On 5th March, Jonathan and Corinna Downes, the Director and Administrator of the Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] the world's largest mystery animal research organisation, fly to Texas. Together with their friends and colleagues Richie and Naomi West who very generously financed the expedition, they will spend two weeks continuing the research into the Texas blue dogs, first carried out by Jonathan Downes in November 2004..

Thursday 18 March 2010

WHAT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR








This is the first time that these three pictures have been posted anywhere. They show the preserved Texas blue dog in the collection of Dr Phyllis Canion. Note the peculiar pads of flesh on the hindquarters of the animal; what would be buttocks if doggies had such things.


There will be more photographs and more comment in the next few days, but for now these will have to do because I am so exhausted that I think I shall sleep for a week...

18 comments:

  1. Were its eyes actually blue?

    Coyotes don't have blue eyes.

    Domestic dogs can have blue eyes.

    This is a street dog from Mexico that has blue eyes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rinalia/4384840789/

    The position this animal is in a common threat posture for coyotes. Dogs and wolves don't assume the arched back and open gape as an aggressive posture.


    http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/53381110.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=E41C9FE5C4AA0A14089574A928D4C226942094F81AB84514E29A8594CF79498EB01E70F2B3269972

    Yes, this coyote is in a trap.

    Here's a coyote with "normal" eyes: http://www.thorninpaw.com/u/htdocs/thorni/image/coyote-1.jpg

    Here are some coydogs that have Siberian husky in them: http://www.coydog.us/sundanceranch.html

    Siberian huskies are well-known for having blue eyes as a common feature in the breed.

    I've never heard of blue eyes in either hairless dogs or wild dogs.

    If this animal had blue eyes, I'd be very suspicious of it being a hybrid.

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  2. Look at the pressure sores on its haunches!

    This animal doesn't look too healthy too me.

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  3. Now that I think about it.

    Those aren't pressure sores.

    Those are the anal gland from hell.

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  4. This thing has me thinking about anal glands.

    Coyotes have a stronger odor than domestic dogs dog. Part of that is because all of their glands are active.

    Maybe some coyotes have more developed anal glands.

    Or maybe this population without hair does.

    Anal glands provide as individual scent on feces (or faeces).

    Perhaps these animals have a need for a stronger scent.

    I've never seen anal glands like that before.

    I've heard of dogs with severe anal gland infections getting to that size.


    Which is why I jumped on it first.

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  5. If not anal glands, then one must not leave out some kind of weird injury.

    I can't imagine any wild dog with circles there.

    It's got some kind of infection/discoloration on its precaudal gland (violet gland). Lots of dogs have black hair over that gland (which isn't active in dogs).

    The only other thing is that I think maybe someone mutilated this animal, and turned it lose. It survived with these awful things on its backside. It looks like scar tissue around them. They look almost as if they were cut into the animal. They look very symmetrical.

    Hatred for coyotes is almost paranoia. People do all sorts of strangely cruel things to coyotes. I remember reading about how trappers would catch wolves, wire their jaws shut, and throw them in a pack of wolf hating dogs.

    A young coyote could have survived the mutilation.

    It could be a deformity.

    I'm going to check the scholarly literature for conditions in hairless domestic dogs.

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  6. Yes, the eyes were actually blue. Phylis showed us a picture of the animal when she first received it and it showed the same vivid blue eyes.

    Those are not anal glands. Phylis manipulated the actual anal glands and was able to extract a clear fluid.

    Phylis did cut into the pads during her autopsy of the animal. The flesh was pink and meaty, yet less fibrous than muscle.

    There was very little hair on the skin. I would estimate 1-3 hair follicles per square inch.

    Naomi checked other photos of similar creatures and found the same pads on the Pollock photo. See my blog entry for the picture.

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  7. Thank you for posting these photos! This creature seems to be the same species as the one that was photographed in Maryland. And, to my eye, all of them resemble Thylacines in one way: the thickness where the tail joins the body.

    Has anyone actually handled a female blue dog? And did it have a pouch? As if those pads weren't weird enough!

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  8. I have a comment from a sight hound authority on my blog: http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-this-coyotes-butt/

    "Those are things from the animal spending a great deal of time sitting and scratching at it’s ears with a hind leg. It’s basically a fluid filled sac. I can’t remember what they are called but we used to get Greyhounds in rescue that had small ones from being being heavily flea infested; get rid of the fleas and the sac will go away by itself because the dog stops scratching."

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  9. Those are hygromas. They are fluid filled sacs that form over a pressure point from repeated trauma. I have seen dogs with hygromas in exactly that spot though not quite as large, from sitting and scratching due to a bad flea infestation. If this animal had sarcoptic mange it would have spent a lot of time scratching and that would account not only for the hyrgromas but for the hairlessness as well. The blue eyes mean nothing, I live in West Texas and our coyotes have a good proportion of dog in them from a local 'wolf-hybrid' breeder turning all their stock loose out in the desert, including husky mixes with blue eyes. I will probably encounter a coyote with blue eyes at some point though I haven't yet.

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  10. If this is the specimen of blue dog that Phyllis Canion found dead outside her ranch house on 14 July 2007, then it was a coyote - no question - because DNA analysis, paid for by San Antonio television station KENS and conducted by Professor Michael Forstner from the Department of Biology at Texas State University, San Marcos, confirmed that it was a Texas coyote, and not a xolo (a hairless breed of domestic dog) as some had suggested.

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  11. It was Karl and yes it was sired by a wolf and the mother was a coyote. However, tissue samples showed no mange. The pads were not filled with fluid but were meaty. Other animals photographed and killed had similar pads. This was a male.

    The Blanco Creature was a female with exactly the same "coat" but no pads.

    The hypothesis that the pads are a result from scratching due to mange is not appropriate in this case.

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  12. Interesting observation: the Pollock blue dog photo has differently shaped "pads" which seem to be smaller than on the Canion individual. The Pollock blue dog also seems to be more densely furred. A correlation perhaps?

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  13. Incredible!! But I must say I would not want to pass by this creature each morning during coffee time. (or any time)

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  14. Not sure what those are. Look too far away from the anus to be anal glands so I'm fairly certain it's nowt to do with those.

    Bilateral perineal hernias ran through my mind too, but doesn't fit in with the description above.

    Don't know what they are.

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  15. Out of interest (apologies if this has been mentioned before and I have missed it), how has mange been ruled out?

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  16. Looking at the above comments, I think hygromata would be the most likely possibility at this stage. They usually form over the elbows or hocks but you can get them over other bony prominences, in this case it would be the ischiatic prominence of the pelvis.

    They start off as fluctuant swellings full of fluid but with time they can become quite fibrous and firm. These ones are quite large, if that is indeed what they are.

    The only thing that would still require explanation with this hypothesis is why they have formed. We see them in dogs that lie on hard surfaces all the time - this dog must have spent an awful lot of time sat down, on a very hard surface.

    Still not sure I guess.

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  17. We have put many of these out of their misery in the upper MidWest so as that they didn't freeze during the harsh winters. The "world" just seems to want to rename them and make them into something they are not. I still for the life of me can't figure out why the world is GaGa over these mutants. They are dogs / coyotes / foxes / raccoons / Wolves / or a pairing of the above and NOTHING ELSE!

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  18. I noticed the word "meaty" applied more than once to parts of these beasts. This interests me as I know the proprietor of a hamburger joint who is always very interseted in new sources of supply.
    I am sorry to see that Shosh has bilateral perineal hernias running through her mind. Perhaps some diazepam would remedy this.

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