Chevy has arrived!

Today, Devlyn, Conor and I took a trip down to Tok to meet Gerry Willomitzer, who was on his way to Anchorage for a BBQ at Martin Buser's...and Iditarod signups and BBQ tomorrow. We bought Chevy from Gerry a few months ago, but had to figure a way to get him up here. This worked out nicely, as it was a beautiful day...the boys and I had a fun drive (we counted 5 moose and a possible bear out on one of the rivers), had lunch in Tok at Fast Eddy's, Gerry dropped Chevy off with us and then we headed back (after a refreshing ice cream cone...Chevy didn't like it much). Chevy is a beautiful black and white husky...about 50 lbs with 4 white feet and a white stripe down his nose (as you can see from his photo). He was a bit shy and wasn't sure about us and riding in the car, but he took it in stride and soon settled down on the floor (he was riding shotgun, but decided he liked to lay under the dash on the passenger side better). This actually worked out, because it was really hot and though I had the vents going and windows down, poor Chevy was HOT. I put the air on the floor and it came out nice and cool. Chevy finally stopped panting and dozed.

I didn't get the camera out for some new pictures yet, as it was threatening to thunderstorm, so I rushed to get the chores done outside, then get dinner made by the time Manny got home from work. But, I'll try to get some tomorrow night. Chevy is out of Gerry's main leader/stud Black Jack (Gatt) and Blue (Gatt). I'll post Chevy's lines on my Noatak site as soon as Gerry gets back home and emails them.

Dutchess is doing fine and seems to have recovered from her bout of bloat the other night. I'm still being very careful with her and staying right with her as she eats, to make sure that she doesn't spill her food. I'm going to get her a spill proof bowl tomorrow. The puppies look great! I got them to drink some water tonight. I'm going to start them on soaked kibble tomorrow, since they are showing interest in food and water now. I had to put a ramp on the pup house, because 2 of them crawled out and were toddling around on the ground. They truly are outgoing pups!

Well, I'm off to bed. All that driving really wipes a person out. Check back for pics and updates! Ciao!

-Tammi

Puppy pictures!!

Dutchess and Dusk really produced some beautiful pups together. And boy are they big! What little honkers they are! They are toddling around and are ready to start eating some mushy kibble. I like to also put dried milk, or milk replacer in with the kibble. They will also be getting wormed, along with Dutchess. I want to wait a little bit before I do that though, because of Dutchess being on antibiotics...I don't want to add any more stress on her or the pups' systems.

Hello, World! Here's Dutchess and her babies. This is one of the girls (the bigger one of the 2 girls), making her way towards me when she heard my voice. They are so cute!!

Here's Dutchess's only boy with our resident Puppy Manager. Devlyn is so great with puppies and he's doing a wonderful job socializing them. Conor likes to help, too when we bring the pups in the house for "social hour".

And last but not least, Dutchess's other little girl pup. She was the smallest of the 3 pups, but now she's the most outgoing of the bunch. She decided to climb out of the pup house today. She's the first to head toward us and is just a little lover.

We haven't decided on names yet. We'll figure their names out as their personalities emerge. They sure are some nice looking puppies and we are so happy to have them. It'll be great to watch them grow and develop. I know that they'll turn out to be great sled dogs, just like their parents. :o) Cheers!

Bloat Emergency!

Dutchess really scared the crap out of me last night! I went out to check on her and the pups before bed (around 11pm). I noticed that her belly was a little swollen...I listened to her stomach and heard normal gut sounds. Plus, when she walked, I could hear water sloshing. She acted alright, but I didn't feel right. I searched through the First Aid info for information on bloat. Within 30 minutes, I heard Dutchess start to whine and she tried retching, but only foam came out. I knew she was bloating and according to all of the literature on bloat, it says that you have to get the dog to the vet within minutes, or relieve the pressure. Tubing was recommended, but that was out, as I didn't have the equipment. The other steps were to administer simethicone (vet recommends 1mg per pound of body weight), and relieve some of the pressure with a syringe. So, that's what I did, though I didn't use a large gauge needle, as I was worried about perforating the stomach wall, allowing fluid to leak out, causing more problems. I did get some liquid and then air out, which seemed to help Dutchess a little and bought some time. At that point, I was on the phone to the After Hours Vet and we were in the car.

Upon arrival, Dutchess's stomach had bloated so big, that it looked like someone had inflated a ballon in her abdomen. It was really hard and sounded like a drum when you tapped it. The vet went over the possible outcomes, from a simple bloating/air to torsion and dead tissue/damaged organs. Luckily, there is a blood test that indicates if there is dead tissue, or if a tube might relieve the pressure. Her blood work looked good, which meant that she probably didn't have a twisted gut. The vet and vet techs were AWESOME! I was able to assist and stay with Dutchess the entire time. We tubed her, and she immediately belched. They flushed her stomach a couple of times and discovered some gravel. Dr. Lane figures that Dutchess spilled her food on the ground and inadvertently ate some gravel with the food, which irritated her stomach, causing her to drink a LOT of water. She's not a rock eater and never had a problem before this. Dutchess recovered nicely and is doing fine now. She had her oatmeal with her kibble this morning, her antibiotic and a dose of simethicone. I’ll be keeping a close eye on her. Dr. Lane suggested feeding her oatmeal for the next 2 days with her kibble to help clear out any remaining gravel, put her on Amoxicillin for a week, and simethicone at least for today, if not tomorrow, too.

