ETC

I went to the surgeon yesterday and was hoping to get rid of the brace on my knee.  I guess she thinks I'm a groundhog.... 6 more weeks of brace with physical therapy thrown in for extra fun.  But there was a little bit of good news, the brace is now set at 30%.  That means I can bend the knee 30%, when I'm sitting, when I'm walking I have to lock it back into straight mode.  After 2 weeks we will set it to 60% and 2 weeks later 90%.  Then I will go back for revaluation, then maybe I'll get rid of the brace. 

Well forget all the nice things I said about Rambo and his behavior, he's went off the deep end again, I guess.  He was a little wild and rough a couple of days ago.  He and Penny ended up on the ground, then he went after Coquette, who proceeded to kick the devil out of him.  By this time John and I managed to get into the area and distracted him enough that the girls got away from him.  Then Penny tried to attack him with her mouth wide open and making a horrible growling noise about as loud as he gets.  Very weird she has been making goo-goo eyes at him ever since he got here.  Don't know if she was trying to protect Coquette her best friend or jealous.....LOL

Although he was tested for testosterone and has a low count like a gelding would, he sure seems hormonal.  He and Big Gus got here on the 30th of October, so it's been about a month.  We'll see if he settles down in a couple of days and if so wait and see how he acts in about a month.  If he becomes a wild man again, I guess we'll have to see if there is some sort of hormone treatment.  I doubt it, but you never know, they have a treatment for just about everything these days. In the meantime we are making sure all the gates are open, so no one can get trapped in a pen.   

Heard from Lynn and Linda in California, they are ready to come home already.  We were on the phone and you could hear sirens really loud.  I guess they are on the streets almost constantly.  They've got a lot of the same guys working that work for them every year, it's like family.  That part they enjoy, but not a lot of the stress that goes with it.  Can you believe people will change a cheaper tag on a more expensive tree, I mean we are talking about Christmas for heaven's sake...!!!

They did get to go to the doggie beach one day, the dogs really enjoy the beach.  

Don't know who's having the most fun

Lennon always carries something in his mouth, even when chasing something being thrown

Pure joy......!!!

Time for bed

All the donkeys are doing pretty good, doctoring is down to Boaz's chest, Bella's eye and proud flesh areas on her flanks, Big Gus' butt wound and everyone else just gets a daily look see.   Quilla came in yesterday with a nasty gash on one of his rear legs.  Greasewood, ie creosote bush leaves a nasty wound if they gouge their legs on it.  John put some Underwood Horse medicine on it yesterday and it really looks good today. 

I'm in the process of changing out some of the feed buckets.  By the time Linda gets back, I might have it all figured out.  But right now it's very confusing, I'm spending a lot of time changing buckets and name tapes, but when I get thru there will be no more flat pans, at least that's the plan. 

I'M BACK........!!!

Seems like the last few days have REALLY been hectic, more so than usual.  I've never understood people that say they are bored.  I'd like to try for some of that boredom, just to see what it's like......!!!!  LOL

BlackJack and the gang hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with lots to eat. 

Linda took this picture of BlackJack before she left

Lynn and Linda finally headed for California yesterday a day late.  They were hoping the RV for them to stay in on the tree lot would be there yesterday, but when they got there last night..........no RV.  The boss said he'd get them a motel........yep like that's going to happen with 4 large dogs.  They ended up staying in the booth where people pay Linda for their trees for the night, with 4 dogs to keep them warm.  They were suppose to go to the doggie beach today, but haven't heard if they are instead embroiled in setting up the lot to open up tomorrow morning.  Set up isn't their job, but you know how that goes sometimes.....!!!  And so far there seems to be a few "problems"........!!!  LOL

We ate Thanksgiving with our friends Terry and Larry.  Linda has been doing the feed pans since I've been gimping around with my little friend "Bracie", so when we got home from dinner, I got to relearn the feed pans.  A few changes and of course Bella and Levi have been added.  Not sure what else has changed.  It isn't too bad, but there are 27 pans to deal with and if we had been planning ahead we would have built a larger feed room.......LOL  The pans are in 5 groups to put in order, and it's going to take a few times to figure out where to put them empty and where to put them when they are ready to go, so the sequence makes sense.  Maybe I should have went out and watched Linda a couple of times before she left.  As small as the feed room is, I'd have been in the way.....!!

