Other news at Stinkypup is Decker’s radial subluxation. On Monday June 21st, Decker got beat up during a puppy party. Greg wasn’t around, so it was just me who pulled one dog off & hooked them up, pulled another dog off & hooked them up, and so on. I’m not sure who started the fight, but many snouts were involved, including Monkey, Pumpkin, Capella, Spike, Chester, Rocket, Ahab, Zeus, Nikki and Roo. All ten dogs were pulling and jumping and tugging on poor little Decker. Dog fights suck.

After I got everyone back on their chains I fed them, and then tended to Decker’s wounds. She had a couple of puncture wounds, which I shaved and cleaned. When Greg came home he helped me tend to the rest of her wounds. She had a long laceration on her back leg and bleeding puncture wound near her left armpit. We cleaned her up, gave her Rimadyl, Tramodol & Cephlex and put her in the pen. We’ve seen a lot worse, but were keeping an eye on her. She didn’t eat much on Tues. Wed. she ate a little and her wrist began to swell. We put ice on her wrist, which helped the swelling a lot. On Thurs. her entire arm began to swell. We iced it and the swelling went down, but she wasn’t getting better.

On Fri. we brought her to the emergency vet, who thought she just had a bad infection. She gave us Clavamox (a stronger antibiotic). Although the swelling went down, we now noticed she wasn’t bearing any weight on her leg and her wrist was floppy. She was breathing hard (a sign of pain in dogs), but I thought she was just too hot.

On Tues. we brought her to Dr. Flemme at Mt. McKinley animal hospital. Flemme is an expert in canine orthopaedics. He diagnosed her with lateral radial subluxation. He took e-xrays to confirm the problem. We left her at the vet and he was able to manually reduce the injury (meaning put the bones back where they were supposed to be without having to do surgery).

She needs to stay in a crate for 10 days and she’s quite uncomfortable. After that we’ll move her outside to the pen. I already told her she can move inside, but I think she prefers living outside with her sisters. She’s a shy girl.

Decker sporting a $200 cast.

Decker

So, that’s the current news from the StinkyPup ranch. Magic is adjusting to his cropped tail (I still need to take some pics), and of course, we all desperately miss Sam.

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

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.

Tonight, Monkey and Nutok were off their chains at the same time and had a little spat. Monkey got her right canine tooth knocked out— we’ll almost out. We’ll bring her to the vet tomorrow. It may fall out by then.

Bosco didn’t eat his breakfast this morning, and I didn’t allow him to go on walkies, although he would have if I left the gate open. Last night was the first night I didn’t hear him snoring while he was sleeping; I didn’t like the fact that he wasn’t snoring. Bosco’s snore helps me to sleep.

I hope he’s okay.

The sled dogs involved were Simba, Peetie, Duke, Red, Storm, Rattles, Monkey, and others. There were a couple of spin-off fights: Monkey and Roo, Red and Higgs– but everyone seems to be okay.

• Lead: Decker and Roo
• Point: Stormy and Frankie
• Swing: Asa and Higgs
• Wheel: Rattles and Simba

As soon as I got to our access trail I saw another team ahead of me. I slowed down, stopped the team, and hooked in. I didn’t want to be on the other team’s ass while going down an icy hill. I waited several minutes and then…”ready, let’s go”…we were off.

When I got to the bottom of the hill it was time to pass. The musher in front of me didn’t know I was behind them. I started to pass them and half way through Rattles attacked the leader of the other team. Shit! Rattles and Simba and Frankie were all attacking my neighbor’s new dog, Starving Marvin. My neighbor and I got everyone to stop fighting. We then had to untangle everyone. Actually she only had four well behaved dogs, it was my team that needed untangling. While she was tending to her team, I tended to mine. Each time I got Decker and Roo untangled and I went to untangle the next set of dogs, Decker and Roo turned around and got everyone tangled again. This happened at least 4 times before I switched Decker with Storm. The problem was that my lead dogs weren’t “lining out” (holding their line tight and staying up front). I thought Storm would be better at lining out than Decker. I was wrong. Finally, my neighbor was finished fixing her team and was nice enough to hold my lead dogs while I untangled the rest of the team, then…”ready, let’s go.”

We were off…only to run into a big truck in the middle of the trail. Yes, a huge pickup truck. The owner of the property was out cutting wood. His three dogs were loose ready to pounce my team. Luckily, the dude saw me, pulled over so I could get by, and waved. I waved back. It’s nice to have friendly neighbors.

So, now we’re really ready to go…until I saw another musher coming towards me. This is usually no big deal, but we ended up passing on a narrow bridge. I was telling my leaders to go onby when the other musher said, “wait, my dog is attacking one of yours.” Sure enough, her dog had his teeth sunk into Frankie’s neck. All I could think of was Rattles and Simba joining the fight, and I pushed them away. The other musher (my other neighbor) got her dog off of Frankie. By then all of my dogs were totally tangled. Sigh. I wanted her to go onby so the dogs wouldn’t fight (they were still right next to each other), but I think she was untangling my dogs, so I pushed my sled off of the bridge. Higgs and Sima had already fallen off the bridge. My neighbor helped untangle the dogs and I tried pushing the sled out of the frozen creek. I couldn’t push the sled myself, I needed my dogs to pull. I ran up to Storm and Roo and said, “Girls, I know you’re tangled, but you need to pull, ready, let’s go.” The girls and the rest of the team pulled and I pushed the sled and we popped the sled out of the ditch. Yippie. My drag pad broke and my neighbor gave me a wrench to fix things while she untangled the rest of my team and held my leaders. Note: her team was lined out the entire time.

