We believe that Sugar’s hip problems were caused at least partially by being a wheel dog in an earlier life, before we got her, with a traditional X-back harness. Such harnesses tend to put downward pressure on a dog’s rear, and this is worsened in the wheel position where the sled is lower than the gangline, and there are more jerks and bumps. We got Sugar as one of our first kennel rescue dogs. She was part of the sled team for a few years, but then made the transition to inside. One interesting thing is that while outside, she had persistent urinary problems — to wit, she’s peed in her dog box, resulting in many winter experiences chopping the frozen piss out of her box (embedded in straw, stuck to the wooden box). Nasty. But when she moved in, this immediately stopped. She did lose most bowel control over the past year or so, but not urinary.

We were away in Denali for a couple of nights, and upon return found that she had not stood for 2 days, and barely ate (our dog sitter should have called us to tell us this, but did not). We took her to the emergency vet, since one of our favorite vets was on duty. We decided to euthanize her that night, since there was no clear sign of why she had the sudden “crash,” but we didn’t think it was fair to do more testing and treatments, since she had been through so much.

Scully was a super sled dog, but kept getting beat up, especially by Pumpkin and Monkey. We moved her inside after a particularly nasty set of injuries, and she lived inside happily for a few years. One particularly valuable role is alarm clock for Ilana, helping with bits, paws and barks when it was time to get up and go for a walk.

Update Jan. 11, 2010: I brought some skin samples to the vet and showed these pics. Ringworm, in Alaska, is very unlikely. We are treating it as a staph infection. 500mg Cephalexin once a day, plus a good bath.

I’m writing this because Scully is in bad shape again (and Dutchess just started yelping).  Two weeks ago Scully started to crash. Greg brought her to Mt. McKinley on a Sunday (McKinley is the only open vet on the weekend). The vet wasn’t sure why Greg brought her in, but told us to give her the antibiotic amoxicillian for infection.  Not wanting to be a hypochondriac momma, I waited around five days to see if the amoxi had any effect. Nope. I brought her to Aurora a few days early for her biweekly hematocrit check– which was 20%. The vet tookex-rays to see what was going on in her gastrointestinal track. The ex-rays were inconclusive. I brought her back the next day for an ultrasound. The ultrasound told us that there was something either on her spleen or intestines. I brought her back the next day (Friday, Dec. 11) for surgery (note to self– never have major surgery on a Friday, when the vet is closed on the weekend), with the understanding that if it was a tumor on her intestines, we wouldn’t wake her up. If it was on her spleen, she’d get a splenectomy.

I was quite happy to hear that he had splenectomy and didn’t have to die. Scully had a 5″ tumor on her spleen. Apparently one theory of hemolymic anemia is that it is caused by a failing spleen.

Scully isn’t doing to well, she’s eating very little, can’t walk, and looks miserable.  Greg keeps reminding me that she’s in post-operative mode and she just had major surgery.  She has a vet appt. tomorrow to check her Hematocrit.

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Duchess has been yelping all weekend.  She’s the girl who has had two tumors removed from her neck, as well as mammary cancer removed a year ago.

I’m preparing for Scully and Duchess, by practicing singing Silent Night.  I hope it doesn’t  come to that, but it’s always good to be prepared.

In mid Sept. 2009, Scully was diagnosed with chronic IMHA. I was sure she was a goner.

For several months Scully seemed “not her usual self,” but was going on walks, eating, and waking me up by pouncing me and biting my next (a perfect alarm clock).  I kept telling Greg that she seemed a little off and that I was going to take her to the vet. I put off the vet visit because she wasn’t really exhibiting anything too wrong. I should have trusted my doggie-motherly instincts.

One day Scully stopped waking me up and she couldn’t keep up on walks. It was a Saturday of course, and all of the vets were closed except the most expensive in town. I managed to get her an appointment (with a $65 bonus charge because I didn’t have a scheduled appointment that day), and I brought her in.