The doctoring is down to just 3 with a few of the others being observed, to make sure they don't erupt with something new.  Still doctoring Bella's eye although it is getting better, slowly.  Where the 2 areas of proud flesh were cut off are looking really good, hopefully they will heal without the proud flesh coming back.  

Link has rubbed his butt so that's getting doctored, hopefully the hair will grow back, so far he has a bald area.

Big Gus, has his place on his fanny, it's getting better, although John says there is an area that looks like the skin and hair has a pushed up area.  I have been staying away from Big Gus, although he doesn't seems to be squirrely, but he's big enough if he turned quick, I wouldn't be able to move fast enough to get out of the way.  But I guess I'm going to have to go look at his butt to see what is going on.  

I guess Rambo is finally fitting in, he hasn't had any new swollen places or chunks of hair missing for the last few days.  He certainly has been a surprise, I don't think he's even yelled and screamed at any of the donkeys lately.  Lynn's already talking about taking him to Colorado next summer to see if he wants to be a pack burro racer.  He's strong and pretty quick, so he might make a good one. 

We are signed up to the Tucson Rodeo Parade again February 21, 2019.  There will be some changes this year.  Since Lynn and Linda have been working with The Running Shop and some of their runners with the donkeys, I signed up for 12 donkeys and handlers for the parade, just in case others would like to participate.  Last year we only had 6 donkeys and handlers, and the donkeys were quite a hit.  Unfortunately we didn't get to finish the complete route, so that is our goal this year.

Last year we dressed in western period costumes.  I suggested this year blue jeans and t-shirts with our logo on them.  Much simpler but not as eye catching.  The rodeo is a theme, of western, cowboy, native American, etc. so you can't just wear anything.  Maybe we could mix the two ideas together, any ideas would be appreciated.......!!!

We've also got to come up with an idea for the Salute to the Troops parade in Tombstone this year.  We've been in it 2 years and finished 3rd both times.  We're determined to finish 1st, still working on ideas.  We've got flags for each branch of the services, but if anyone has ideas for costumes, let me know. 

THE BURRO BURRITO RUN YESTERDAY WAS A ROUSING SUCCESS

Have had nothing but rave reviews of the fun run with the donkeys yesterday.  The donkeys all loaded pretty good in the dark, got to the park, got set up and were ready to run by 8AM.  There were plenty of people wanting to run with them, some of the donkeys went out 2 or 3 times.

The Running Shop has a facebook page with pictures and comments from some of the participants.  This morning some of the people came out here to practice with the donkeys and to choose their running partner for the pack burro race in Tombstone, March 9th.  I guess it will be first come first serve, Linda has already lost her running buddy to one of the women that was here this morning I think.  LOL

The Running shop is talking about having a Doughnut Burro fun day in January.  Wonder where we could get some more donkeys......... we're going to have more runners than donkeys again probably.  LOL

Leo, Levi and maybe Coquette strutting their stuff

Justin, BlackJack and cute little Cheyenne in the front doing her thing.  She was a big hit, everyone always thinks she's so cute.  She's already been spoken for when the Tombstone race is ran.  She is so little maybe people think she's safer than the larger donkeys.  I don't think so, I've seen her back up any of the other donkeys large or small. She can make those hind feet really fly if she wants to. 

This is the herd waiting for the fun to start, still a little early in the morning.

While they were busy in Tucson yesterday with the Burro Burrito fun race, I was holding down the fort here.  Tyler and Dr. Jeremy both came out in the morning to work with the ones with bad feet.  Gus is always first and they decided to put casting material back on his feet, since he hasn't been as comfortable this time as he has been in the past.  The bones inside his hooves are probably loose, and the casting material gives his hooves some extra strength.  I know from looking at x-rays the bones aren't lined up properly.  

