. The owner was likely high and was completely oblivious. The dog had a questionable rabies vaccine history, so we decided to put it in a stall in the barn and just let it alone. Long story short, on the 3rd day it was almost normal, just dazed and disoriented. I gently asked the owner if it could've gotten into any perscription drugs, toxins, or any illicit drugs (I said something about neighbors so as not to imply anything) and he sort of chuckled. I'm pretty sure the dog ate some pot, it fits the clinical picture perfectly (rabies did, too, except that it got better). When the other doctors got back they told me that if I'd known about this client, I'd have probably suspected drugs before rabies. Ha. They did get a kick out of the fact that I'd seen pot dogs come through school; we even have drug tests in the Emergency Service.

I also had to see a paralyzed dachsund who'd been through 3 back surgeries already and who hadn't peed in a day. The folks weren't from around here, so essentially they just wanted me to express the bladder and give them pain meds til they got the dog back to it's neuro vet. The little doxy was so tense that I couldn't palpate a bladder, so I put an ultrasound probe on it, found the bladder, and guided a needle into it's abdomen and then into the bladder to suck out the urine. I'm not sure how I had the guts to do that, as I've *never, ever* done that before. But I was on my own, so I had no choice. I was soooo relieved to see that syringe fill up with urine as I pulled back!

So not impressed.

Then, while I was placing a drain in the side of coon hound after I'd pulled out a wad of black, stinky pus, a receptionist came back to tell me there was a lab trying to die in the waiting room. I went to see the lab and it was pretty much flat out. It could barely walk, so I took it straight back to a treatment room. The dog was completely fine the night before, but had gotten into the trash that morning. I did a PE and found that the dog was pale, had a low temp, was really weak, and was breathing hard. I ran some blood work and nothing was obviously wrong. The red blood cell count was low, but not as low as I'd expected it to fit with how sick the dog was. I figured the dog must be bleeding somewhere...chest was lower on my list since the lung and heart sounds were fine, but if it ate rat poisoning that's where I'd expect bleeding. Abdomen was on my list, since I was thinking it may have eaten something sharp, though that shouldn't cause the dog to bleed out. Pancreatitis crossed my mind since that often results from trash-eating. I decided to go with a "chabdomen" series of radiographs...the girls hadn't heard that one before (chest + abdomen = "chabdomen"), but it gave me a partial view of the chest and most of the abdomen. The lungs were clear but the abdomen was filled with blood. There weren't any signs of a metallic or bony foreign body, but the small intestines were pushed off to the side due to an enlarged spleen. That's when it became clear to me...splenic hemangiosarcoma rupture. This had popped into my head while I was waiting for the x-rays to be developed, and as soon as I had the first film on the viewbox and saw a belly full of blood, I knew that's what was going on. I remembered seeing a lab that looked just like this at school. It was flat out in the Emergency treatment room and had gone from normal, happy lab to almost dead in a matter of a couple hours. Upon further questioning, the owners reported that this dog's mother had died of "splenic cancer." This dog had a mild episode similar to this about a year ago, which was possibly a small bleed that clotted, allowing the dog to resorb the small amount of blood in its belly. Splenic rupture is a very unfortunate thing for owners to experience; many times dogs are just found dead.

This was the first time I had to deliver bad news to owners. Livestock people, they just accept it as a part of the business, but pet owners, that's an entirely different audience. I showed them the x-ray and explained what was going on. It seems the trash incident was a red herring. I offered sending them up to Tech, but was up front with them in that they could spend a lot of money and do everything medically possibly to try to save the dog, and it likely wouldn't be enough. He needed surgery to remove the spleen, yet he was in no condition to go to surgery, he'd most certainly die on the table. I offered keeping him at our hospital and doing our best to nurse him along, transfusions, supportive care etc, though that would only be a temporary fix. He might make it a week, a day, or maybe an hour. I offered euthanasia, which is a difficult thing to bring up. There are times where I think euthanasia is in the best interest of the animal, but it's a little weird to suggest that to someone you've never met who is clearly very attached to their pet. In the end, they decided to take the lab home to die; they wanted their time to say goodbye. I helped them carry him out and load him in their truck, not knowing whether he'd make it home alive. I felt very sad for those people.

And if the weekend hadn't been crazy enough, it ended with me having to go out to an employee's house to put one of her dogs to sleep. I've put plenty of large animals down, but never a pet. It was not fun.

Thank goodness Monday finally came and I got to take the dogs to work sheep. Both did a great job! Ella was walking onto her sheep thoughtfully and under control, with really nice feel and showing a good amount of eye. Rae got to do the "fightin' bitin' Rae" exercise, which she really seems to enjoy! We worked on some shedding and then worked on re-lifting tired, stalled-out sheep during fetches. I was very happy with both dogs, and they were very happy to be out of the house after being cooped up while I was stuck at the clinic.

Oh, I have an exciting project in the works...more on this later!

Ella's looking forward to it!

Suffolks revisited and lesson day

This post will hopeully make Deb happy (here's to a speedy recovery!), since it is all about working dogs! I can't get to the Rural Hill trial this weekend since 4 out of 6 doctors will be away for the ENTIRE weekend at a conference, leaving me and the fella who is gearing down for retirement. EEK! The trial is a short 1 1/2 hours away, but I can't even slip out to run Rae since I'm desperately needed at work. Oh well.

