Yesterday I told John I needed to go to Tucson & try to find the formula for Skeeke.  Since it was Sunday I called around to different pet stores & was amazed that they had it.  Guess just because I haven't heard of it, doesn't mean it isn't available.  

The 1st store I went to only had it in a very large can & it isn't cheap.  So I decided to try another store & did find a smaller container.  He's just a little bitty squirrel, it would take a lot of squirrels to use that much.  

Got it home mixed it up & he turned his nose up at it.....!!!!  Ungrateful little beastie, tried him again before bed, & he just turned his head away.  After I went to bed I came up with a brilliant idea.  When I carefully measured out the powder it was packed in the spoon.  I had noticed it was rather thick, much thicker than Mother's milk would be.  So I got out of bed, made a new batch, after fluffing up the powder before measuring.  Seemed to make all the difference, he's eating it just fine now.  According to the information I got off the internet regular tree squirrels will eat formula to the age of 10 weeks, don't know about rock squirrels, but would imagine it's about the same.  Using the chart for tree squirrels, he seems to be about 6 weeks old. 

I e-mailed the Arizona Desert Museum to see if they could help.  Got back an e-mail 2 days later, telling me it's illegal to keep a wild animal, to turn it over to a wildlife rehabilitator.  Great idea, unfortunately the rehabilitator didn't call back, so we'll just press on like we know what we're doing.  

He's a little watermelon freak, loves the stuff.  Cucumber, a big no, carrot on a scale of 1 to 10, maybe a 4.  Necterine, mmmm  not a biggie.  Soaked dry cat food, pretty good.  I'm not sure if cat food is OK, so not feeding it anymore.

We got up early this morning to feed & hit the road to Gilbert.  Linda & John got here with Chester, just as we got thru feeding, so we loaded him, got Jenny loaded, &  hit the road.

They made the trip just fine, so did Skeeke had to take him so I could feed him every 4 hours.  They thought Jenny is doing just fine.  Dr. Voss cut off some of the excess hoof & rebandaged her foot.  I was anxious to see how the "real" experts do the bandaging, found out not much different than I do, although I did pick up a couple of good ideas.  They were quite impressed with our Gorilla Tape, as opposed to duct tape to make a boot for the bottom of her foot, although they did agree that it's harder to work with & much stickier.  I try to not let it get too hot, but I think it was probably 110 up there this afternoon, so it was pretty sticky.  

Dr. Voss trimming Jenny's foot, not sure what John is doing

The main thing we have to look for is the square opening in the front of her hoof collapsing as the hoof grows out.  If that happens we'll have to take her back up for them to put a metal bridge across the opening to stabilize it. 

Then it was Chester's turn.  About 5-6 years ago he had surgery on an infection in his elbow area.  Linda wanted to know what the problem was since he's started limping lately.  They x-rayed & found osteoarthritis with some bone spurring going on.  Recommended a good joint supplement.  Might have to try a few before finding the best one for him.  But Linda is a "helicopter Mom", so she'll keep looking until she finds what works for him.

Haven't heard how Mocha & Tucker are doing, guess I'll call tomorrow.  

GREAT NEWS.........!!!

Here is a picture I was beginning to think I would never see, Jenny actually standing on her own 4 feet.  

Dr. Voss called late this afternoon & said he really didn't want to put her in a sling, & listed a long list of reasons, which all sounded logical to me.  

So a group of them went out with the idea that she was going to get up one way or another.  He apologized for having to use a HotShot on her, but if that's what it took I can live with it.  He said as soon as she got on her feet she tried to kick them, so I assume she didn't think much of the HotShot.  

He said she was out walking around, so hopefully she'll be up in the morning & will stay up. 

Her foot is doing very well, so once she is steady on her feet, we should be able to go pick her up.  Keep your fingers crossed...........!!!!