That was very scary! I hadn’t ever had a dog bloat before…I’m just glad I checked on her before bed and recognized the symptoms. Dutchess has been such an amazing leader for us and gave us 3 beautiful pups; it would have been heart wrenching to lose this girl (not that it's ever easy to lose any of them). Make sure you know the signs and symptoms of bloat and what to do if it happens to one of your fur kids. Hug your fur kids (and all your loved ones), as you never know what could happen.

-Tammi

Happy Solstice!

Peiper and Odin (in the back) coaxing me to come play!

Today is the longest day of the year, which doesn't say too much in the Land of the Midnight Sun! :o) I volunteered at the Yukon Quest Booth during the Solstice celebration in downtown Fairbanks and had a great time. Those who know me know that I love to talk and it's always a fun time talking with folks about the Quest and dog racing in general. Plus, since I'm home with the boys most days and Manny is working a LOT, it's really nice to have other ADULTS to talk with! Ha ha ha!

The pups are looking great and their eyes should open any time now. It's really hot out, so I put a tarp over the top of the puppy pen to provide even more shade. As I went through the dogyard yesterday, the sun was just beating down at almost 90F. And though the dogyard does get shade at various times of the day, I felt really bad for the dogs. So, as I made my way through the yard with the hose, I sprayed down each of the dogs. It was hilarious....as a few of the dogs just stood there, enjoying the cool water (I swear they were saying "Ahhh!"). Others acted like the water was a dog eating monster, so I just sprayed it up in the air like rain on them. No matter what, I could tell that they felt better afterward. I know I did, as I got soaking wet! Ha ha ha!

I'm off. Take care, have a great day and we'll catch you on the flip side!

-Tammi

Chillin'

Have you played with your dog today?

Here's Feather, playing with me. She is such a goof ball! She normally acts like she's the Queen of the dogyard, but here, you can see that she still has some 'puppy' in there.

Most of our fur kids here love to play. I take the time to go through the yard and play with each one of them, as I go through giving pets and hugs. Soon though, I need to go through the yard and give everyone baths! I try to do baths for everyone in the summer, as it's important for them. Besides, I know I feel so much better after a bath; so, I imagine the dogs do, too.

Dutchess and pups are doing great. We've moved them out to the puppy pen, which is much more comfortable for Dutchess. The pups are already growing and looking great. Also, I had to correct the last post; I goofed on listing the pups. We have 2 Girls and 1 Boy. They are really nice looking and beautifully marked. Eventually, I'll get the camera out there.

Well, it's a gray, rainy day so we're just hanging out. Devlyn had his 2nd soccer game last night and his team won again, 2-0. Way to go Wolverines! I was going to practice passing with Devlyn & Conor today, but it's one of those days to hang out with a good book, cuddle up on the couch and watch a movie, or play in the house. So, I'm off. Have a great day all!

Fur kids

Jaeger at 7 months old. Man, he's getting big; but, he's SO handsome!

"No, we're not spoiled, Mom!" That's Fergus the cat, Otto (check out him using the pillow) and Lady girl.

This is Hiltey. He came to us from Mackey's Come-back Kennels

Happy Birthday Dutchess pups!

Now, we rarely have litters here at RSK, because there are good dogs out there who need homes all the time. However, with most of our kennel getting older (the first pointer litter turned 7 years old this year!), we decided that we were ready for pups. With Dutchess getting older (she has been the main leader and core of our team), we knew if we wanted pups from her, this would be our last chance. So, we decided to breed Dutchess with Dusk. This year, Dusk developed into a solid Gee/Haw leader, leading every race that we ran, for the entire race. Dusk is a nice boy, who really shines in our yard. We felt that Dusk would be a great sire for pups with Dutchess.

Dutchess had her pups last night. We are happy to report that we have 3 beautiful puppies: 2 girls and 1 boy! They have gorgeous markings and look like they'll have nice coats, though we'll have to wait until they get older to see how thick. I'll get pictures up of them in a few days. All three will be staying here at RSK, as we don't breed sled dog pups to sell. Devlyn, our "Puppy Manager" is very happy that we have pups, as he takes his job seriously and loves to help with pups.

Well done Dutchess! Mom and pups are in the house, all doing great. :o)

-Tammi

SNIP clinic a sucess!

Yesterday, thanks to the wonderful efforts and assistance from Lynn Orbison, 8 of our brood FINALLY got spayed/neutered. Dr. Jeanne Olson volunteered to perform the surgeries at her clinic, Raven Vet. Lynn came over to the house with her dog truck, we loaded up the pooches and headed out, all in the rain. It proceeded to rain all throughout the clinic, making for some wet dogs and a wet musher! Still, it was great to have the dogs taken care of so nicely. Dr. O really makes sure that the dogs are as comfortable as possible, giving each their own "bed", fuzzy blankets and ice packs to help at the incision site to keep swelling down. We had dogs all over the clinic in various stages of recovery. I forgot my camera, or I would post a picture of it. The list of "tutored" dogs (as Lynn likes to put it, cuz she says they get smarter afterward) are: Jaeger, Bane, Spike, Inu, Ahab, Odin, Peiper and Zeus...7 neuters and 1 spay. Jaeger decided to pee everywhere as he was coming out of the anesthesia (I swear, that dog pee'd a gallon!), but the mop and bucket easily took care of that.

A HUGE thank you goes out to Lynn and Dr. O for taking care of my brood, and to Donna for the SNIP stuff. You Ladies are awesome! All of the dogs are home safe and sound, doing fine.