Scully HATES the vet’s office because she’s been there so many times after being beat up by munkin (munkin are the evil sisters– Pumpkin and Monkey-Tail). I explained the Scully’s situation to the vet and she dragged Scully away from me, promising Scully that she wouldn’t stay the night. Ha.

I came back later that day to find out that Scully had rocks in her stomach, hence the occasional vomiting, but the vet wasn’t concerned with her belly full of rocks. She was concerned with her Hematocrit – (HCT) was 12%. Normal is between 37-55%. Scully needed to stay the night.

Needless to say,  I was freaked out because of Nonny. I was sure that Scully was a goner. The vet explained that in a chronic case, the dog’s HCT slowly decreases. Eventually, if untreated the dog will die. We agreed that it would be a peaceful death…because you sort of just lose energy, slip into a coma, and go to sleep.

Scully was treated with a blood transfusion from the vet’s dog and huge amounts of steroids (Prednisone) and fluids. The next morning her HCT was 16%. This was an improvement–but not by much. The vet said at around 12% she’s the “walking dead,” and 16% isn’t much better. She stayed the night again, and her HCT increased a little more.

I took her home and had an appointment to bring her back in a week for a blood test. She seemed to be getting stronger every day. Her gums were still extremely pale, but she wasn’t sleeping all the time.  Her blood test revealed that her HCT was 18%. The increase meant that the blood transfusion helped and she was generating red blood cells on her own. Yippie. I was very happy.

Two days later she seemed very sick and was sleeping a lot. I noticed a HUGE area of swelling on her right elbow. It looked like an abscess.  Of course, it was at night and the vets were closed. I called the office of the vet where she was treated and spoke to the answering service. I wanted to see who the vet on call was. They told me it wasn’t a McKinley vet, but an Aurora vet. I told them I’d call back. I had wanted to bring her to McKinley since her records were there. I called the After Hour Emergency vet, but they were closed. I called the vet who was treating Scully at home to ask her if she thought Scully should be seen. Normally, I wouldn’t be concerned with an abscess– but being that Scully was so sick, I needed professional advice. The vet said yes, I should take her in.

I called the answering service and made an appointment to bring her into Aurora. After looking at Scully and doing aspirations and blood tests, the vet told me it was a good idea that I brought her in.  She had some type of infection, possibly staph, in her elbow. She was treated with a dose of Baytril via IV.  When the medication hit Scully, she fainted. Both the vet and I thought that perhaps she had a reaction to the meds and that she was going to die right there on the table! I remember saying “Oh Shit,” and the vet said, “Don’t do this.” Scully came to a few minutes later, but was just laying on the table, not moving.  I hung out with her while the vet tended to some other cases. After the IV fluid was all gone, the vet came in and Scully was a little more perky, but not too much. The vet told me that this would be a critical time, and that if it was a staph infection, it could be bad.

I took Scully home with Baytril, Cephalexin (two antibiotics), and her demeanor and health improved! When the results from the vet came back, the infection wasn’t Staph, but e-coli. I always thought e-coli was a gastrointestinal disease, but apparently not.

Since Sept. we’ve been taking Scully to the vet every two weeks to check her Hematocrit level. She’s been at 30% for a while, and just last week (Dec. 7) we started to decrease her Predisone to 20mg 1x a day and stopped giving her the Azathioprine.

I was working from home on Tues. and decided to give Buckwheat a bath. He was so incredibly stinky– smelled like he was rotting from the inside (and he probably was).  I didn’t have dog shampoo, so created a mixture of Apple Cider vinegar, a teaspoon of lemon, some olive oil, and a huge bucket of water. I gave him a sponge bath on the porch.

Later in the day, I told Storm that she can move inside when Buckwheat was gone.

When Greg came home, we went for our evening walk with the inside dogs. I noticed Buckwheat just wasn’t doing well. I said to Greg, “I think it’s almost time for the Buck-a-r00.” Immediately after my comment,  Buckwheat collapsed. Greg carried him home.  Indeed the time had come.

