Thursday, May 13, 2010

Confederate Headquarters, Yorktown Virginia  1865

I'm finally getting caught up from my little vacation.  Although John did good while I was gone there are lots of things to do that he doesn't even know about around here.  (G) 

Yesterday Chester turned up lame on his right rear.  His bad leg is his right front, so he's not doing too good on the right side right now.  Today they were working on our new water storage tank & John decided the job would go much easier if the donkeys stayed in their pens.  Then a man came out for a tour, so John just left them in.  John decided to leave Chester in to rest, so when everyone else went out he stayed in.  John said he came in the house & could hear Chester yelling even with the doors closed.  Chester usually doesn't get in fights nor do the other boys bother him, so John gave up & let him out.  He does pretty good walking slow, but when he turns you can really tell his leg hurts.  

Quilla is doing really good with his legs.  I've been using sunscreen on them & so far so good.  We're managing to keep them from bleeding.  He's also wearing Flyfins, which keeps the flies from landing on his legs.  If you go to the web-site the Ouch Socks are at the top of the home page & the Flyfins at the bottom.  

Sha'ba was having some itchy problems on his sheath before I left.  So I started doctoring a few days earlier, & John kept up the routine when I left.  Sure enough when I came back & checked him, I found a habronema.  When they first start out they are so small you can't see them, but they cause a lot of itching.  I control them by putting Ivermectrin wormer on the spot & wait until they get large enough to be seen.  So he's doing pretty good now.  

Jenny & Cisco are my other "summer patients".  This is the latest in the spring that Cisco has gone without having scooted on his sheath & made it bloody.  Yippee!  I'm keeping it coated with thunja zinc oxide, which really irritates the flies.  Jenny has old scars on her legs that the flies will pick at until they bleed, & also has an umbilical hernia that stays weepy most of the time.  Not a big deal in the winter, but the flies love it in the summer.  We just have to make sure any open sores are covered with something.  

I've always used the Sterling Rescue Fly Traps, & they do a good job of gathering flies, last year we figured we caught about 30 pounds of flies.  This year I heard about a trap called, Fly Be Gone & decided to give them a try.  They are a much larger trap, but are rapidly filling up.  This time of year the flies are very busy, & even though we use the fly predators, there seems to be plenty of flies to go around.  I don't think the Fly Be Gone smells as bad as the Rescues, which is a plus in their favor. 

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