HABRONEMA ARE ALIVE AND WELL........!!

This is the side of Boaz's mouth and what I am battling.  It's always amazing to me the equine people I talk to that have never even heard of habronema, let alone had to deal with the little "darlings".  Each one of those white spots is a larvae, pretty much dead at this stage from being slathered with Ivermectin.  Once you dig out the ones showing, there are usually others behind them.  There are 3 other places just out of sight, that are pretty much cleaned out and are healing.  But this one being where it is located is a real problem.  

He's really good about letting me dig around with blunt tweezers, unless I get too energetic.  Heard back from Renee at Colorful Equine.  We've got to coordinate what I want, but she's willing to make the masks.  

This morning I looked at Cisco's face right below his fly mask and it looked like a rubbed spot.  Sure enough, for the 1st time in years flies have gotten underneath his mask and obviously had some little hitchhikers. I saw at least 4 larvae right up under his eye even though John's been leaving his mask on 24/7.  I put Ivermectin on the area, so they should be dead by this afternoon and I can dig them out.  If they are alive, they must have teeth, claws or something, because they hang on and are almost impossible to get out.  When we rescued him about 14 years ago, both sides of his face were bloody to the bone from eye to mouth, really nasty.  He's such a gentle guy, but he will rub on you if he itches.  John said he had been rubbing his face on John's leg the last few days.  John didn't realize, Cisco was trying to tell him something.  When he rubs on me, or stands in front of me and hikes his back leg, I know he's got an itchy spot.  

Everyone else seems to be doing pretty good, although the flies are worse than usual.  It's really dry and although the weatherman keeps saying it "might" rain, we don't pay much attention to him.......!!!

IT'S GOING TO BE A LONG SUMMER, I'M AFRAID.........!!!!

IF YOU LIKE WIND, TODAY IS A GREAT DAY......!!!!

I think California is headed for New Mexico today.  I don't know how hard the wind is blowing, but it is really nasty, reminds me of Iceland.  The wind blew there constantly, which in the winter was really interesting.  Only place I ever was, that you could have a snowstorm and when you looked out the window, the snow was blowing straight up.  

I'm still fighting the good fight with Boaz's habronema in the corner of his mouth.  One good thing, almost all the ones I'm getting out now are huge, a large as a piece of rice.  So my assumption is, there isn't a lot of re-infestation, although the flies are hanging around.  I'm putting Invermectin on twice a day, so if they do drop some eggs, hopefully the eggs won't survive.  I've e-mailed Renee at Colorful Equine to see if she can make me a couple of long nosed crusader masks for him to wear.  Her usual long masks wouldn't cover where he has sores. 

I have noticed that Quilla's hair was starting to get matted in his arm pits and down his legs.  So has Coquette and BlackJack.  They all have fine fluffy hair and I've always had to watch BJ's arm pits, because if you don't get to them, they will wad up against the skin and can cause sores.  

I decided that Quilla probably needed to be body clipped, so I got out my toys this morning.  To show you how neglected these poor guys get, although I look them over on a daily basis, I obviously don't touch their bodies enough.  Usually as I walk by, if someone looks like they need a scratch, it's on the face or neck.  

Got all the stuff out, John brought the extension cord down from the garage for the clippers, got my animal crackers, tied up my victim and was ready to go.  Decided to brush some of the dirt out of his hair, to hopefully make my clipper blade last a little longer.  One swipe with the brush, I went to a curry comb and boy did the hair start flying, literally, remember the wind discussion in paragraph one?  You certainly didn't want to be downwind.....!!!! LOL  He just needs a good currying.  So I handed John a curry comb, he did one side I did the other.  Even all the mats came out, without a lot of drama.  

We are going to "try" to curry someone every morning, unless things get too crazy.  At least we can do BJ and Coquette and maybe work on those 3 for awhile since they all have a problem with mats.  We'll see how long this idea lasts........!!!

I DON'T LIKE THE NEW TRACK.....!!

And I am not alone, heard a lot of grumbling, especially when they saw the banking.  We also can't just come back on the track if we go off.  There is only one spot we can come back on.  I tried it out once, unfortunately................LOL  Wasn't impressed, tried my best not to do it again.   Quite a bit of what might be called "aggressive" driving, from people not passing clean.  There is a bad groove in the track coming out of turn #4, right where your right rear tire needs to be.  I hope they get that fixed, it really sent you bouncing.  If you go high you might run off the track, if you go low you might hit one of the tires they use to mark the inside of the track...............SIGH.......!!!!  I did manage to win my heat race and finished 5th in the main, after the one trip off the track and a lot of bumping and banging.  I didn't learn to drive that way, but I might have to change my style, if the track isn't going to start expecting the drivers to race, not slam into other cars. 

I have talked to the flagman before about his flagging while standing on the track, it's unnerving to have a person standing close enough you could almost touch him out the window.  We were getting lined up and when I came around the front straight away, he was close enough that when I passed him he fluttered the yellow flag over the top of my car......!!!  He told me he likes to add excitement......hope it doesn't get too exciting........!!!! LOL

Still working on Boaz's mouth.  It's looking much better, I dug a couple of big larvae out this morning and he seemed to appreciate getting rid of them.  I'll probably have to fight them all summer, vets will tell you once you have habronema it's almost impossible to get rid of them.  The problem is reinfestation.  Anytime I've had the problem and it was in an area I could cover with a barrier, like fly mask or bandage, I can get rid of them and not have them come back.  Can't do that on the inside edge of his mouth though, so I'll probably have to try to keep invermectin wormer on the area and hope for the best.  