Courtney & Martha came out today & trimmed & massaged.  Martha worked on Gus, Pepper & Frijolita.  Gus almost fell asleep & Pepper almost fell over.  Martha has worked on Pepper before & she said this is the first time she thought he really enjoyed it.  Always before he was so thin he was just skin & bones.  Now that he has a little meat on his bones she has something to work with & I guess he appreciated it.  

Courtney trimmed on 9 of them.  I'm anxious to see how Gus is doing in the morning.  He's been walking real good since he came back from Claire's, so hopefully getting trimmed won't mess him up.  

Boaz got trimmed again.  His front feet had bad crevices in them, but they seem to be growing out OK from the coronet now.  Hopefully with regular trimming his feet will grow out healthy.  I'm finally making some progress on his proud flesh place.  It's getting healthy pink tissue around the edges, which eventually should make it get smaller & smaller.  I'll try to get a picture tomorrow when I change the bandage if I think of it. 

I was really proud of Mocha.  She had never stood to be trimmed before without a lot of effort on the part of 2 or 3 people.   Today she stood like she knew what she was doing.  Of course stuffing animal crackers in her mouth helped.  Tucker was a good boy too, guess he saw momma stand & decided he could too. 

Finally talked to Dr. Voss this morning.  Their schedule to makes calls seems to be when I am out feeding.  So it had been 2-3 days since we had really talked, rather than leaving messages.  

Jenny's still down, still getting stronger, but is weak enough in the rear legs that she can't make the final rotation to get all the way up. I asked if her rear legs were working OK & he said they work just fine to kick real fast when she wants to.  He said they had thought about maybe her neck or back being injured while she was under anesthetic.  They shackle their pasterns & literally haul them up in the air with chains to move them around.  Someone usually carries the head, but stuff happens sometimes.  He said no, her head & neck are working very well.  In other words she's using her head as a weapon, which is an old trick of hers, I warned them about.

Her muscle enzymes are coming down, white blood count a little high, possibly from stress of trying to get up.  We talked about things that never happen that might have happened, such as botulism.  He said her foot was a cess pool, who knows what was in there.

She's always in shade, they are turning her side to side several times a day.  He said when she sees someone she starts trying to get up.  She's eating & drinking good, kidneys are working well.  Some problems with muscles release "Yuckies" (that's a technical term) into the bloodstream that ends up in the kidneys.  If the kidneys get clogged from too much trash, it can cause renal failure.  But he said everything looks good.

So we are still on Wait & Watch.  When she does get up, I don't know how long it would be before she could travel, so this epic isn't going to be over anytime soon I guess.  SIGH!

Everyone else seems to be doing good.  Tucker hasn't even acted like anything happened.  Yesterday I was looking out the window & most of the donkeys were within sight.  Tucker was roaming around almost by himself with Mocha in sight of course.  He walked over to where old Pepper was standing & they smelled noses for awhile.  Maybe he thinks Pepper's his grandpa..!!! 

Heard from Dr. Voss this afternoon about Jenny.  She is still down, he says she just acts like she's weak.  He said he really didn't want to put her into a sling, I guess it pushes on their bodies in areas that make them uncomfortable.  So they planned on triple folding a canvas & literally carrying her outside to a small grassy area & leaving her there overnight to see if she will be happier outside.  She has let them know she does not like being in "donkey incarceration" as Dr. Voss said. 

She has been on Baytril since last Thursday.  He said there is research showing muscle weakness in people that have been on Baytril, but nothing that he knows of on equine.  But just in case they quit giving it to her.

 Well it looks like Tucker will be going up to the Equine Clinic at Gilbert next Monday to be scoped.  Dr. Voss just called & said he can do newborns, so Tucker shouldn't be a problem.  He said they can also do a barium swallow to make sure he doesn't have any pockets or areas that aren't right that could trap hay.  Whew!  this little guy is going to end up gold plated I think....!!! (G) 

This is what Boaz's knee looked like when he came here in January.

This is what it looks like after surgery.  We hope the proud flesh can be controlled long enough for it to heal.  It will always be scar tissue & probably will skin easy when he lays down, but at least it won't be an open blob flopping around on his leg.