Porcupines

My poor Millie has been stung by Porcupines twice :(  First time it happenned, I was near the end of Perseverence Trail and she came out of playing in the bush with two quills.  She wouldn't let me near her to get it out, so I gave up and hiked 3 miles back with needles stuck in her nose.  Once home, I had my husband pin her down and I managed to pull them out.  I was not there the second time.  My husband was couple miles up Salmon Creek Trail when she got stung.  She didn't learn from the first instance.  This time, she was practically crippled with 12 quills stuck in her paws.  She was lying on her side, probably from pain, and could not move.  Brad had to carry all 62 lbs of her down the trail and rushed her to the vet.  They had to sedate her to ease her pain while pulling them out.  She was quite loopy afterwards and took couple of days before she was moving around like her old self.  I was away on a business trip during that time and was really sad I could not look after my baby.  For future reference though, here is what my husband says about how to pull out porcupine quills:

Let's start out with some facts and fiction...

FICTION:

1.) Porcupine Quills contain Poison. False! The American Porcupine does not. The Indian Porcupine does. Guess which country the Indian Porcupine comes from?

2.) Porcupines shoot Quills at enemies in Projectile fashion. False! They wave their tail and back when in distress and must physically touch an enemy for the Quill to stick in it. Likewise, if a dog touches a Porcupine, the Quill will stick in it. Quills do not "shoot out".

3.) Porcupine Quills are pressurized and must be snipped at the end before they are pulled out. False! This is utter bullshit. They are very slightly barbed, but not pressurized by any means.

FACT:

1.) Getting a Quill in you is very painful. True. Even one hurts like hell. Like a little dagger sticking into your skin.

2.) If your dog looks like she is in pain, take her to the Vet. Don't try to remove Quills yourself unless there is only 3 or 4 of them. Your dog may need sedating to kill the pain.

3.) If your dog has less than 5 Quills, you can avoid Vet fees by trying to remove them yourself. Read below for directions.

REMOVING QUILLS YOURSELF, WITHOUT A VET... (if there is more than 5, see a bloody vet!)

You will need:

1.) a strong grip.

2.) disinfectant (hydrogen peroxide etc)

3.) a set of balls

4.) a second person would help to keep Millie still.

First, have your disinfectant handy.

Now grip the quill as far down as you can, closest to the skin of the dog for best grip. What you want to do is very slightly turn the Quill at a very slight angle as you pull it. Don't pull it straight. The barb is not very big, but to avoid excess damage to Millie, pull it out quickly at a slight angle. As soon as the Quill is out, place it away to one side and do the next one.

Once all of them are out, dab the affected areas with disinfectant on a tissue to stop infection

That's it! All done. She'll be hurting for the rest of the day. Just let her rest.

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Hope this helped.

Dogs in Juneau

There are many dogs in Juneau.  Almost everyone I have met has a dog or two or three.  I can see why though, since walking all of the wonderful trails in Juneau is much more fun with the dogs.  The great part is that leash laws in Juneau are flexible so you can take your dogs off of the leash when on an unpaved trail.  The dogs love it here.  There are also off-leash areas such as Sandy Beach for general running around.  Since most people are dog owners, you rarely see a scowl from people approached by dogs.  When I realized what a great place Juneau is for dogs, I was so glad I had Millie with me.  In this post, I thought I would share a little bit about "dog stuff" around Juneau.

Supplies

Juneau doesn't have a PetSmart or a PetCo, our nationally recognized brands of pet shops.  You have to settle for getting your pet stuff at places such as Fred Meyer and Wal-mart.  I get Millie's puppy food & biscuits from Costco, whose Kirkland brand actually produces pretty good dog food without the meat by-products.  Although I have grabbed a few things at Fred Meyer for her, I recently realized Amazon is a great place to buy pet stuff.  There's a great selection of stuff and many of them are also eligible for the free super saver shipping - even to Alaska. 

Day Care

The best doggy day care place I have found is at the Gastineau Humane Society.  For $23, same as PetSmart back in Reston, you can leave your dog with them during the day and they will take the dogs on a long (usually two 2-mile) off-leash walks.  They also get plenty of group play time.  The only down side here is that drop off times are limited to 0730-0900, and pick-up times are no later than 1730.  If you work such hours that drop-off or pick-up isn't possible, you are out of luck.  As far as I know, other day care places have similar, if not worse, restrictions on pick-up/drop-off times and are more expensive. 