I decided to go try the Suffolk breeding ewes again since I'm not gearing up for the trial. I figured I had 2 lesson days before Tom Forrester's to clean things up, so why not give it a go?

Dad was in town to celebrate his birthday (mmm Smokehouse!) so he got to come along for the fun. As we drove in, the whole flock of about 40ish, mostly mature ewes with a handful of spring ewe lambs, mobbed the truck. Not a good sign. At this point in our dog-sheep relationship, I knew they would run over Rae had I used her to gate sort, so Dad held them to me while I sported a bucket of grain. I was hoping to be a little more selective about who I chose to work, but it was pretty tricky trying to sort them. I ended up taking 3 volunteers who were keen to the bucket and popped them into the next lot.

First I walked them around the lot and had Rae stay behind them. They were mostly concerned with trying to shove their heads in the bucket, but I wanted them just to get used to having Rae back there. I tried sending her to their heads, but one just would not cooperate, and Rae was starting to lack confidence. So I switched that ewe out for 2 lambs. These lambs were a little on the stupid side, but did serve to lighten the group. I sent Rae for them at about 25yds, draw behind me to the rest of the flock on the other side of the gate. When she got behind them and got stuck in a little stare-down, I shook the bucket, they turned, and she brought them to me. We got a couple small successful fetches this way, where essentially it was the grain that was bringing them, but with good timing, Rae got to think that she was moving them.

Then I let that group out with the whole flock and had Dad hold the bucket while I walked part way out with Rae. I sent her the rest of the way, which was about 25 yds, and when she got behind the whole flock, Dad shook the bucket. Most of them went running to him, and the stragglers who were challenging Rae decided to turn and run to the bucket. So Rae got to think she moved the WHOLE flock! How brave of her! I decided not to push my luck, and we quit after that.

Monday was my lesson day, so I wanted to do some work to make sure Rae hadn't lost any of her confidence as a result of the scary Suffolks. I penned them with her (so Ella could have a turn), then I put Rae in the round pen and I stayed on the other side of the gate. I had her bring them to me and then got her as fired up as possible by verbally encouraging her. At first she was being polite, just holding them to me. She glanced up at me out of the corner of her eyes as if to say "Have you lost your mind?!" I kept egging her on til eventually she pushed on them enough to make them squirt away. She found it very fun to catch and turn them, and things progressively got more and more exciting. Soon I started asking her to hit noses, something she's never done for me, and she took to it with no hesitation. I'd find one staring at her, fire her up, and she'd hit it cleanly and squarely, and go right back for more! What a good girl! Eventually I will work up to asking her to do this while I move further away from the pen, so that she may learn to have that confidence when I am not right there with her.

Next we worked on a little control and obedience work in the field. I've been having trouble getting her to give up the reins on the fetch, so I flanked her the whole way around them a couple times to get her listening to me. To mix it up, she was given the green light to bring sheep as fast and crazy-like as she wanted, with me not giving her any commands other than getting her excited. It's so nice that I can micro-manage her and get her moving as slowly and methodically as I want, then flip a switch and have her up and pushing hard as ever. She is very versatile, I'm just learning how to get that out of her.

Don't let that sweet Smoothie Face fool you, deep down she's actually Fightin' Bitin' Rae!

Ella and I did our best ever. I had my instructor work her first, then I worked her. It's hard for me not to get too tense with Ella, we've had such a frustrating history on sheep, but I could see how calmly my instructor worked her and tried to be more like her, instead of a screaming, flailing idiot. I'm getting better. And when I stay calm, Ella stays calm, without so much buzzing or gripping. I was playing around with body pressure, and Ella is becoming much more responsive to me. She is uber-respectful of my trainer, no troubles there, but again, our difficulties in the past is making progress a little slower for the two of us. I'm happy to see her kicking out nicely when I step into her, and she is taking my downs, even when not on-balance. I had been taught to only ask for downs on-balance, but since she can easily slip into mindless orbiting if she doesn't feel that she has control, she is learning that "lie down" means *now*, *no matter what!* I've learned that my correction of "hey!" is completely ineffective; somewhere along the line she's learned to ignore it, probably due to poor timing on my part. It sure was difficult for me when I was just starting out with Ella...she's been described as "a fast little shit," and "one hard f'ing dog" (courtesy of Lisa, after Ella plowed head-first into a tree while chasing Bob, had to be drug out of the pen to stop working, and then had seizures for 7 days as a result of the head trauma). Yep, the Merling Dervish...with teeth. But she is really thinking more and more lately, and I am very happy with her progress :) She only lost her mind twice, grabbing a leg both times. No flossing, *that* is progress!

She tries to be a good girl, but sometimes the Dark Side overcomes her.

I'm going to see if I can set up a packed pen with the Suffolks for Ella. I feel pretty sure that she'll get her teeth out, so that might help to convince the sheep that they have to listen to the dogs. It may also help Ella with her gripping, even though it has improved remarkably over the last couple lessons. I'm planning on having my instructor bring some of her powerhouse dogs over to hopefully get the Suffolks working well. It sure would be nice if we could get them in shape for dog training. Plus, it would be a help to my boss come lambing, as Rae would love to take the place of the 4-wheeler!