I'M REALLY REALLY TIRED OF HEAT AND HUMIDTY

I hate to whine, but I'm really ready for our normal hot dry desert weather.  LOL  I don't really mind it, but it's terrible on the donkey feet.  Falena is still recuperating from her abscess.  Gus probably blew an abscess a couple of days ago.  And Gigi is really sore on her crippled front foot.  Unfortunately when they have an abscess or that's what you think is the problem, you can't give them any bute.  It would slow the process of the abscess opening, which in the long run would make the process last longer.  I've left a couple of messages for Tyler, but he hasn't called me back.  He will when he gets time, he stays pretty busy. 

Gigi isn't the easiest thing to work with, but this morning I decided to try to soak her foot in warm Epsom Salts water.  Got all my toys together and out we went.  I mixed the water in a small bucket, but took an IV bag, planning on putting her in the redneck squeeze, because she has been known to kick like a machine.  

John opened up the squeeze and started trying to get her to go in it, but she didn't want to move much.  She got to where we tie her up when Tyler comes to trim her feet and she stopped, wouldn't go any further.  I gave John the halter and she let him put it on her.  She likes him better than me for some reason.  Tied her there and prepared for a rodeo.  She wasn't much interested in me picking up her foot, but when I did I decided to try putting it in the bucket rather than the IV bag.  Wonders of all wonders she left it in, tried to take it out a couple of times, but for the most part stood very good.  We only did 10 minutes, didn't want to push our luck.  Then she didn't want to take her foot out of the bucket.  Tomorrow we'll try it again, with warmer water and a longer soaking time.  

I'll be racing tonight.  For the first time this year the Hornets will be qualifying.  That means we will run 2 timed laps and our time will be used to line us up for the main event.  After tonight we will only have 2 more point races for end of the year points.  I am in 7th place right now, but within striking distance of 5th place, if I have 3 good races and 6th and 5th place drivers don't.  I'm not wishing them any bad luck, but 5th is better than 7th.........!!!  LOL

They are also going to have a trailer race.  That means they can use any car or truck as a tow vehicle, and any type of trailer.  They paint them all up gaudy, last year they had a full size house trailer.  They aren't allowed to hit the tow vehicle, BUT, the trailer is fair game.  It really makes a mess, when it's over, there are trailer parts strung all around the track.  Needless to say, that's the last race of the night.....!!! 

EASY NIGHT OF FEEDING TONIGHT

Unfortunately we had a real gulley washer right at feeding time.  High winds and rain going every direction and of course the mandatory wash run.

It was really nasty for about 1/2 an hour or so, and of course the donkeys were all hunkered down for the duration.  We all went out looking for them and a more uncooperative bunch I've never seen.  So I told John and Doug we wouldn't be feeding tonight.  Most of them haven't been interested in hay or mush for quite sometime anyway, so it seemed rather silly to kill ourselves rounding or trying to round them up, just to have them stand in the pens and ignore their lovingly prepared dinner.  I am hoping in the morning they will have a change of heart and maybe appreciate being fed.  They aren't going on Burroland now, so they don't have access to as many beans, although the wind blew down some more.

Tyler came last evening figured out where the abscess probably was and started cutting away at the bottom/side of Falena's hoof.  Sure enough, he found it and it didn't pop, but did start oozing.  He had his helper Jake, make up a poultice, wrapped it in Gorilla tape and went on his way.  He was here and gone in about 15 minutes, must be nice to know what you are doing.  He said he'd be back in a few days to reset her shoe, she's starting to turn that rear foot backwards again.  On a scale of 1-10 yesterday being a 10, this morning she was probably about a 5 and tonight a 1, just a little hitch in her git-a-long, so hopefully we won't have anymore of those.  Not instant relief like when they pop, I guess.  

A friend lost her cat and asked if we wanted her cat tree.  When John and I got home this afternoon Doug had delivered it and it was in the great room..........with a cat in it.  I guess Nigel decided it was his, he's been in it and as far as I know, no one else has had a chance.  It's a nice one, so many are rather flimsy, probably made for kittens.  But this one is pretty sturdy.  

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. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR......!!!

The flagstone is done and the new gate installed.  I'm going to miss the redwood gate we'd had since the house was built.  Unfortunately over the years the donkeys had almost destroyed it by pushing on it when they wanted us to come out and play, and chewing on it when bored.  It was starting to look rather bedraggled. 

The cracks in the walls have been fixed, but they will wait about a week to come back and paint.  We have to hose the walls for about 4 days to help the salts and minerals to leach out. 

The donkeys are happy to not have to stay in their pens, when the guys are working.  After the first couple of days, they actually became resigned to their fate, and stopped yelling so much.  We did let Pepper out every day.  His legs are so creaky that he needs to be able to move around as much as possible.  He's been laying down more since it's been cold, I would imagine those old legs don't handle cold very well. 

Gigi is finally walking pretty good for her.  After Tyler took her shoe off last time she got really lame.  I guess it changed the angle enough that she had to readjust her walking.  And I'm sure the cold weather doesn't do her any good either.  