OBTW, the donkeys are as thrilled with the new hay as John is.  I told him to quit feeding it, until the old stuff is gone.  Otherwise they might go on strike and not eat the old stuff......!!! 

JOHN'S DOING A HAPPY DANCE..........!!!!

 BOAZ'S KNEE, MAY16, 2014

The hay was delivered yesterday as planned on time...........I love it when people do what they say they are going to do, thanks Chris and Carlos.....!!!  It looks good and the analysis is pretty good.  

John has been complaining about long hay for quite some time.  I guess horse people like the long hay because it doesn't blow away, but if you are weighing hay rather than feeding it by the flake, long compacted hay isn't fun.  At least that's what John says, I do the mush buckets he weighs hay, we tend to stay out of the other one's area.  We haven't stayed married all these years by working together, believe me.......!!!   

When they were unloading the hay off the truck with the squeeze one of the bales decided to take a header.  I guess John was nosy and wanted to see how the new hay was, because he weighed that bale out this morning.  Came in the house, shouting from the roof tops how great that hay is.  What's really great is, it's nice and green and soft too, so we'll see tonight what the "experts" think.  Hopefully the whole load will be like this.  Chris brings good loads, we had a broker one time bringing hay.  Took us 2 years to figure out that the squeezes that were unloaded all the way in the back of the hay barn were not very good.  Probably not by accident, he figured by the time we got to the back of the barn, we would just feed it and go on.  We did the first year, but when the same thing happened the 2nd year, we decided it probably wasn't an accident. 

I think I've figured out what is bothering Boaz.  Sometimes I wish these guys were not so stoic  and were more like horses, when it comes to wounds etc.  Last night I noticed the right side of his mouth looked swollen.  Of course he didn't want it messed with, when I got in there I found 3 large spots of habronema larvae, that have been there long enough, the larvae were easy to see.  UGH........I hate those things, they can do so much damage and are really hard to eradicate.  Especially on the inside of the mouth.  There is no way I can think of to keep flies off.  At first he wasn't cooperative at all.  But once I put some ivermectin on them and started using a cloth to rub them out and picking some of the larger ones out, he seemed to appreciate getting rid of them.  Cleaned a little more this morning, but there are a lot still in there and of course they draw more flies, as we always say, the flies come to visit the kids.  They are responsible for transporting the eggs of the stomach worms that cause the problem.  I left a tube of wormer in his pen, so every time we see him we'll glob some on the sores and I'll work on it once a day to remove the bodies.  Hopefully that will turn the flies away enough not to reinfect.  IT'S GOING TO BE A LONG SUMMER, I have a feeling.......!!!  LOL

STINKY THE DONKEY......!!!

Obviously these guys have WAY too much time on their hands to think up new ways to entertain themselves......!!!!  And one of them isn't very bright....!!!  Guess which one........???  I wonder if he ever had children.........????

Wister has a new name as of this morning.  He obviously had a close encounter with a skunk last night.  His momma still loves him, John and I not so much, at least until the smell wears off. 

Tomorrow morning after chores we're going into Tucson to help a woman that got a couple of the burros the state auctioned off a few weeks ago.  It sounds like one of them has a bad infestation of habronema larvae on her face and she is not the least bit interested in having it treated or wearing a fly mask.  So we're going in to see if we can help.  Patti, is going with us, so we'll have a good pair of extra hands if needed.

I'm finally getting a handle on the skin issues.  Not sure if it's my "wonderful" nursing ability, or if the problems have just ran their course..!!!! LOL  Who knows, maybe Listerine does work.   

THE GIRLS ARE HERE..........!!!!

Here's a herd shot when we went up to Hoofprints of the Heart yesterday to pick up the girls.........yes the girls.  When we rounded them up, James had to rope Falena, aka, Coquette, aka Arabella (I'm having a terrible time getting a name to stick on her).  I guess that was the closest he had been to her, and we discovered she wasn't a gelding after all.......!! 

You'd think with feet like this she would be easy to halter, nope those feet might really look ugly, but they seem to work just fine, at least on soft ground.

Penny's name seems to fit her.  She was a little easy to work with and didn't mind being haltered and led.  

The dark spot on the left is her withers, she is hunchbacked.  The front half of her back sticks up about an inch or so.  Dr. Weaver came out today to see if he could manipulate her back.  He said her back is twisted where it dips down.  He adjusted her back and she tried to "adjust" him a couple of times, before she settled down.  He wants to work on her in a few weeks, he says she probably either had something fall on her, or was trapped in a twisted position.  It doesn't seem to bother her, she moves very easy, and doesn't seem to have any pain from it.  

She does have habronema larvae under her eye, I started working on this morning.  She obviously has not had a lot of attention & didn't really appreciate my "doctoring".  Some of them were big enough I could "retrieve" them with surgical tweezers.  The rest of them, I smeared with Ivernectin worming paste.  She has quite a few in the tissue around her eye.  Dr. Weaver said the Ivermectin wouldn't hurt her eye, so tonight I put some on the sores in her eye socket.  I can't dig them out like I do the ones on her cheek, so hopefully the Ivermectin will kill them.  We will keep a fly mask on her until next winter, so eventually we will get rid of them, but it will probably take all summer.  Her front legs are bald, just like Quillas.

It is always interesting to try to help these animals that haven't had the care they deserve.  I just wish it wasn't necessary, that people would take care of them properly & make sure they have what they need.

MORE OF THE HERD AT HOOFPRINTS OF THE HEART, MARANA, ARIZONA

JOHN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HIS NEXT MOVE

 READY TO GO HOME............!!!!