Tyler is talking about having a symposium for professional farriers and trimmers.  He said he sees so many donkeys that are not being trimmed properly.  By now everyone should know that donkeys are not little horses physically, but a lot of farriers, try to trim their feet like horse feet.  He said I have enough interesting feet to be used as a training area, so if he gets it organized, that's what we'll do.  Poor Gus will probably be the star of the show.

Tyler did Big Gus and Rambo's feet.  Remember I thought Big Gus had canker and they both had thrush.  They might have had thrush, but Linda has been spraying their feet with bleach and Tyler found no evidence of thrush and they decided what I thought was canker was actually overgrown sole that looked like popcorn.  Dr. Jeremy had us put fresh gravel in Big Gus' pen and he's also been going out roaming in the rocks and sand, to hopefully break down that overgrowth.  Guess it helped because other than having extremely thick hoof walls, trims completed  on both of them and their feet look so much better.  

BUT.........they both were brats, Rambo insisted he wasn't going into the stocks, but 3 men changed his mind, in he went and out the other end he went, squashing Tyler on the way......  That would have been a Kodak moment, if I had my camera.  

Big Gus wasn't much better, in fact he was pretty adamant about not cooperating, until Dr. Jeremy and drugs changed his mind.  

When we picked them up, Big Gus has a nasty looking cut, slice whatever you want to call it, on the inside of his butt, close to his tail.  Linda had been doctoring it, but it didn't seem to be healing in a timely manner.  

He's got the long hair of a French Poitou and it was caught up in the flap of skin with serum, scabs the area looked like a science project.  Dr. Jeremy clipped the hair and cut off the flap of skin about an inch by 3 inches.  It should heal quickly now that it doesn't have all that stuff on it.  We can't figure out how he got such a wound in such a place, very weird.

The general guess on Big Gus' age from Dr. Jeremy and Tyler was around 25.  My guess had been early 20's so I was in the ball park.  I was going by what little I know of his history and adding years for what I didn't know.........LOL   Also looking at his front teeth, as equine age the front teeth grow longer and instead of top and bottom lining up with each other, as they grow longer the teeth angle out in front.  That's where the old saying, "long in the tooth" came from. 

BURROS AND BURRITOS TODAY......!!

Linda, Lynn and John just left with 2 stock trailers and 13 donkeys, headed for Tucson.  They started rounding up in the dark and left in the dark.  I watched from the courtyard and it actually went pretty good.

Of course that leaves 14 others still in their pens, and by now they are probably wondering when breakfast will be served.  Actually it was served last night at bedtime, when they are usually let out to roam around all night.  

Rather than figure out who is going to Tucson, who gets let out, and figuring out how to get everyone fed, the decision was made to leave everyone in all night and to feed them last night.  It takes at least an hour for the donkeys to eat, so the humans would have had to get an hour earlier than the unearthly hour they had to get up at anyway.......!!  

The ones that went to Tucson, will be distracted by the trip and once they get there they will have lots of attention to keep them distracted from the fact that they didn't really get breakfast.  That leaves the 14 here with no distractions. 

Tyler is coming in about an hour to work on feet, and after he gets done I'll let them out, and they will probably just wander off and self feed for the day.  But in the meantime, they are letting me know that the routine schedule isn't being followed...... loudly......!! LOL

This is Rambo's first outing practicing as a racing burro.  Linda said he did really well, and in the video he looks like he knows what he's doing.  The swelling where he was kicked is going down and almost gone.  So far no new wounds, so hopefully he's fitting in with the herd.  

A couple of ladies came out last week to visit the donkeys.  This week they came back just to drop off a big jar of animal crackers for the kids with a nice note.  This is the GOOD animal crackers.... LOL   We usually just get the ones at Walmart.

Some of Linda's recent pictures.....

Cisco and Big Gus look like "brothers from another mother" except Big Gus is a lot bigger than Cisco

 
 

John handing out treat to the boys.  You can tell the difference in size in this picture.

Mr Jasper has thinned down some, still has pones on his side, but they are getting smaller.  And his feet don't seem to bother him as much.  Too bad we didn't get a chance to help his mother.

