Farm Fun

Lots of time at home these days, especially since I had time off work from when I was supposed to be in Kentucky.  But we have had mostly good weather so getting in lots of training, running, and pony time.  Epic has been working hard on agility and buried hides and progress is being made!

Office assistants

 Epic really wanted my snack

 Riesling was bummed he still has to be ridden

 Socks has the best hair.  And is still shedding a lot.

 Seamus loves the bed

 Pretty boy, but a bit fat

 Jimmy Dean loving the spring grass

 Goats!

 Little Maze was a TNR cat I napped from work one day.  She's super cute and settling in well.  Really showing Marbles who is in charge.

Welcome Jadeed

I've admired the guy since my friend acquired him for her breeding program. When the time came for her to geld and sell him I told her I was interested and would come up in a few weeks to try him out.  Apprarently she got tired of the weirdos asking about him and offered to just give him to me knowing I would give him a good forever home or return him if things didn't work out or something happened to me. So Monet and I made a last minute plan to run up and collect him and her new pony last weekend.

So far things are going pretty well.  He definitely doesn't like standing water/puddles but otherwise he's ridden pretty good for me.  He's on the lazy side so you've got to show him you can really make him go but other than that things are good. Riesling has been a bully to him so he's now terrified of Ries which makes things a little tricky at times.  But hopefully that will improve over time.

And now that I have a lot of free weekends and nowhere to go ever I should have time to get both boys ready to try out on trails later this summer.  If we ever get released from our homes.

He lost some weight with his surgery, so we are working on fattening him up a little.  Which he is on board with.

 These are from when he was younger.

Requested Post #2-Titer testing

Titer testing is not a one size fits all answer.  It really depends on the particular disease and vaccine in question. The only titer tests that are "reliably" available for determination if vaccinating is needed are Distemper, Parvo, and Hepatitis.  A titer considered protective more than likely means this animal is protected against these diseases.  Here's the catch though, a titer below the cutoff determined by the lab or even a titer of zero does not mean the dog isn't protected.  Titer tests are checking only antibodies, but after vaccination a dog has the ability to mount an immune response to a disease with something called cell-mediated immunity as well as lymphocytes and other memory cells.  So, high titer most likely indicates protection, low titer in a previously adequately vaccinated dog, also probably protected.  Challenge studies show vaccines for these disease are good for at least 3 years.  Bottom line, usefulness of titer testing depends on what your goal is and what kind of info you are hoping to gain while balancing that with the cost of the testing.

Parainfluenza is often a part of the combo vaccine that includes the above three diseases.  There is no titer test for this but immunity seems to be of a similar duration.  It's also not a highly dangerous disease.

Titers for Lyme, Bordetella, and Lepto are unreliable in predicting adequate protection and these vaccines typically don't confer long term immunity like the others do. 

The most common test done for rabies titer testing is the FAVN test which is mainly used to export dogs to rabies free countries.  This test actually measures immune response to the vaccine and not necessarily a level of immunity considered protective to a challenge.  However, during licensing for rabies vaccines many dogs failed to develop a high titer but still survived a challenge.  So an acceptable FAVN number by default likely correlates to protective immunity. However, this test is expensive, and in most jurisdictions does not legally replace an actual vaccine.  This means in a bite case or legal dispute a titer test without a current vaccine is going to put you at a disadvantage when it comes to what happens to your dog.  Because this is a human health concern the only real excuse for not getting the vaccine is if your dog has certain medical conditions or has had severe reactions to the vaccine.  These rare cases can be discussed with your veterinary health care team. 

Requested Post #1-Raw eggs and diet

Raw diets can have three main risk factors.  The first is that many, especially home made, are not nutritionally balanced and complete.  How big of problem this is clinically will depend on how unbalanced it is, in what ways is it unbalanced, and what is the life stage of the pet (growing puppy, senior, existing disease, etc).  I would venture to say a lot of people in the world don't eat a fully balance diet and live pretty long, often healthy lives.  Probably a lot of dogs do the same however there are certainly reported incidences of nutrient excess and deficiencies causing signifiant disease.

The second issue is variable depending on what you are using in your raw diet.  Whole bones or large chunks of bones run the risk of breaking teeth and causing GI obstruction or perforation.  These issues can range in severity from mild to life threatening.

The final issue with raw diets is food safety.  This is the reason we cook our food.  It's the reason there is a disclaimer on all restaurant menus about eating raw or undercooked meats.  Quite simply the risk of bacterial contamination or even parasite transmission is much greater in food that isn't cooked.  While some will argue that wild canids do not eat cooked food, that does not make it safe.  Present day dogs have a more domesticated GI tract and we also expect them to live much longer than their wild counterparts.  And although the dog itself may be asymptomatic, they can still shed large amounts of dangerous bacteria in their feces and raw food should certainly be avoided if you have children or immunocompromised persons living in your home, or if you do pet therapy of any kinds.  This is a social responsibility of pet ownership. 

For these reasons I don't think you will find many veterinary professionals who will officially endorse raw diets.  I know there are many dogs who do well on them or owners who swear by them.  A person must choose what is best for their dog but also be aware of the risks. 

Raw eggs as a part of an otherwise balanced diet run the risk of the bacterial contamination part of this discussion.  Same reason they tell us not to eat raw cookie dough.  The risk may be small but it is present.  If your dog will eat a hardboiled or otherwise cooked egg then you eliminate this risk. 

Videos

Here are a few videos from the last agility trial I got loaded to YouTube

Life changes

So, I said I has a lot of events planned and would have a lot to blog about.  But because of the virus, most of that is no longer true.

My half-marathon was cancelled while we were still in Vegas.  There is a silver lining to that which I will get to later.

Since we've been home local schools are cancelled, restaurants closed and gatherings are banned.  Both my NW1 trials and the local 3 day trial I was volunteering for have been cancelled.  Lure coursing in march was cancelled.  UKC NW and Lure coursing for April are tentatively on the books.  I'm not sending any more entry fees in for May or later until this blows over.  Basically the only place I have to go is work.  Today will involve a trip to the post office and dropping off a B-day present at a friends house.

I can't remember the last time I've had this many free weekends, or weekdays for that matter.  So I'll be working on a list of things to do around the house! So far my list includes deep cleaning and organizing of the house, bathing and grooming the dogs, lots of dog training to really be ready for when trialing resumes, riding my horse and keeping up with MOKAN stuff.

I should also include running/training but that brings me back to my silver lining story. After the El Paso half I had a pretty sore foot.  It got better with time and rest but after several weeks I still couldn't run much more than 4 miles.  My PT friends concluded that I have a lunated cuboid bone and so now I'm currently waiting for someone to pop it back in but in all the chaos and combined with spring break at the university where the PT people are I haven't gotten that done.  So I have been mainly doing cross training but deciding if I should even go to the gym.

And now, here are some pics because that's all I have for now.

 Sundae helping with MOKAN shirts

Epic decked out for St. Patricks' day

Legend got to go to the feed store yesterday.  She was happy to go on an outing.  I think she thought it was the biggest blank room ever but had a good time. 

 Big Fat Marbles acting as a paperweight.

 Random Riesling

 More marbles.

Last day!

We spent our last day here at the valley of fire park. Definitely worth a visit. Lots of cool landscape and hiking to take in.  

Not 311

The first two nights while Jerry was at the concert I gambled, very unsuccessfully. So the third night I went to the Shania Twain residency concert. It was a much better choice-super fun show with great effects and if course all her hits!