Later that night, Greg and I took a closer look at his tail. He had a laceration on the backside of his tail, around three inches from the base. We shaved the area, cleaned it with a water/betadine solution, gave him cephalexin (and antibiotic) and Rymadyl (doggie aspirin), and put him in the pen in the front yard.

Wed. night when we were cleaning his tail, I noticed that it wasn’t painful– meaning he just didn’t have any feeling in his tail. We decided if the emergency vet was open, we’d bring him in. It wasn’t an emergency, but the ER vet is sometimes cheaper than the regular vet, and I was stressed about his tail. Turns out the ER vet isn’t open on Wed., and we opted to not call McKinley or Aurora to have a doc on call look at him.

Greg dropped him off at Aurora this morning. The doc told him that he had circulation in tail (there was blood flow), but he didn’t have any feeling (nerve damage), so the best thing to do is to amputate his tail.

Whaaaaaa!!!! Poor Magic. While Greg is out of town, I may try to integrate him with the inside dogs and see how he does. I’ve tried this before, and he didn’t really want to be inside, but maybe he’ll change his mind.

Monkey and Pumpkin can now be free in the yard together. For the past several years we only let one off at a time, since together they would beat up Scully, then Newtok. They might beat up Roo (who is not blond!) next. We’ll see.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a massive fight, with Newtok getting badly torn up. Capella also got injured, but we just put her on antibiotics. Greg was out jogging 11 miles, so wasn’t there to help. Our past-neighbor Mike King was in the neighborhood, and helped load Newtok into the Jeep so she could go to the emergency vet.

Newtok got staples, rather than stitches, and has a lot of shaved areas. We decided to let her stay in the house, which she is adjusting to nicely. Since Scully died just a few days later, this will probably be permanent.

Newtok is not (yet) a good alarm clock for Ilana, and is generally a mellow dog. But she does like to go on walks, and gets along well with the other dogs.

Asa is a very difficult dog to catch, so we’ve been leaving him free to roam in the dog yard. Monday the 16th, I went for a short 7 mile mush and Asa followed us, sometimes running behind us, sometimes in lead; he was having a great time. On our last stretch before home we encountered a neighbor who is known for having “alligator” dogs. An alligator dog is a dog who attacks a passing team.

As soon as we encountered the team, they pounced Asa. My neighbor managed to get his dogs off of Asa, I passed with my team and saw that Asa looked okay (no blood, he was running) and then stopped to see if his team was okay.  His responded, “your dogs passed on the wrong side! That’s why this happened.” I immediately took off and thought, “What a jerk! His dogs attacked mine, I stopped to help, and he’s yelling at me.”

When we got home, I couldn’t catch Asa to check him out, but he appeared to be happy and healthy. He may have had a slight limp.

—

The next night I took the “A” team out for a 12 mile run. I didn’t want to take Asa as a free runner because I wanted Chester to go, and I didn’t want to have two loose dogs. At the last moment, right before I was ready to leave the yard, I caught Asa. Greg put him on his chain.

I told Greg he should go ahead and have a party (meaning let the remaining dogs off), and I’d catch the ones he can’t catch (Simba and Rattles) when I came home. When I got home  and brought my team into the yard, I saw Simba and Rattles running around. Simba had a scratch on his snout and there was some blood in the snow.  I found Asa hiding in a private section of the dog yard and he had been beaten up quite badly, but not as bad as we have seen. We brought him inside, and decided that he didn’t have to go to the ER vet and we’d bring him for stitches in the morning.

The next morning, we dropped Asa off at our vet. I mentioned that Asa was Higgs’ brother, and it would be interesting to see if Asa had the same heart condition as his Higgs. One of the docs listened to his heart and said, “Nope. Asa’s heart is steady and strong. It’s nothing like Higgs’ rhythm.”

Around 1pm I got a call from the vet. “Hi, this is Dr. xxxxxx.”
I said, “Hi. How’s Asa?”
He said, “We lost him.”
I responded, “Okay.”
He said, “No, it’s not okay.”
He started to explain what happened and I was in too much shock to listen, so I told him I’d call him back. I tracked Greg down at work, and we drove to the vet’s office.

None of us know what really happened. The vet himself was surprised. They had given Asa some anesthesia. He began to wake up. They gave him a different type of anesethia…the gas kind. He was on a heart monitor. Everything was fine and the doc was almost finished, “two stitches from being done,” and Asa’s heart stopped. They couldn’t revive him.

Asa, we miss and love you!

Asa (left) and his brother Higgs

Luke also went for a vet visit today. The vet wasn’t sure if he has a torn muscle or if it could be having back problems. Instead of doing ex-rays right away, the vet prescribed Methocarbanol (500mg every 8 hours). Methocarbanol is a muscle relaxant. Luke’s back thighs are very muscular and super tight.

Higgs and Luke added incredible strength to our “A” team. They are both big dogs (70lbs), who usually run in wheel and carry the team. With Rocket & Decker (a great leader) on bed rest due to a shoulder or wrist injuries, and Asa off the “A” team because he doesn’t like to run without his brother and he doesn’t like to run with Greg, we are left with Nikki, Chevy, Ahab, Capella, Zeus, Spike (who has harness rub on her chest), and Roo (who can’t run more than 100 miles). Soooo, my secret plan to run the Chatanika 200 and possibly the Quest 300 isn’t looking good this year.