 

Turbo and his "shadow" Link.......Link was in the trailer for the outing today.  This will be his first time out in public.  He's become quite the ham when people come out on tours, so I'm sure he'll have a good time.

Lynn, Linda and the 4 dogs will be headed for California this week to sell Christmas trees.  From the stories they've told, they are busy from the time they get there until the time they leave.  It's a lot of work, but they are really good at multi-tasking and seem to handle it well. 

NEVER THOUGHT I'D SAY THIS BUT.........POOR RAMBO......!!

After all our worries about him being a bully and hurting someone, guess who is getting beat up.  He has hair missing in 2 or 3 spots and a big bulge on the front of his chest, where someone has really kicked him good.  As far as I know he hasn't been aggressive with any of the geldings, although he and Penny his next door neighbor in the pens seem to have a thing going..........!!!  Usually after a couple of days of a new gelding coming on the property, the girls give up trying to entice him  NOT PENNY.........she's determined.........LOL  And he's more than willing to play the game, although I don't think they are an item when they are out of the pens, just when they are penned side by side.  

There might be one less donkeys for the race Saturday, Pepsi is limping around today.  He reacted when John squeezed his leg above his knee, which is a weird place to react, usually it's the hoof or fetlock.  Hopefully it will be OK by Saturday morning and he'll get to go, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to miss out on all the fun, especially since Justin and the 2 mini girls are going.  I think the last I heard there are 33 people signed up to run with the donkeys, so most of them will probably run 2 or 3 times.  It was suppose to be 5K, which is a little longer than 3 miles, but Lynn and Linda checked out the trail and it's about 2 miles to a bridge.  Bridges can be a deal buster, if the donkeys haven't trained for them.   About half of them know bridges, the others would probably balk big time.........so in the interest of camaraderie and feeling good about the outing, it probably will be better to turn around at the bridge and have a shorter race.

This afternoon Lynn and Linda took some of the donkeys that haven't been out for short runs.  Lynn has been itching to play with Rambo, so out he went, and he seemed to think running is fun.  BUT he is NOT going Saturday, he's still too much of an unknown entity, and besides Tyler is coming Saturday morning to reset Gus' shoes and trim Big Gus and Rambo.  They've been getting bleach put on their feet every day, for days, but Tyler will use a knife and dig around and will probably find areas of thrush that have been hiding.

This is what Boaz looked like yesterday morning.  Linda got him all cleaned up and it was one little cactus spine, must have went into a vein, poor guy.


Yesterday Lynn and Linda helped our neighbor mend some fence way out in the boonies.  It's in pretty rough country and vehicles can't get there.  So Leo and Loki "volunteered" their services.   That was the 1st time either of them had done real packing and I guess they did really good. 

You can see from the pictures their loads were a little weird.

Loki was carrying T-posts

 

Inside that piece of carpet is a chain saw

Leo with Linda strutting his stuff

 

I'm sure all that metal stuff was noisy, but Loki didn't seem to mind

 

Loki helping Jorja eat her peanut butter and jelly sandwich

Leo and Loki were turned loose and they stayed close

GETTING READY FOR THE RUNNING SHOP ADVENTURE NEXT SATURDAY

Lynn, Linda and John  are going to try to take 13 donkeys to the 5K run Saturday in two trailers.  I have a feeling the donkeys are going to really be popular.  They have over 20 people wanting to run with the donkeys and over 60 people interested.  To add to the fun and adventure, some of the donkeys have only been out once or twice on a lead running, so this will all be a new experience for them.  

Some of them have not loaded in a trailer but a couple of times, one being Levi.  His momma loads with no drama.  When John picked them up to bring Levi out here, John said if the man hadn't got home from work, he'd probably still be there.  LOL

                                   Here was his first "training" session with Lynn and Linda a couple of days ago.  

NOPE NOT WHAT I HAD PLANNED TODAY!

NOPE..... NOT DOING IT.  If you notice his fanny is flat on the ground. He pulled that stunt when John tried to load him too. 

DO I HAVE TO.........??

