Chester Update: Post Op Day 2

We are so pleased with the care Chester is receiving at the University of Bern Veterinary Hospital. He has a full team looking after him that includes a surgeon, anesthesiologist, neurologist and physiotherapist. The neurologist calls us every morning to give us a report on his progress. Today she was pleased to provide the news that he was urinating and defecating without assistance. He is off all of the pain medication and along with reacting to pain stimulus, he is starting to move his left hind leg. His muscles have loosened allowing the physiotherapist to work with him in the therapy pool (I am sure he will enjoy that, he loves to water.) She also said his fear has subsided and is less anxious. Amy had planned to go visit him today, but decided against it after hearing how well he had improved. Visiting him would have made Amy feel good, but upon leaving Chester would have likely suffered from another spate of separation anxiety. We were told it is better to wait to see him when we are able to take him home with us to avoid the anxiety. Thank you all again for your support.

Chester Injury

At 10am this morning, Chester and I were playing in the snow with his favorite ball. He suddenly loss function in his left hind leg. Amy recognized the potential severity of the situation and we quickly rushed him to the emergency vet and specialty hospital in Bern. Upon arrival he had loss function in both legs. The MRI showed a ruptured disc between the thoraco lumbar 12 and 13. This is not uncommon with Dachshunds, however it is with a dog as young as Chester (1 and half years). The MRI also showed adnormalities of the disc along most of the spinal column. So the condition is likely genetic, and the continuous play and jumping combined with the cold weather resulted in the acute rupture. The ruptured disc was applying pressure and decreasing blood flow to the spinal cord. This resulted in paralysis of his hind legs. He went into surgery at around 5pm where a hemilaminectomy was performed to remove the disc material and pressure from the spinal cord. According to the surgeon everything has gone well and they will try to feed him tonight. He will remain in the ICU and be monitored by the neurologist until Friday. Because of Amy's quick response and us getting him to the surgeon in less than 12 hours the prognosis is good for a full recovery. Please keep the little guy in your thoughts and I will keep this blog updated with his progress. To learn more about the hemilaminectomy: http://www.michvet.com/library/neurology_ivds_thoracolumbar.asp

A New Addition to our Menagerie

Well we have a new addition to our menagerie. Joining Cesar, Chester and Zoe is Charlie.

Charlie is a 4 year old Tinker horse, we are now the proud "semi-owners". He is boarded here on the farm with us. His owner ran into some difficult times paying the boarding fees. Amy has been taking riding lessons at a farm about 10 km from here. So we worked out a deal where we pay half of his boarding fees, he gets to stay here on the farm and we get to ride and work with him when ever we want.

Tinker horses, also known as Gypsy Vanner in the US are draft style horses, bred to pull wagons call vardons. These vardons are wagons designed to be lived in, like the ones gypsies would use. Although their bloodlines are still uncertain, they are related to the Clydesdales. You know those famous Budwieser drinking, football playing horses from the Super Bowl commercials. Well, Charlie doesn't kick field goals, but he is a sweet horse and hopefully I will begin to ride him. Amy will start riding him this week.

Amy learns to "drive"

I will admit prior to moving to Switzerland I don't think I have touched a horse since that pony ride at Kristen Kip's 5th birthday party. I think there are pictures laying around some where to prove it...me crying for the entire 5 minute excursion. I guess you can say I am pretty much a city boy, not much cowboy in this here blood. Therefore, the edited version of Amy's riding lesson is from the city boy's perspective. Enjoy!!

Hiking in the Swiss Alps Sept 7th 2008

This is a map of the hiking trip we took this past Sunday. The map was generated with the tracking feature of the GARMIN GPS unit, overlaid on a GOOGLE MAP. Click on the green triangle at the bottom to see the direction and elevation along the trail route. You can also click on the title to go to the full view of the trip, statistics, zoom in and out, etc. Pretty Cool!

Hiking Trip above Aigle 7 Sept 2008

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

Our Roommates?

Here is a video of the horses we live with on the farm.  There are 17 horses on the farm and they go out daily for some exercise before the riders come.  Here is a video of the first group heading out for their morning romp in the fields and some grazing.  They are absolutely beautiful!

Boubi is the first one out, then Hardy, next is Tonner (my favorite, the big brown and white tinker horse), then Akuba and Aricof (they are best pals), and finally Senor. 

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover...or its Stench.

I just returned from a week in Singapore, an island nation of about 4 million located 85 miles north of the equator at that southern tip of the Malay peninsula. I have a colleague, in the office here in Switzerland from Singapore. Upon learning I was headed to his home country for business, Eric began raving about the Durian fruit. 

"Oh you have to try Durian when you are in Singapore. Its the King of all fruit", he said while salivating at its thought.  For a couple of weeks leading up to the trip Eric kept on me about the Durian.  Finally, I promised him I would try his beloved fruit while visiting his home country.  "Just one thing, don't be put off by the smell.  Really it tastes nothing like it smells", he said.  I assured him I would not be put off by the smell, as I understand this concept of foul smelling, but good tasting.  There is a saying here in Switzerland "The stinkier the cheese, the better it tastes".  Some of my favorite cheeses smell pretty bad.  

During my last evening in Singapore, I told my host, I wanted to try Durian.  He thought I was joking at first, but then was pleased to find out I was not.  We grabbed a taxi from the hotel and made our way to one of the small Durian fruit stands set up in the parking lot of the restaurant district.    Durian is in season about every four months and we were lucky, as we hit the season right at its peak.  The fruit is highly prized in this part of the world for its high nutritional value and complex flavors.  The fact that it takes ten years for a Durian tree to bear fruit also adds to the mystique.  There are a number of different variations of the fruit, we would be sampling the sweet and the bitter versions.  Upon getting out of the cab the smell hit me, and we were still a good hundred feet or so from the 

stand.  The smell is a blend of rotting dumpster and day old

 vomit, very organic.   Not only is the smell less than appetizing, Durian is visually intimidating.  It is about the size of an American football covered with inch long spines and weighing between 5 and 7 pounds.  You have to hand it to the guy who first tried eating Durian, he was quite adventurous.  The fruit looks completely alien, from the dangerous spines to the fetus like insides.    Upon ordering our fruit, one of the workers grabbed a couple of plastic chairs from a stack and unfolded a table for us.  With a machete he cut open the fruit and placed it in front of us.  

Wow, the smell really hit me and my eyes started to water as I tried to maintain my composure.   Another colleague with me from Switzerland, Didier, did not even try to stay composed, he was wincing at the stench.  Inside the  halved fruit, are a few large seeds about the size of an avocado pit covered in a slimy skin.  Between the slimy skin and the seed is a custard like filling, the prize if you will.   We started with the sweet one first, I grabbed one of the seeds and quickly stuck it in my mouth sucking the meat off the seed.  It wasn't the smell that got to me as much as it was the odd custard texture.  It slides around your mouth as you try to coral it with your tongue to swallow, then spit out the large seed.  Ah, it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good either.  As promised it tasted nothing like it smelled, rather nutty and sweet with after note of onion.  I was ready to try the bitter one now, Didier on the other hand was done no more Durian for him.   The bitter Durian was quite different than the sweet.  It was more floral, less sweet and absent of the onion after note.  Of the two I preferred the bitter.  Come to find out many Durian aficionados also prefer the bitter over the sweet.  I would have to say, I had no strong feelings either way regarding the "King of all fruit", it neither delighted nor disgusted.  I am sure it is an acquired taste.