We usually have our dogs euthanized at home because it’s more peaceful and less stressful for the dog and ourselves.  I was unable to get a hold of our house-call vet. I drove Buckwheat into town to the After Hours Clinic. After filling out the paperwork, Buckwheat and I sat on the floor of the emergency room. I was waiting for the usual doc to come in, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the doc on call was my old (not in age) vet, Dr. Pinto!!!! Pinto had moved away years ago and had happened to be in town for the week and thought she’d work a couple of shifts at the clinic.  She had euthanized several of my dogs before she moved away. I couldn’t have asked for anyone else (except for Dr. Rose) to be the vet doing the deed.

The euth went smoothly. I told Buckwheat to say hi to his brothers (Levi & Bandit) and sister (Darla). I feel a little guilty not getting Buckwheat back in a little box; I opted for a group cremation.

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As a side note, the pink stuff that they use to euth animals is Beuthanasia and the blue stuff is Fatal Plus. I was trying to think of the names because Pinto used the pink stuff and I was used to seeing the blue stuff.

The next day (March 21) we got up late, and eventually left camp at around 1pm. We were following the trail that had  started at the park headquarters. Since this year was such a big snow year, the bad section of overflow and glare ice (around 1 mile after park headquarters), wasn’t bad at all. Soon the trail petered out and we were following a ski trail. The snow was very deep, so I put on my snow shoes and broke trail, then ran back and mushed with my snow shoes still on. Repeat process.

Unfortunately, the ski trail we were following let us to the park road and the road had just been plowed. It snowed a little bit the night before, so the road had some snow cover on it. We cruised down the road to the Savage River camp site. We stopped to set up camp (around 4:00pm), and it took us a long time to melt snow and take care of dogs– but at least this time we were able to do chores in the daylight. We kept Sam and Bruno, with the rest of the dogs, on tie-outs and let Chester and Storm free. Storm was very needy.

After a night of endless whining from Bruno, we woke up at around 9am and began morning chores. After chores, we scouted a possible route back to headquarters that would have led us through Jenny Creek. There was a lot of open water on the creek, as well as no-snow spots, and we didn’t see a definitive trail, so we decided to head back the same way we came out. We saw HUGE wolf tracks and tons of fresh wolf scat; HUGE bunny tracks; and a big fat bird that was waiting for us to leave camp.

We probably left camp around 2pm and were quite bummed to see that the road had been plowed again– and this time it was plowed to the asphalt. We mushed for around 1/4 mile on the road (Yuk) and eventually got back to sections of the road that had some snow. We found the turn off for the ski trail, and with a little maneuvering got the teams to make the turn. The rest of the mush home was uneventful.

Dogs

We brought 21 pulling dogs and one fun dog (Chester).

Days 1 & 2

Ilana

1. Nikki / Chevy (no one wants to run next to Chevy because he nips at his running mate)
2. Ahab / Decker
3. Rattles / Simba
4. Asa / Higgs
5. Peetie / Red

Greg

1. Frankie / Storm
2. Dutchess / Rocket
3. Sam / Bruno
4. Roo
5. Monkey / Pumpkin
6. Luke /Spike

Day 3

Ilana

1. Nikki/ Chevy
2. Frankie / Dutchess
3. Sam / Bruno
4. Monkey / Pumpkin
5. Asa / Higgs

Greg

1. Decker/ Storm
2. Ahab/ Rocket
3. Rattles / Simba
4. Roo
5. Peetie / Red
6. Luke /Spike

Trip Planning
Since I was traumatized by Spot being killed, Greg was in charge of packing and trip planning. I don’t know the exact amounts of what he brought– but it was a lot of food. For dog food he brought two 40lb bags of kibble, a block of turkey skins, Champagne race meat, energy pack, 42 pieces of big fish, some left over snacks from the Serum run (which Peetie, Sam, Bruno, and Chester stole from my sled) and some fat. We came back with most of the turkey, race meat, energy back, and 30lbs of kibble).

