ON WATCH

When they get 36 years old, it becomes "watch and worry".  This morning when John and Doug went out to attempt to entice reluctant equine to their pens to have breakfast, Rusty wasn't interested in a cookie and found a shady place to lay down in one of the pens. Not taking a cookie is always a sign that something isn't right.  

Checked him for gut sounds and the ones he had were very quiet.  So I came in and got my "go to" colic fix. Rusty is always fun to medicate, it has to be official (halter and lead) and even then he throws his head and acts like you are trying to cram acid down his throat.  We got most of it down him and when I came in to clean the sticky stuff off my hands and change clothes, John said he poo'ed and also pooted, which is a good thing.  But when it's all said and done I don't think that's the only problem.  His vitals are fairly normal, although he is breathing a little heavy.  I did notice his gums are not very pink, which could mean he's not getting as much oxygen as he should, as in, possible heart condition.

He wanted out of his pen, and when we let him out he found a shady spot and laid down.  We took him a bucket of water.  It's been so hot lately, dehydration can become a problem real quick.  John took the bucket over close to him, he jumped up and walked off, didn't even look at the water.  Just now John came in and said he had come up behind the hay barn, yelling for Reba.

My WAG (Wild Ass Guess) is mild colic at age 36 and a possible on going heart age related problem we don't know about.  I guess I will be monitoring his gums to see if there is any change.  John was going to check Reba's gums to see what they looked like, but she's as bad if not worse than Rusty about being cooperative.  Dehydration is my big worry.

Courtney came yesterday to work on Gus.  Right now a lot of the donkeys are having feet problems, too much rain and too much humidity.  For those that have lousy feet anyway, it gets real dicey.  He lost one of his epoxy "soles" and started slowing down.  She tried something different this time.  Besides the epoxy on both front feet, she also wrapped his feet in a mesh web that looked a lot like my casts when I abused my thumb, wrist and hand.  She dumped a roll of the stuff in a bucket of water and wrapped  both front feet with the wet wrap.  When it dried she could shape it if needed with her rotary sander, it is really hard.  Hopefully it will give his feet some support, because the bottom 1/3 of his hoof certainly isn't.

Tyler had been here a few days earlier to work on the uncooperative ones, like Gigi, and Penny.  Both of those girls have nasty feet.  Both of them were probably crippled from birth and haven't been handled much, if at all.  Needless to say they can be nasty, although Gigi is improving with the passage of time.  She hasn't tried to kick Tyler recently.  The last time he did Penny she missed his head by about an inch.  Tyler always has a helper with him, Courtney works by herself, so Tyler gets the fun ones.  He really didn't think we could save Gigi, and is quite impressed with how much she has improved.  She will always have to be trimmed regularly and she will always be crippled, but she gets around just fine. 

PEPPER IS GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME.........!!!!

When John went out to let them out at bedtime, he came back & said something was wrong with Pepper.  Went out to check him over.  He was very restless, probably in pain, had gut sounds on both sides.  Tried to lay down a couple of times & I found out why he ends up on his right side.  If he does try to lay down, because his left side is stronger than the right side, the right side goes down first, so he ends up laying on his right whether he wants to or not.  

We watched him for awhile & I decided to give him a colic remedy I've used in the past 3 or 4 times with good results.  Even though he's usually "difficult" to work with he was more than willing to swallow all of it.  It smells good enough to drink, guess it tastes good.  We watched him for awhile & it didn't take very long for him to act more comfortable.  John said he'd get up & check on him in a couple of hours.  I told him if Pepper was acting normal to go ahead & let him out of the pen.  John went out about 1AM, came back in & said Pepper was trying to plow thru the gate & John at the same time, so he let the old buzzard out........!!!

This morning he was, as usual, obnoxious & opinionated, although he left a little more of his breakfast than usual.  Whew, I hope he's just going thru a stage.  It seems like he will go along for weeks without having any problems & then we get to spend a lot of time, looking for him, getting him up & whatever else he can come up with.  The ears are still up & perky, so life goes on I guess.