When everything was sorted out and we were ready to go guess who comes along? Greg! He had a team of ten. He saw us and stopped ahead. My neighbor had run up to her team to get going. I was ready to go, but Storm and Roo and the gang turned the team around again. Sigh. We were once again in a big tangle.

While I was untangling dogs, my neighbors dogs attacked Duke, Greg’s lead dog. When the fight was over, my neighbor went on her way and Greg came to help me untangle. Finally, we were ready to go again.

The dogs were really fast. We took the first gee (right) and I stayed low. We went through the small turns on the base line trail. Then came an intersection. I wanted to go onby, but Roo dragged the team to the left. I fell off the sled and went for a short drag. I was able to stop the team and get back on.

The rest of the run was uneventful. I decided to cut my run short because Higgs wasn’t keeping up with the rest of the team.

When we got home Greg was soaking in the hot tub. Even though most of the dogs had run today, I had a puppy party. Everything was just swell. Then Levi wanted to eat a frozen poopsicle. It happend to be Red’s poopsicle. Red attacked Levi; and so did Rattles, Simba, Duke, Frankie, and Peetie. I was screaming at the dogs, but they wouldn’t stop attacking Levi. Greg heroically jumped out of the tub, ran into the dog yard, and broke up the fight while he was garbed in slippers and a towel at minus 10 degrees. He carried Levi into the house.

Levi ended up going to the after hours vet and getting lots of stitches. He’s in pretty bad shape, so he’ll get to stay inside for a while.

Oh, I called the neighbor of the first fight, the one my dogs started, and her dogs were fine. Turns out she got Starving Marvin from the other neighbor (the one whose dogs attacked mine).

So, is this Karma?

A. Frankie (Simba and Rattles) => attack Starving Marvin (owned by Neighbor 1; previously owned by Neighbor 2)

B. Neighbor 2′s dog => attack Frankie

and poor Levi got his ass kicked by everyone. Levi’s karma is that he’ll be a permanent house dog…if he wants to stay inside.

During the same week Wild and Chez were sick, Monkey and Pumpkin attacked Nutok. I brought Nutok & Monkey to the vet. Nutok needed stitches and meds. Although Monkey had a gouged eyelid and hole in her head– she was okay, so no stitches for Monkey. Pumpkin ended up with an injured paw that we noticed several weeks later. I’m hoping this won’t affect her ability to run this year.

A week later Munkin (Monkey and Pumpkin) attacked Storm. Storm didn’t go to the vet, but we gave her lots of antibiotics and cleaned her wound. She’s back to her loving self.

Yesterday we brought Simba to the vet because he wasn’t eating and was vomiting. Turned out that he needed surgery because he swallowed a piece of rope. We don’t know how much his little vet trip costs yet since he’s at the vet tonight– but I’m sure it’s $$$.

Hopefully things will calm down– but the weather is getting cooler out the the StinkyPups are getting a little crazy. I’ve been out a couple of times on the 4-wheeler for very short training runs. The summer has slipped away and I still haven’t taught my leaders to gee/haw and line-out. I’m sure it will be a fun filled winter!

Bosco/Dudley: We came home a few weeks ago to find a big gash on Bosco’s back. At first we thought that Wild, the evil-creature-dog-from-hell, fought with Bosco. I scolded her and told her how evil she was. But then I noticed that Dudley had a small scratch and blood spot on the area surrounding his right eye. Could Bosco and Dudley have been fighting? It’s possible, Dudley is afraid of Bosco and Bosco growls at Dudley, however, Dudley doesn’t have any teeth.

We decided that we’d tend to Bosco’s wounds ourselves– clean the wound and give him some antibiotics. This was a bad move. Bosco’s cut got totally infected. Green oozing gobs of pus were leaking from his wound and the infection burrowed through at least two inches of skin. We took Bosco to the vet and he was put on very strong antibiotics and the vet cut out the infection– which was a good chunk of his back. He’ll be okay.

Scully: Scully got her ass kicked by Monkey and the Monkey Gang (Pumpkin, Chez, and whoever else). It was a horrible fight. For the last year we’ve been having puppy parties where everyone runs around and gets along– but not this night. Monkey was trying to fight with everyone and eventually Scully was her target. Scully ended up with a 5 inch skin avulsion on her neck, a ripped anus, and miscellaneous punctures and tears all over her body. We’ve been keeping her inside for her recovery and she is working out to be a great pet.

Magic: Magic got beat up by Chez and some other StinkyPups. He’s okay, but he got to spend a couple of days inside due to an injured leg.

Buckwheat: Bucky is an old pup– around 12. He hasn’t been pulling that well this year, but that’s okay because I’ve been taking the geriatric team out for short 4 – 7 mile runs, 1 – 2 times a week. We were on a 7 mile run and Bucky collapsed. We were just trotting along and he fell on his side. I stopped the sled and helped him up. He seemed okay. I knew he didn’t want to ride in the sled so I left him hooked up and we went home at an extremely slow pace. Buckwheat is now officially a retired sled dogs and has taken up residence with us. His status has changed to “Pet” dog– which is fine by us, however, he is extremely stinky and pees on everything in the house.

Besides all of the fighting (I didn’t mention all of the little fights), mushing has been going well. It’s finally getting cool enough to run.