WASN'T MY IDEA, BUT MOM WAS ALREADY IN SO I GUESS IT'S OK

This session was about 20 minutes I think Linda said.  Yesterday was about 10 minutes.  Today, she asked Lynn what time it was and Levi loaded himself almost before she got an answer.  

He is one of the ones going that hasn't had much training.  This is going to either be a lot of fun, or an adventure, can't wait to find out which......!!! LOL

I am so proud of Rambo, I don't know what to say.  He seems to have integrated into the herd.  Most of the trouble has been from the other boys, kicking and laying their ears back.  He's been backing up when they do that.  Yesterday the "herd" went by Linda and she said he was in the middle of it.  Last night he got to go out with the herd at bedtime and no one came in this morning with body parts bloodied or missing, so he's out with the herd today.  He did do a screaming fit at one of the other boys, when he was still in his pen and Linda was there to yell at him and smack him a couple of times.  But he seems to have settled down a lot and wanting to be part of the herd.  YIPPEE.......!!!

This is BlackJack, Lynn and Big Gus.  For some reason when they aren't close to each other BJ looks smaller than BG, here they look about the same size.  Both of them probably have some French Poitou blood in them. 

STAYING BUSY...........!!!

 It's not as busy around here as it is going to get by the end of the month.  Lynn and Linda will be headed for California later this month and will be gone until a couple of days after Christmas.  Doug will be moving out the end of November, so it will be just John and I for awhile.  Everyone is worried that we can't do it, but we've done it before.  Granted we were younger and less beat up, but it will kinda be fun to get back to doing it ourselves, we'll have more time with the donkeys.  And our neighbor Jorja picks up poo 4 days a week, so we won't have to do that every day. 
    
Of course the donkeys will miss out on race training with Lynn and Linda.  They've taken just about everyone out except the ones with leg or feet issues.  Next week-end they will be participating in a 5K fun run with The Running Shop in Tucson.  I will be staying home because Tyler is coming to do feet, I didn't want to put off getting Rambo and Big Gus' feet taken care of, besides I wouldn't be much help anyway, with my little friend, "Bracey". 

 

  John is going and will set up a petting pen, for after the run.  The Running Shop is really interested in combining a future race with the burros, so this is a way of getting people interested in the idea.

Rambo has been out and about with the herd the last couple of mornings for an hour or so.  So far there has been a lot of chasing and yelling and kicking and not by him.....!! LOL  The girls are behaving like sluts although all Tula wants is to be left alone.  Some of the geldings seem to think Rambo needs to be put in his place.  Turbo, mini Justin, Casper the mini mule and I'm not sure who else are being very mean to him and he's taking it, so far no attacking on his part.  He could squash the minis by stepping on them, but they don't seem to see the problem....!!

We haven't left him without supervision yet, although that's the only way the herd dynamics will change to a routine.  Letting him out for awhile, just makes the next time he's out a new learning experience. 

I've been trying to add a video of little Levi's fat pockets bouncing along as he was out for a run, but haven't been able to get it downloaded.  

Finally, got it.  This is Levi on his 1st outing.

Buddy Brat on his 1st run, they both did really good as far as I know neither of them have ever ran on a lead.

Here's a couple of pictures Linda took recently around here.

This is one of the roadrunners coming back to check their nest.  We read that they come back and use the same nest next year, so maybe he was just checking to see how it was doing. 

John with a praying mantis.  We usually don't see them in the summer, but in the fall we see quite a few. I don't think they survive the cold weather.

RAMBO'S NOT A STUD, JUST RUDE.......!!!

Blood work came back with testosterone at gelding levels for Rambo, so no excuse for his bullying behavior except lack of manners. He's still getting out for an hour or so in the morning, while the others are eating.  This morning, he was wooing Tula and trying to fight with Loki Joe thru the corral panels.  

As of this morning, the plan of attack is, whenever he is acting like a jerk, whoever can get to him, will threaten to kill him for about 3 seconds.  He's actually good with people, picks up all 4 feet to clean them, and is fairly co-operative in a pushy sort of way, so he's not dangerous or anything like that.