Everybody else seems to be doing good.  Not sure they enjoy the cold weather but I'm sure they are happy to not have to wear fly masks, and get doctored, so it's a trade off.  Since it's been cold John upped their hay, even the fatties, so I guess we're not going to do diet control for awhile. You can bet, Rosie and Coquette will enjoy it for as long as it lasts........LOL

GIGI

Gigi has been struggling since Tyler took the shoe off her right front foot.   I checked her foot a couple of days ago, it's not hot, started at her shoulder and felt all the way down to her foot.  Didn't find anyplace that was ouchy, so I don't know what's going on.  I've got a call in for Tyler, but haven't heard back so far.  She's laying down like she did when she first came here.  Hopefully she isn't getting an abscess.  I can't imagine trying to soak her foot, although she did let me lift her foot to make sure she didn't have something caught in the bottom.  Of course that was after John put her in the "redneck" squeeze, she just will not allow us to do anything with her out of the squeeze.

This year for Thanksgiving we went to some friend's house and had a great time.  Unfortunately when you go out  for  the holiday there isn't any leftovers, which John is always ready to tell me about.  SIGH......!!!  I promised him that I would fix him a holiday dinner sometime between  Thanksgiving and Christmas.   Well I looked up and discovered Christmas is coming pretty quick.  So today is the day I make good on my promise.  I cheated by cooking a turkey breast and getting John  2 drumsticks, since he loves the drumsticks and sandwiches.  And I'm cooking all the other stuff that goes with it, dressing, potatoes, gravy, waldorf salad, and of course pie.  Was going to do pumpkin pie, one of his favorites, but my frozen pie crust looked like a road map with all the cracks.  You can use a cracked, put together crust with a pudding filling, not with pumpkin.  I learned years ago the crust will float to the top, which makes for an interesting visual.  So it's one of my favorites, chocolate........!!!  LOL

Needless to say for 2 people there's going to be a lot of leftovers, I've never been able to cook, just a little bit of all that stuff, so John should be thrilled for the next few days......!!!!

Our cold, high humidity weather lately has been hard on old Pepper.  His knees are really bad, but it doesn't stop him from wandering all over the place, I just hate to see him gimping around.  I put a cover on his worst knee a couple of days ago, and it seems to be helping.  

GRADUATION DAY FOR GIGI.........!!!

Well Tyler is giving it a try.  This is little Gigi's shoe off her right front foot.  It will be a year next month, since we picked her and Rosie up, to keep them from being shot and buried.  

This is what her feet looked like when we picked her up.

 This is how her feet look today

As long as she doesn't start trying to turn that right front foot backwards, she won't have to wear the shoe again.  The other 3 feet although they looked pretty gnarly last year, never tried to turn backwards or anything like that.  She still isn't a very good candidate for farrier care........LOL  Let's put it this way, every time Tyler comes he seems to think she should be friendlier.  I think that on a regular basis too, but so far she's not interested in giving up her independence.

This morning John almost had a mess.  Coquette is trying to entertain the boys and this morning when John was putting everyone in their pens, she came into Pepper's pen, which is beside her pen.  Pepper picked up on the subject and started trying to figure out his plan of attack.  Unfortunately Pancho was also at the ready.  John said it didn't take long for Pancho to decide to get rid of the competition, by lunging at Pepper with his mouth open.  John started yelling, I asked him if he threw himself in front of Pepper to protect him.  Guess not, looking at a mouthful of donkey teeth seemed to make him think yelling would take care of the problem, luckily it did.  Well except for Pepper, he was still trying to figure out his next move once Pancho left the area..........!!! 

ON PEPPER WATCH..........AGAIN....!!!

I know he doesn't do it on purpose, but it seems like a lot of our time is spent worrying about the old buzzard. 

He's been laying down more often lately, usually on his good side, thank goodness.  He's also developed a dry cough, and since I'm the type of person that looks, "for the zebra, rather than the horse" my 1st thought was lung worms.  We've never had lung worms that I know of but donkeys are known for being carriers.  A lot of horse owners don't want donkeys around for that reason. Ivermectin takes care of lung worms and I'm giving him antibiotics, Tucoprim, just in case it's something else. 

A couple of days ago he was laying down when it was time to come in for feeding.  When he got up he could barely walk on his right front, which is the one with a bad knee.  I picked the foot up to make sure there wasn't something else going on and noticed his sole is lower than the sidewall.  It looks like it's going to slough off, but with him it's hard to tell.  He has a lot of rotation and the hoof grows crazy, not to mention we don't know for sure exactly where the end of  his coffin bone is.    Courtney has kept him going a lot longer than we ever thought possible. 

I gathered up some foam, vet wrap and duct tape to make a boot for him.  I have Soft Rides, but hesitant to put them on him for a couple of reasons.  One is, because of his gnarly feet, not sure they would stay on and number 2......... although they are fairly light weight, not sure he could walk with the extra pound or so.  By the next morning he was walking a little better and has continued to improve, so hopefully we bit the bullet..........again. 

