“New Dogs” health report

2. September 2008 stinkypup

We’ve been slowly integrating the new dogs with our lot.  We’ve put the new dogs in the “downtown” yard on the wheel, while our gang is in the upper “uptown” yard. During parties, when we let all of the dogs run around, we keep the “new” dogs on their chain and let the stinkypup gang mingle with them. We then corral the stinkypups to the “uptown” and “midtown” yards, while the new dogs run around by themselves in the “downtown” yard.

This method was working for a while, until Rocket’s tail was bitten (either by Chez– who likes to bite tushies, or Chevy).  I think it was Chez. I didn’t know Rocket’s tail had been bit until Heather came over and said, “Hey, that dog’s tail looks broken.” I looked at his tail and he was starting to get an infection lower down close to the tail tip– where he was bit. We cleaned it up and took him to the vet. He should be okay.

The next victim was Dutchess, who has multiple health problems. I broke up a fight between Dutchess and Spike. Dutchess ended up with many holes on her head, neck, ear, and paw. Actually, the puncture wounds aren’t really that bad. What’s bad is the breast cancer. Greg brought her to the vet today for a spay appointment. The vet just called to let me know that Dutchess has several mammary tumors. She took a chest exray and the results were inconclusive– they show two small nodules, but the vet isn’t sure if the cancer spread or if it’s scaring from something else.  She said that she wouldn’t make life/death decisions based on the exrays. So, we are going to have the cancer removed and have her spayed. Poor girl.

Chez, Dutchess, Rocket | 0 Comments »

Drastic Doggie Changes

18. August 2008 stinkypup

I finally got enought strength to move Wild from the “Pet” category to the “Not Forgotten” category. We euthanized the beautiful evil creature from hell at home on July 22, 2008. It was an extremely sad event, especially since we euthanized her brother Bosco two weeks before.

We’ve moved Sugar into the house because she got beat up by Nutok. She’s been doing pretty well, although I haven’t moved her from the blog “sled-dog” category to the “pet dog” category because I’m not sure if the move is permanent.

We’ve been bringing Frankie into the house more and more as “dog of the day.”  Frank is a really good lead dog, but he runs like a duck and just doesn’t have the build of a sled dog. He gets very cold in the winter, and my plan is for him to stay inside on cold winter nights. When we adopted him, he was an inside dog– but his owners gave him up because he was high energy and was destructive. He’s been very well behaved inside, although like Chester, we don’t leave him home alone. He’s quite comfy on the couch– but Neptune doesn’t like this since the couch really belongs to him (Nep.).

Since I’m probably going to participate in the 2009 Serum Run, I needed to get some more dogs. Of the 25 dogs that we have, only 4-7ish can run 750 miles (30-60 miles per day). These dogs are:

• Nicky (Can run in lead, but doesn’t know commands).
• Decker (A great lead dog, but doesn’t know how to poop and run so she holds it in and has bloody diarrhea at the end of the day. She’s not a good eater on the trail).
• Storm (Can run in lead, but is petrified of snow machines because she got hit by one.)
• Simba (A good team dog, but has extremely BAD feet. I need to take diligent care of his feet, otherwise they’ll crack and bleed.)
• Higgs (A possible candidate. He tends to overheat and get tired).
• Asa (Higgs’ brother– a possible candidate, but has had some wrist injuries).
• Roo (A possible candidate, but Roo tends to not eat at all on long trips. She also crabs a lot (runs to the side) in Manmat harnesses and does better in a traditional x-back. She can run in lead, but gets tired after 20 miles).

Sooo, we got some new dogs from a neighbor who was getting out of mushing. This puts us back up to 31 dogs (ack!!!) The new guys are:

• Dutchess (A 10 year old female that we’ll use for gee/haw training)
• Luke (A 3 year old male)
• Spike (A 3 year old spayed female)
• Rocket (A 5 year old male)
• Ahab (A 5 year old male)
• Chevy (A 4 year old male)

I’ll post pics and bios soon.

Ahab, Asa, Bosco, Chester, Chevy, Decker, Dutchess, Frankie, Higgs, King Neptune, Luke, Nicky, Pet Dogs, Rocket, Roo, Simba, Sled Dogs, Spike, Storm, Sugar, Wild | 0 Comments »

Death Decisions

26. June 2008 stinkypup

On the way home from work, Greg and I talked about Bosco’s quality of life. He has none. He’s been going down hill for quite some time. Around a month ago, maybe more, he stopped going on walks. Then he stopped eating kibble, so we switched to wet dog food with rice and peanut butter. Last week he stopped eating the wet food. Note, that by “eating” I mean eating a few tablespoons of food. I’ve been hand feeding him for a couple of weeks. Several days ago, we switched to cat food. At first he was interested in the cat food, but not anymore. He can’t get up on his own. So, it’s time. It’s extremely sad.

We’ve had Bosco since 1996. He’s been a very good friend. I think Bosco has been lonely ever since his best friend, Nonny Newby died. I remember when he was a youngster, he liked to play with snakes and jump over streams. I wanted to name him “Jumper,” but Greg came up with the name Bosco and it kind of stuck. Because of his name, we stayed at a fantastic hotel in Venice– the name of the hotel was Boscolo de Dogi, and we picked the hotel because it sounded like it was Bosco’s hotel! When Bosco was younger, he was fond of the squeaky furry little-men toys, hence his nick name, “little-man.”

We’ll I’m going to go drag him inside so he can sleep his last night in the bedroom with us.

Bosco | 0 Comments »

It always happens right before we go on vacation….

25. June 2008 stinkypup

We’re supposed to head to NJ next week for a family reunion. Whenever we are getting ready to go away something happens.

This morning Greg woke up and found Wild laying in pee and she couldn’t stand up. Even with the help of a towel, she couldn’t stand. She was like this once before around a year ago, after she got beat up by the sled dogs, she couldn’t stand for three days. Her temp this morning was 103.

Bosco is bones and fur. He isn’t interested in eating anything. Magic is sick. He has diarrhea and a temp of 103.5. He isn’t eating. Roo isn’t eating. Storm isn’t finishing her food.

On Monday, we came home and there was diarrhea all over the house. Greg thinks it was Buckwheat, but I’m thinking it was Scully, because she didn’t eat dinner and was looking sickly.

Bosco, Magic, Roo, Storm, Stubby, Wild | 0 Comments »