John and I talked about using the bb gun to pop him on the butt and we still might do that if we can't get him to show some manners.  But for now we'll just divert his attention when he's being a bully. 

Big Gus isn't a problem, he goes around and visits with the others, this morning he and Casper were trying to bite each other thru the panels.  Casper does not know he is small.  

Big Gus does know where the feed room is and has no problem getting on the porch, sticking his head in the dutch door and waiting for something to happen.  

We've talked about letting Rambo out in the morning with all the donkeys, it's probably going to be a disaster, he's been easy to get back in his pen, so hopefully if it goes bad, there will be enough people to distract him and get him back in the pen.  

I finally figured out how to find Linda's pictures and videos with the new computer, I was getting behind on sharing.  The ones of Bella's proud flesh removal are a little raw, but it's interesting from the point of view that she had a happy shot and that's all, no deadening of the area.  Proud flesh has no nerve source, so as long as there is no cutting into healthy tissue, she just stood there and bled.  Proud flesh has a healthy blood supply, which is probably why it can double in size overnight sometimes.  

 

  
Poor girl had 2 places, one on each side of her hind legs, have no idea why.  They are gone now but unfortunately proud flesh has a high return rate, so we may be fighting it for awhile.  

Thanks for the pictures Linda..!!

RAMBO IS APTLY NAMED........

When Rambo was here years ago, he was not very disciplined.  He was hard on the boys and chased the girls, so I found a foster home for him with gelding horses and Big Gus.  They appreciated his quirky nature and adopted him.  

Fast forward about 6 years and he's back...!!  I have a feeling if we were letting him out with the other donkeys he would still  be "hard on the boys and chasing the girls".......!!!  He's very vocal and very aggressive with the corral panels, Lynn has been putting in T-posts to keep hm from pushing them around and possibly knocking them over.  Donkeys are usually not fence challengers, so our fences and pens aren't very sturdy, at least by his standards.  

Rosie and Rambo seem to have quite a thing for each other.  Linda has been letting him out for an hour or so in the morning after hay is put out for everyone else, to give him a chance to run off some of his high energy.  We aren't brave enough to let him out with the herd yet.  He spends quite a bit of time by Rosie's pen, and she is more than willing to play the game. 

 

John said we should change her name to Violet.  When he was in the Air Force he worked in electronics on the aircraft, and they had a saying to remember the color bands on the  capacitors and resisters and he's never forgotten it.  "Bad boys rape our young girls, but Violet gives willingly"  The first letter of each word, designates a color.  Not very politically correct in this day and age, but very memorable to young men in the military, I guess.  Sounds like Rosie, if she could get out of the pen.......LOL 

Dr. Jeremy was out a couple of days ago to check out the 4 new ones, and see if Linda needed to do anything else for Boaz.  He's been getting better after a summer of his shoulder, chest and sheath being doctored daily and the cooler weather is helping, but he's still not healed.  Dr. Jeremy thinks he is healed enough to not doctor for a few days to see how he does, so that's what Linda is doing now.  

He also checked Bella's eyes.  One morning when everyone went out for morning chores this is what her eyes looked like.  They looked much better when Dr. Jeremy was here, and he told Linda to continue with what she was doing.  Actually Linda said this was after she had already been doctoring Bella a day or so. 

Linda said she is a joy to work with, she puts her head on Linda's shoulder to get antibiotic squeezed in her eye.   Her and Levi are really nice well behaved donkeys.

Dr. Jeremy also cut both of her areas of proud flesh off.  Linda took pictures of the surgery, but hasn't downloaded them yet.  Both areas were on a stem, rather than being close to the body, and we talked about using a goat castration ring to cut off the blood supply, so the proud flesh would eventually fall off.  Cutting them off will be quicker and hopefully we can keep them from growing back.  Proud flesh can really be hard to get rid of unfortunately.

Rambo had blood drawn to check his testosterone level.  We need to find out if he has been proud cut, or if he is just undisciplined.  Undisciplined would be a training problem, proud cut would entail hauling him to the clinic in Gilbert for corrective surgery of a partial gelding in his past.  I'm sure that type of surgery is not easy.