Vet Care

If you take your dog to the humane society for day care, you can get your rabies shots, fecal exams, chipping, and other routine vaccinations required for enrollment there.  However, in all other cases you have other choices such as Juneau Veterinary Hospital and the South East Alaska Medical Center.  The latter had the cheaper office visit prices by far ($50 vs $80).

Training

I haven't looked into this too much since I just completed a puppy class with her back in Virginia.  The humane society offers some training though.  The instructor there had helped me a little bit when I first arrived there and I thought she was pretty good with Millie.

Where to get dogs

I haven't seen a pet shop around Juneau yet.  The humane society seems to be the place to get dogs, although there are only ever few available for adoption at a time, and they seem to go fast.  I've heard some people ship their dogs in.  There are also other humane societies throughout Southeast Alaska so that is another option (keep an eye out for a drop off of big puppy litters).  Maybe there are breeders, but I can't imagine it would be easy to breed dogs in water locked Juneau. 

Finding dog-friendly homes

Given all of these people in Juneau with dogs, it is very difficult to find a rental here that allows dogs.  You may have better luck if your dog is tiny (under 30 lbs), but otherwise, I rarely see any postings for places that allows pets.  There will definitely be sacrifices as finding your ideal place in your budget that allows dogs will be tough.  So while Juneau is a great place for dogs, be warned that it is a difficult place to find rental housing if you do have a dog.

Dog Friendly Winter Walks

As of the moment, my free time consists of getting settled in and trying to get Millie the exercise she needs.  During the week, this means taking her to the nearby Cope Park after work and let her run off-leash.  If I am lucky, there will also be another dog there and she will get a good romp around.  Occasionally, we're on our own and Millie just goes scavanging for food.  I did have a frisbee, but she wasn't very good at bringing it back.  I should try a tennis ball sometime. 

On the weekends, whether rain, snow, or shine, Millie must get a good long walk in.  There are many hiking trails all around Juneau, but all are snow or ice covered.  In just a few weeks time though, I found some nice places to take her for a good exercise.  They are not necessarily long walks, but since you can let her off-leash, she is able to run around and probably do at least 5x the length I am walking. 

Airport Dike Trail

This 1.2 (one-way) walk starts at the water treatment plant near the airport.  It's a well-groomed, flat walk along the water and through some trees.  The trail is actually part of the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge.  Probably a good place for bird watching in the summer. 

East Glacier Loop Trail

This trail will take you from the visitors center at the Mendenhall Glacier to a waterfall near the glacier.  Unfortunately it's not groomed so you only have the trails left behind by previous users.  Alternatively, you could ski or snowshoe it.  Dogs love romping around in the powder though.  It is also a short walk, perhaps .75 mile each way, but because of the deep snow, it takes a bit longer than expected to do.  At the end, you come to a clearing where you get a good view of the glacier and falls.  In the winter though, the falls seem to be only a trickle.  Perhaps most of it is frozen over. 

Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area

This is my favorite so far.  There are several trail heads off of back loop (back part of Mendenhall Loop Rd.) but I typically use the one at the Forest Service.  These trails are well groomed so you can walk on it easily.  Many people ski across them too.  What makes this trail unique is that it loops around various lakes in the area.  You can make your walk as short or as long as you like.  The terrain also varies a bit too.  In some areas you are on a narrow trail in the forest.  In other cases you are walking over a lake.  You can also get views of the surrounding mountains and glacier at different places.  These trails connect to the Mendenhall Glacier parking lots, so you could try different parts of the trails from different trailheads.  Although we had the trails mostly to ourselves, you do occasionally run into other doggies for a meet & greet party.

Sandy Beach

 This one probably wins the "most scenic" award.  It's really just a walk along the beach, but the view of the mountains on a sunny day is absolutely gorgeous.  Many owners bring their dogs here for a romp around, too.  So lots of tail-wagging and playing.  Us humans just have to walk a bit.  Walking from parking lot to the end is a nice length walk.  The only downside of being on the beach is your dog will get dirty so you have to give him/her a bath when you get back.