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.

—-
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.

Last year, Frankie had five of his teeth pulled. The vet said he had cavities (different from human cavities), which is unusual for dogs.

This July, Frankie’s breath was smelling really bad–worse than dead fish mixed with poop.  We brought him to a vet who specialized in canine dentistry.  Besides having cavities, his bone was reabsorbing his teeth, and he had exposed rotting bone in the back of his mouth.

Frankie ended up getting all but 6 of his teeth pulled!

Franken-Teeth - July 2009

Nutok’s Teeth

While Nutok was getting stitched up at the vet from her unsuccessful attack on Monkey, the vet noticed she had a fractured tooth and let us know we should get it taken care of.  We brought Nutok to the same vet as Frankie (the vet who specializes in dentistry).  What we thought was going to be a straight forward procedure of removing one tooth turned in to a longer procedure that involved removing 8 teeth! She’s still in the recovery phase and has a checkup next week.

Nutok's Teeth

King Neptune’s Raw Hide

For the last several years, Neptune has been vomiting his dinner once a month and appeared to have tummy problems every now and then. I brought him to the vet and was told to give him pumpkin…and that as long as things were going in one end and coming out the other, and occasional vomit is okay.

In August 2009, he seemed to be getting worse. He would vomit 3-4x a week, seemed lethargic, not his usually self, and he was loosing weight. Turns out Neptune had a small piece of rawhide (we think) floating around in his stomach. Every now and then it would block the path from the stomach to the intestines, thus causing him to vomit.

The rawhide was surgically removed from Neptune’s stomach. The vet thought the rawhide had been in his stomach for a while!

Rawhide removed from Neptune's stomach (left) compared to a quarter (right) to show size.

Fight(s) #1

• Nutok vs. Monkey: Nutok attacked Monkey while Monkey was still on her chain.  Nutok lost. The attack most likely occurred as a mini fight in the middle of the night while Duke was getting beat up by his brothers and sisters. Nutok ended up getting a bunch of stitches all over her body.
• Chevy (?) and/or Ahab (?) vs. Duke: Duke lost;  He got stitches in his eye, on one of his paws and inner thigh.

Fight(s) #2

• Everyone vs. Duke: Several days after Duke was feeling better, he was jumped by at least eight dogs.
• Nikki vs. Monkey: While Duke was getting beat up by everyone, Nicky decided it was time to kick Monkey’s ass. Monkey ended up with a puncture wound in her armpit.

Do-It-Yourself Vet Care

We try to do a lot of vet care ourselves. We’ve learned a lot over the years, but sometimes make poor decisions. We treated Monkey’s puncture wound as if it were a puncture wound on another part of the body (i.e., head, thigh, forearm). The usual treatment is antibiotics and flushing the wound 1-2X a day with a water-betadine mix).

After several days, it was clear Monkey wasn’t getting better. She was getting worse! I took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with subcutaneous emphysema (aka subcutaneous crepitus).  Since the placement of the wound was under the armpit, there was no muscle or fat to block the air from coming in. Monkey was filling up with air!!! When you pet her, she felt like bubble wrap.

Treatment for this was easy. The wound was sutured and she continued on her dose of antibiotics. She healed we’ll and no longer feels like bubble wrap or looks like a balloon.

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!

The other night, Magic showed the classic signs of bloat. He was extremely distended in the abdomen, was in pain, didn’t eat, tried to vomit, was crouched over. This came on very suddenly after our evening puppy party, when everyone runs around. Ilana had opened the gate to our upper yard, and many dogs gorged themselves on the snowy remains of where I had cut 800 lbs of fish for the Serum Run — not a lot of food, but lots of crumbs in the snow, and some small pieces of meat.

We called the Fairbanks after hours emergency vet (at 8:15 pm), but they were closed for renovation. Then, we called our pals at Mt. McKinley Animal Hospital, and the answering service put us straight through to the on-call vet, who we know. Bloat is serious, and the symptoms matched. The vet told me to insert a largish needle in Magic’s gut to let out some of the pressure, and drive him straight in.

I stabbed him with an 18 gauge needle, but there was no escaping air. Stabbed twice, but he didn’t even flinch. Tossed him in the Jeep, and Ilana drove to the vet. The vet had called in a vet tech, in case emergency surgery was needed. Upon arrival, the vet confirmed it seemed like bloat, but as it wasn’t in advanced stages, they took an x-ray.

The x-ray showed a gut full of food (snow, water, crumbs, straw…who knows?), not a stomach full of air as results from bloat.

Yes, it’s true. Magic had a bad case of indigestion.

We brought him home, skipped his dinner, and gave only soupy water for breakfast the next day. He was back to normal within 24 hours. Knowing that he was engaged in eating all kinds of crap during the puppy party didn’t really help much, in this situation: he had many classic symptoms of bloat. People we know, and people we don’t (google it, above), have stories of dogs dying from bloat during the ride to the vet clinic, so we don’t mind that we took it seriously.

When we see the vet bill, maybe we’ll consider just keeping a plastic tube and anti-gas medication around, for some home treatment first. We’ve never had bloat, and since moving to AK 5.5 years ago have fed our dogs something like 60,000 meals. So bloat doesn’t seem to be a major problem for us.

But you never know.