Years ago I was told that Big Gus had a heart murmur.  Dr. Jeremy checked his heart and said he has PDA, which I've never heard of.  It doesn't bother him, although it might if he worked hard.  As far as I know he has never been anything except a pet or companion.

Then he looked at their nasty feet.............good news.......!!  He didn't find any canker, the crumbly popcorn like stuff was probably overgrown sole, there's about an inch of old dead sole on Big Gus' front feet.  John and Lynn spread new gravel in his pen yesterday, Dr. Jeremy thought it might help to break up the sole, so it can fall off on itr's own.  Tyler is coming the 17th, but in the meantime, their feet are getting sprayed with bleach water every day to hold the thrush at bay.  Tyler will go in and trim their feet, but in the meantime we don't want them to get worse.  They don't smell like they did and Big Gus isn't limping and laying down like he was thank goodness.

Me, I'm still in a relationship with my brace and walker, still not helping with chores.  Not ready to take a chance on getting knocked down.

WOW.........WE'RE HAVING FUN NOW.........!!!

It's been interesting around here the last couple of days.  We took Don and Bill to their new home a couple of days ago.  They had been boarding here for almost 2 years while their family built a new home and it finally got finished.

This is the boys checking out their new pen.  You might notice there isn't a thing in it to eat, so they will only have access to whatever Ginger feeds them.  They may end up losing some weight after all......!!!  LOL  For right now they are in a pretty good sized pen area, and the long term plan is to fence in the acreage and let them have the run of 2 or 3 acres, I forgot how many acres they have. 

On the way home we picked up Big Gus aka B.G. and Rambo aka Beau from the rescue where their owner left them, rather than returning them to us as the adoption contract required.  We noticed a lot of flies on B.G's front legs and a couple of sores.  He also smelled really bad, so we got them in the trailer and headed home.

Lynn and Linda worked with them yesterday, checking their feet and both of them have pretty bad thrush and B.G. also seems to have canker.  I have never even seen a case of canker. It's one of those diseases that has almost been wiped out, in modern times, by good hygiene. 

I got in touch with Tyler and he will come out as soon as he gets a chance to see what can be done for the boys.  It will probably be a long term project.  B.G. is limping pretty bad on his left front, which is where they saw the canker goop.  Thrush usually isn't crippling, but from what I've read canker is. 

We knew from when B.G. was here before he is a gate opener, found out yesterday that Beau also has the touch.  He was out and about, being chased by little Justin.  Justin better be careful, Beau can be a handful.  John and Linda got him in BlackJack's pen and Linda put a halter on him and led him back to his pen.  She said she could feel the strength in him, just in that short walk.

Dr. Jeremy is coming out as soon as he gets a chance to check out the new kids and a couple of other ones, like Boaz that is still having problems with summer sores even though the nights are getting down in the low 40s.  While he is here, I'm going to see if he can run a testosterone test on Boaz to see if he in fact a gelding, rather than a proud cut jack.  His behavior seems aggressive for a donkey gelding.  If his testosterone level is higher than it should be, I don't know if anything could be done to fix the problem. 

Found out tonight Lynn caught Casper outside the fence a few days ago.  Lynn said he called to Casper and he came back inside the fence.  So we don't know if the little devil is sneaking out on a regular basis or not.  He does seem to be a free independent spirit........!!!  LOL

Lately when Casper gets out of his pen, he usually goes over by Loki Joe's pen and waits for him to get out.  So I assumed they had become "buds"..........guess not, at least I don't think Loki is capable of going under the fence like Casper does. 

This is Justin, Leddy and Leo, telling Lynn how hungry they are at the feed room door.  This was the first day I went out with the donkeys.  They wouldn't hurt me on purpose, but with my leg tied up in the brace, I couldn't move fast enough to get out of their way.  You can tell I have no treats, but they are pretty sure Lynn has some, it's just a matter of getting him to let go of them.........!!!  I was pretty safe sitting on the bench and they know I don't usually carry treats, so they pretty much ignored me.......!!