Today was worming day. I don't enjoy worming, the donkeys have many different ideas of how to react. You have the bored attitude, "just do it & get it over with", you have the "wow, that is really yummy", & you can't extricate the tube from their clenched teeth. I almost lost a finger with Frijolita this morning. Then there is the "if this is really necessary you can chase me around until I decide to stop"..........but I don't have to like it. How about "there is no way you are going to come close to me, since I can tell that you are up to something." And then the real fun one, "AAAAAaaaeeeeeeeee.....you have acid in that thing in your hand & you are trying to kill me aren't you"? It's not like they have never done this before, we use to give them a cookie afterwards, but the lack of cooperation has taken the fun out of that, so NO COOKIES......!!!! Ha!
Then there is Rusty & Jack the mules, & Tula. No, no, no in no uncertain terms, they will not let you stick a worming tube in their mouths without someone getting hurt. I've used "wormer" sandwiches in the past with limited results. Tula's pretty good about eating anything in her hay bunk, but the mules seem to have the attitude of, "you don't usually give me bread, so I "ain't" touching it.
This year my brilliant idea was the worming pellets, a few ounces of pellets with their regular feed & voile' they are wormed. Jack no problem, Tula no problem, Rusty is turning into a big problem. I guess they smell funny or something at least to him. I tried mixing the dust off horse treats with his feed & the pellets. He ate a little, so I tried some more. Then I tried ground up animal crackers. Thru out the morning I managed to get him to eat all but about a cup of his feed with the pellets. John put his feeder in the feed room, so guess what he is going to get tonight? I'd like to think I"m more stubborn than he is, but I'm not sure if I'm going to win the battle or not.
2 comments:
Very impressive Blog and a GREAT attempt to care for the Donkey.
But we all have to think of the Roping Donkeys that are being used and attempting to be absorbed back into our society. So far we have not gotten any good reports. I would hate to think they will wind up on canned ranches in Texas waiting to be shot be trophy hunters. The state laws need more work if we are to stop this Donkey ABUSE.
ADA CEO Dale McCall
Mark Myers has been quite involved in Texas with trying to educate & bring the plight of the roping donkey to the attention of the public. The canned hunts are horrible, but so is being shot by government hunters, because they aren't native animals. That was done in the name of the American people, & actually is how Mark ended up in Texas, to capture the burros in the Big Bend area so the government wouldn't shoot anymore of them.
One problem with the Texas law is
42-09-a-8 states it is an offense to trip a horse. Doesn't mention donkeys. 42-09-b-5-b lists "Livestock animal" as, a horse, pony, mule, donkey, or hinny. I would imagine when the law was written they were thinking of the Mexican rodeos where they rope the legs out from under horses. Using equine instead of horse would have given teeth to the law as far as donkeys are concerned.
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