When I went out this morning John said there is something wrong with Pepper. He was in his pen, with his ears laid back. Pepper's ears are always in the upright position, checking out what is going on around him. John said he was acting very aggressive towards the other donkeys. THIS IS NOT PEPPER AT ALL. In fact he usually is timid around the other donkeys & makes sure he has an avenue of escape when they get close to him, he seems to know he is fragile.
I went out to check him over & sure enough the ears were all the way down. He looked & acted anxious to me. I checked to make sure he could see (stroke?) & checked for gut sounds. John said Pepper had lunged at him, when he tried to give him a treat, so John stood on the same side I was on, when I checked for gut sounds in case he tried to bite me. He had plenty of grumblings, so I told John to put on fly masks & observe him, while I fixed their breakfast.
John came in & said he was jerking his right rear leg. That is his broken hip leg. He was also giving the hair raising sound they make when warning the "herd" of danger. Willing to take animal crackers & when breakfast was served, he dove into it like he was starved.
I came in the house, & got on the computer to see if Merck had any ideas. I found Medical Causes of Behavioral Signs. Sounded like a good place to start. They had neurological disorders, seizures, sensory dysfunction, all sorts of "heavy" stuff. I zeroed in on just plain old "pain"....... "Altered response to stimuli (eg. decreased activity, restlessness, vocalization, aggression, irritability" John said when he was bringing Pepper into his pen, he kept acting like someone was following him & he would turn around & lunge at.........nothing. Went back out & he's eating breakfast ears up & he looked like Pepper.
My WAG (wild ass guess) is, something happened in that broken hip, pinched a nerve or something. He was walking OK, so it wasn't out of joint or anything. I have had pinched nerves & believe me it makes you irritable, aggressive & vocal......!!! I threatened a nurse with death if she didn't get in touch with the doctor for some drugs. The doctor was on my s--t list too..........!!!! LOL
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