Gear

• Our Mountain Hardware winter tent is great, however our 20+F sleeping bags really aren’t appropriate for -20F.
• Once again we had stove problems. Greg purchased a pump for our MSR stove, but there are two separate pumps for the Whisper Lite and the DragonFly, so the pump he bought didn’t work with the stove we brought. We also had issues with our Colman stove.  Note to self: bring fire starter paste!

Ilana finally got Spot into a portable cat kennel and sped off to the vet. Spot was not very responsive, and seemed to have a broken back. She called me from the car, and I met her at the vet. Spot’s back wasn’t broken, but she had severe internal trauma and the vet recommended we euthanize her immediately. So, we did.

Spot was about 12 years old, and had lived with us since North Carolina. We knew she was in danger with so many dogs in the house, but did not have any good placement options for her. It was a sad day, to see pet dogs turn to their primal instincts.

Today, around 2am I was awakened by an overwhelming smell of poop. My first thought was that Buckwheat must have pooped on his bed made of old blankets which is located right next to our bed. I turned on the light to find that Buckwheat wasn’t in the room. Chez was sleeping on Buckwheat’s bed.

As a side note, Buckwheat is around 112 years old and has been losing bowel control. He often leaves a present and doesn’t even know it.

Back to the story…

I went into the office room to see if the Buckster left me a present. Nope, it didn’t smell like shit in there. I went back to the bedroom in search of the cause of the foul smell.  I around looked for a frozen poopsicle that someone may have brought in through the dog door. I didn’t see anything. The smell was truly overpowering. I though maybe Bruno was having bad gas, and sniffed his bum. Nope. It wasn’t Bruno. Neptune’s tumbly had been growling, so I sniffed his bum. Yuk. Neptune smelled like shit. But wait, I looked at the bed and there was a brown turd sleeping next to me. Geez. Gross. Nasty. Barf. How could this happen?? Neptune wouldn’t shit in the bed? Would he? How come I didn’t smell it until now? Where did it come from. Help. I’m sleeping next to crap.

Okay. I got a hold of myself and began to clean up. I pushed all of the dogs off of the bed, pulled the sheets off, brought the nasty ones outside, and put new sheets and blankets on the bed. I walked by the office room to find that in all of the excitement, Buckwheat left me a warm present. I cleaned this up and was ready to get back into bed, but it occurred to me that both Neptune and I were sleeping on a turd. I began to sniff Neptune, and sure enough, he smelled like shit. I escorted him into the bathroom and began to clean the parts that smelled bad. It wasn’t working. I put him in the shower. At first he was whining, but then realized that he was going to get to take a shower with me, so he didn’t mind. I washed the both of us and then used the hair dryer to dry Neptune off because I didn’t want a wet dog to jump into bed.

By now it was 2:30am and I felt compelled to call Greg, who was in Texas, and tell him the news. He didn’t seem to mind being woken up at 5:30am to hear about shit in the bed. It’s not the first time we’ve been woken up do to some type of excretion.

We all went back to sleep. But the question remains, who shat in the bed? The suspects are Neptune, Bruno, Scully, Chez, Sam, Chester, Sugar, Buckwheat, and Ilana. We were all in the bed at sometime during the night.

• Sugar was sleeping just outside of the bedroom– in a location where she normally doesn’t hang out. Could she have been in the bed just before I went to sleep?
• Earlier in the evening, there was a turd in the hallway, which I suspect was from Buckwheat. It wasn’t a full turd though. Could Buckwheat have been in the bed, shat in the bed, and then leave additional stuff in the hall? But why didn’t I smell the shit when I first got into bed?
• Chester was in bed, right before I climbed in, and Scully was in be right before Chester.
• Sam and Bruno were in there usual spots, curled up on top of me.
• Chez was on Buckwheat’s bed, but could have been on the bed earlier in the evening.
• Neptune was sleeping right next to me.
• Ilana sometimes dreams that she has to take a dump. Could she have shat in the bed while dreaming about taking a dump?

Who do you think shat in the bed? You can take the poll on the right of this page to voice your opinion.

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.