— THE MAD HATTERS —

May 14, 2007 — A couple of weeks ago I added four new characters to our menagerie — Sebastopol geese. My husband calls them the Mad Hatters because their personalities (and feathers) are so screwy. The above photo was taken right after I released them from their transport cage. The poor creatures had been living in a dusty barnyard with only a small kiddie pool for wading. Our 8-acre pond frightened them at first, but as you can see, they soon figured out how to play in the water.

Well, they weren't actually playing. They were working hard to distribute their body oil along the length of their feathers. This makes them waterproof and gives them added buoyancy for swimming. Pumping water through their feathers is something all geese do routinely, but their cramped and shallow kiddie pool made it impossible for these guys. Their feathers were in poor condition and very dirty when they first arrived, as you can see below:

After two weeks of energetic water-pumping and constant preening, the geese are looking much better:

Their feathers may look tattered to you, but the ruffled appearance is characteristic of the Sebastopol. They have a "frizzle" gene mutation which causes the shaft of the feather to split and curl. (This is a very desirable trait, if you happen to be a Sebastopol.) Over time, our "Mad Hatter's" feathers should begin to look a lot better.

Okay, so why are we talking about geese instead of Danes? That's because I'm leaving for Prague tomorrow and I ran out of time. This was the best I could do for a feature story.

Acanthomatous Ameloblastoma
Last week I received the following note, very sad:

Our beloved 6 1/2 year old mantle bitch, Tallulah, was diagnosed today with acanthomatous ameloblastoma, a very aggressive oral cancer. Tumors of this type are fast growing and actively invade bone tissue, requiring a 3cm margin on all sides of the tumor to remove it so that it doesn't grow back. Since Tallulah's tumor is in her upper jaw, it would be impossible to remove it without cutting out most of her palate and half of her upper jaw – all the way up to her eye socket. Obviously, this is not an acceptable option. We were presented with other treatment options (radiation, chemo, etc.) but they all seem fraught with problems, and we don't know what would be the best option.

We are devastated, feel completely lost, and have no one to turn to for advice. Would please ask the DaDane audience if anyone else has been through this disease — what they did, and what the outcome was for their dane.

Thank you so much,
Logan Ertel

Please email Logan or post a comment right here if you have any insights.