Dick and Nancie’s Ryder

/2 Comments/in /by
Ryder, Gunny and Stone

Ryder, Gunny and Charlotte's Stoney

Ryder was litter brother to Tessa and Hammer, via a repeat breeding. He was also full litter brother to Andrea’s Gunny, and to our little Teardrop.

Ryder is much missed by both Dick and Nancie, although they now have Alvin (now known as Baxter, or Mr. B) to console them, along with their lovely little girl. Ryder, however, was like Tessa, Gunny and Hammer – you can get another dog, but you can never, ever replace them.

I suppose that’s true of all good dogs though, isn’t it?

Photos on Flickr, or after the cut.

Read more →

French Bulldog C Section Video

/2 Comments/in , /by

Well, just as the title says – this is a fairly cut and dried video of a French Bulldog (Butters, to be exact) under going a cesarean section.

The surgery was performed by Dr. Curtin, DVM, at Hanover Veterinary Clinic in Hanover, Ontario. For the more medically minded of you, the tissue repair that you see during the early part of the surgery is a repair on an umbilical hernia that seemed to ‘pop up’ while Butters was pregnant.

This section resulted in three healthy puppies, all of whom, along with mom, are doing well. There’s no volume not just because it’s always fairly chaotic during a section, but also because there was audible sound of the receptionist out front taking calls and talking to patients, and I didn’t want to compromise anyone’s privacy.

The video is after the cut, and if you have a squeamish stomach, you might want to just skip right to the end and see the happy baby puppies.

Read more →

Friday Zen – Sprinkler Moose(es)

/1 Comment/in /by

Didn’t you love playing in the sprinkler when you were a kid? We had a pool, but I still don’t think anything came close to the sheer joy of running back and forth underneath the sprinkler on a hot, hot day. The only thing possibly better was a nice, cold drink of that uniquely rusty tasting sprinkler water, fresh from the hose. Yum.

Apparently, Moose feel the same way – baby moose in particular. Also? I don’t care what the grammar police say – the plural of Moose SHOULD be mooses, simply because it’s so much fun to say.

Moose in a sprinkler – it doesn’t get more zen than that.

Cancer Study in Dogs

/in /by
Canine Health Foundation News Alert
Van Andel Research Institute Launches New Canine Cancer Studies! Your Participation is Needed in the Collection of Tumor Samples [Tuesday, June 15, 2010]

The Van Andel Research Institute, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, received a “Grand Opportunities” (GO grant) from the National Institutes of Health. This is enabling the Institute to expand its canine cancer studies, which started with a project partially funded by the Canine Health Foundation investigating hemangiosarcoma in Clumber Spaniels 18 months ago, into a much broader research program. They are launching a new center of excellence in canine genetics and genomics. The first and most important program is the Canine Hereditary Cancer Consortium (CHCC), which is headed by Drs. Jeff Trent (TGen), Nick Duesbery (Van Andel Research Institute), and Paul Meltzer (National Cancer Institute/NIH) . The program is an unprecedented alliance of scientists, veterinarians and physicians. Drs. Duesbery and Froman are intensely focused on recruiting canine cancer patients for the study through a variety of clinical outreach programs. Samples from canine patients will not only allow the researchers to identify genes responsible for breed-specific susceptibilities (such as hemangiosarcoma in Clumber Spaniels and osteosarcoma in Greyhounds), but also to translate these discoveries into new and more precise diagnostics and therapeutics for both canine and human cancer patients. The ultimate goal is to take personalized medicine for dogs to unscaled heights!

You can find more information about this program in  found in the 31st issue of Discoveries, the Canine Health Foundation newsletter.

Read more →

Itty Bitty Butters Babies

/5 Comments/in , /by
Butters loves her baby French Bulldog puppies

Butters loves her babies.

I have some footage of Butters’ entire c-section, shot in full on, gory detail, partly as an educational video, and partly as a scare tactic style ‘are you really, really sure you want to breed your dog?’ cautionary tale video.

Instead of sharing that right off the bat, I thought I’d start instead with my favorite thing of all – photos of teeny tiny baby puppies. I love them when they’re this age, because they have two modes – sleeping and passed out cold. Both make for nice, stationary photo objects, unlike Paula’s two week old Bullmastiff puppies, who are like eleven whirling, sucking dervishes. The film footage of those guys is awesome, and should be up by Friday.

In the meantime, if you get really, really close to screen, you should be able to scratch your monitor and get a whiff of puppy breath.

All the pix after the cut, or on Flickr.

Read more →