Never dull around here, unfortunately

This morning John noticed Cisco wasn't eating and had clear mucus or saliva coming out of his nose.  He hadn't even tried to eat, and wasn't retching like they usually do with a choke.  So we watched him for awhile and nothing changed.  

Dr. Nancy doesn't work on Thursday.  I called Dr. Shamis and he is having issues with his 95 year old Mother and couldn't help today.  I told John I was trumped by a 95 year old, my Mother is only 90. 

Called Adobe Vet Clinic in Tucson and they said bring him in.  Anna got here to stay with Mother, we got him loaded and away we went.  Spent the whole afternoon there, she tubed him 3 times before she felt comfortable having us take him home.  At one time she was talking about taking him to Gilbert if it wouldn't clear.  

So now he has to be on antibiotics for a week, Banamine for 3 days, and no food for 48 hours.  We didn't get home until after dark and poor Cisco got to see everyone else get fed except him.  He let John know this wasn't right.  Wait until tomorrow morning and night, and Saturday morning.  

This was right down at the top of the stomach and she said he probably choked last night because he had hay mixed in the liquid he was bringing up and he didn't eat this morning.  That means the hay at the bottom of the choke, probably dried out over the 10 hours or so before this morning and made a very effective plug.  

We're still on for take Sephia into Dr. Nancy's tomorrow morning for x-rays and Tyler to work on those nasty feet.  I sure hope there's some good feet under all that over growth.  

Poor Anna, doesn't know what she's in for...........LOL  She may end up spending more time with Mother than I do for the foreseeable future. 

TODAY DID "NOT" GO AS PLANNED........!!!!

In my last post I said we were going to be doing the garage sale at my Mother's house today. 

We got up at 4am to get everyone fed & doctored, so we could get to town by "showtime", 8am.  

John started rounding up while I got the pans ready.  Found everyone..........except Pepper.  Started looking for him & finally found him laying in the wash.  Usually when we find him down on his bad side, we flip him over & he either sits on his breast bone a few minutes & pops up or pops up immediately.  This time he seemed exhausted, disorientated & perhaps at the end of the road.  Of course it's a week-end, & we have no emergency vet services in Cochise county.  I called the local vet & if she doesn't call you back in 20 minutes that means she isn't available, & suggests calling Dr. Shamis in Tucson.  WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO..........???  

One of the neighbor's came over to help, & we finally decided to try to get him up on a piece of plywood & drag him out of the wash with the tractor.  Of course all this time we are watching it get closer & closer to when we would have to leave in order to get to the garage sale.  

While John was getting the plywood & tractor I went in the house to call Michelle a friend that was going to help with the sale.  She lives in Benson, & I asked if she would go by Mother's house & put a "postpone until tomorrow" sign on the garage door.  When I went back out John said Pepper was up.  Sure enough he was standing on the bank of the wash, looking confused.  Took off at a fast walk headed for the waterer, went right past it, stopped & just looked around like he didn't know where he was.  

We finally got him into his pen, he was still acting like he was in pain & confused.  I went back to doctoring etc, & watching him.  All of a sudden he laid down & stretched out.  I thought this might be it, went in the house to try to call the vet again.  John comes in, says he's up & eating hay....................WHAT.....??????  Kept an eye on him the rest of the day & whatever was wrong this morning seemed to be over & done with.  He almost acted like colic, but not really, & even tried stretching his neck like they do when they choke.  He's choked in the past, but I really don't think that was what it was.  

I have no idea what was wrong with him, he's over 35 years old, so it could be just about anything. 

So tomorrow morning we get to do it all over again, hopefully without the Pepper adventure.  Really looking forward to getting up at 4am.............NOT.......!!!!

Pancho Villa

We've been really busy the last couple of days.  We took Boaz into the vet yesterday to have his leg re-evaluated.  Nancy said it looked good, but needed some more cleaning up, so hopefully the skin can cover the area.  This time she just used a local & he did just fine.  

On the way home we stopped for a quick lunch.  A couple from Wisconsin came over to see Boaz & we visited for quite some time.  This happens quite often when we are hauling donkeys, people seem to be drawn to them.  He was a good boy & showed them how wonderful donkeys can be.  They said they might come out & see all the donkeys sometime this month, before they head back to Wisconsin.  

Courtney came out yesterday to check feet, especially Jenny & Bijou.  She agreed Jenny's foot seems to be a little better, doesn't smell as bad, still draining which I hope is a good thing.  Last night Jenny absolutely refused to eat or drink.  That antibiotic is really a rough one I guess.  I called Dr. Shamis this morning & he said to discontinue it that it's probably killed all the good bugs in her system.  He thought cultured yogurt would be good to try........SIGH!  So I hopped in the van & headed for Sierra Vista.  Checked at the one health food store, nope...........but..........  they have a Farmer's Market on Thur.  Found it, saw an old friend I hadn't seen in years, & found some yogurt........!!!  Cool.....!!

On the way home I stopped at the feed store & got some pro-biotics, just in case.  Good thing because I think she hates the yogurt as much as she does the antibiotics.  John looked like he had been in a yogurt storm by the time she got thru shaking her head with her mouth open.  And I put applesauce in it to try to make it tasty.  Frankly my opinion of yogurt is about the same as hers..............not real food.  So I used the back up from the feed store.  Tonight she was picking at her hay, so hopefully we're on the right track.  

Courtney agreed that Bijou needs to be on soft ground, which we don't have.  Wish I could find someone with soft ground, that would like to have a cute little guy with bad feet & a sweet disposition.  He has to stay in boots here.  

When I was getting ready to go to Sierra Vista, Justin & Tucker were sparing out by the driveway.  I came in the house to get the camera, went out & of course they quit.  They are about the same size, although Justin weighs more.  I'm glad Tucker has someone to play with & learn donkey manners.  Justin loves to do guy wrestling with just about anybody that will play with him.   

 A REAL COWBOY HAS NO FEAR

Courtney is suppose to come today to trim everyone else.  Boaz seems to be doing just fine, doesn't seem to be sore or anything.  Donkeys are some of the toughest animals on the planet I think.  His feet sure look a lot better than they did, I hope they will grow out good & no more cracks.  

Chantilly has taken up with the "jenny" herd led by Miss Tula, & doesn't seem to miss Zorro at all.  I'm glad she is finding a niche, she is so shy I was afraid without Zorro she might go off in a corner somewhere.  But she seems to be doing just fine.  

Tucker will be 5 months old the 6th of Feb & has started challenging Boaz, when Boaz brays.  I don't know what he is saying, but he better be careful, one of these days he'll be out of the pen, (I hope) so he better not be telling Boaz he's going to whip his ass.....!!! LOL

We're thinking about getting in touch with Dr. Shamis about Tucker.  It would be closer than taking him to the Equine Clinic in Gilbert & he's been to their clinic twice, so they know him.  If he checks out OK, we want to leave him for a couple of days to see if he can eat hay without choking.  That way if he does choke, he's where they can work with him.  Out here we don't have access to emergency vet care like we did before our mobile vet left last month.  Still talking about it.  I had been putting it off, hoping that he would drop & we could have him gelded at the same time.  But so far his little "purse" is empty, absolutely nothing in it.  SIGH!