Yesterday morning John noticed Cisco rubbing his ear.  He had icky problems in his ears all summer, off and on.  I had quit watching him since it got cooler, but sure enough he had some type of slimy, gooey, smelly YUCK in there.  Animax i.e. Panalog is what the vet usually uses for ear problems, but I can't remember what she used to clean it out and I'm a little cautious about putting stuff in an ear.  Thanks goodness he has "donkey" ears, and I have small hands.  I rooted around with a rag to get rid of most of the yuckies and then squirted in the Animax.  That bad thing is I got the stuff on my hand and could smell it all afternoon.  Hopefully I can get it cleared up, otherwise we'll have to take him to the vet and do a culture I guess. 

Everyone else seems to be doing good.   I hesitate to say Rosie is losing weight, but she does look less fat.  As fat as she was, less fat is a good thing.............LOL  Tyler will be coming out Monday to check on Gigi's foot with the shoe.  She is walking very good, almost without any limp at all although her shoulders are still deformed because of walking oddly for 11 years.  We will have had them a year in January and hopefully one of these days Tyler will be able to take the shoe off and leave it off. 

SURE MAKES LIFE INTERESTING

Last night we were watching TV, well the TV was on, I was reading and John was checking his eyelids for leaks........!!!

Anyway I heard this weird noise, sounded like the water softener doing it's thing, or maybe the cicadas chirping, but not quite.  I got up and 3 of the indoor cats were looking out one of the windows thru the screen. As I got closer I could tell what the noise was, a very P.Oed rattlesnake.  Ran the cats off and grabbed the camera.  He was under one of the sotol grass bunches, almost against the house and letting everyone know he wasn't happy. That's OK, we weren't too thrilled with his visit either.  That's only the 2nd snake, 1st rattler this year. 

He had a lump in the middle, maybe that's why we don't see the little Harris Antelope squirrels anymore.  This morning he was gone, but last night when John went out to let the donkeys out, he was a little more cautious than usual.....!!!! LOL

Yesterday evening John and I went down to the Oasis Exotic Bird Sanctuary.  They usually have potlucks when anyone has a birthday or are leaving.  They had one leaving and 3 birthdays, so it was quite an occasion.  On the way down we were bouncing along in the van (the last 5 miles isn't paved and can be quite exciting) and I turned to tell John something.  Saw something small, brown and fast run from under his chair to the chair behind his.  We've had trouble before with mice getting in the van if we park it down by the house which we have been doing lately.  We have no idea how they get in, but they do.  John forgot to set the live trap last night, but I noticed it's sitting on the courtyard for tonight. 

Doctoring is going well, fly masks, not so well.  I'm down to just doctoring Boaz and Cisco on a regular basis.  I have others that get a general look over every morning, just in case.  Rosie has been a little lame on one of her rear legs ever since Tyler was out to trim her and Gigi a few days ago.  He just trimmed Gigi and reset her shoe on her twisted foot.  She is actually walking better on that foot than the other one now, but Tyler isn't ready to see how she does without the shoe.  She wasn't real cooperative, she's a lightening fast kicker, doesn't try to actually nail you, but lets you know she's not happy.  Rosie was real good, but somewhere along the way her leg got tweeked or something.  She's getting better, but I hate to see them limp around. 

John goes out every morning after feeding to look for missing fly masks, and other assorted missing items, like knee pads, polo wraps, etc.  So far he's not finding as many as are getting lost. 

TIS THE SEASON TO DOCTOR I GUESS......!!!

 WHICH IS WHY I DON'T RIDE ANYMORE......!!! 

I've got 3 in leggings or brown gauze bandages, and Boaz looks like he's been bathed in bright pink Thuja Zinc Oxide.  He's got "it" whatever "it" is.  He had a place on his shoulder yesterday, I globbed it up with zinc oxide and this morning it's dry..........but.........the hair has sloughed off.  That's one way to tell if you have it, the hair completely lets go.  I was rewrapping Quilla's legs and asked John to go down to Boaz and doctor him.  So he grabbed the zinc oxide and headed off to play nurse.  All of a sudden I hear yelling and all sorts of noise going on.  I yelled to see what was going on.  It seems Boaz prefers a more gentle touch, especially when dealing with his "boy parts" as John calls them.  Lysa is cleaning pens and we girls got quite a laugh out of the situation, John didn't think it was very funny, for some reason.  Boaz didn't kick AT John he just kicked, but it got John's attention. 

Pepper has a messed up eye.  He's had on a fly mask most of the time, so have no idea what's going on.  I washed it out and put some ointment in it yesterday and this morning it was dry but still closed.  I was going to use some penicillin (vet recommended in the past) 2cc's squirted in the eye, but discovered I don't have any.  I went thru all my goodies awhile back and threw out everything that was expired, I'm sure that's where it went.  

Gigi is finally letting John put her fly mask on and off standing in the corner where the squeeze is, but with it closed.  So she is accepting John actually standing in her space without a panel between them.  She's really walking good for her and her bulging shoulder doesn't seem to stick out as far as it did.  Tyler said it might have been broken at some time, I think it's deformed from walking oddly most if not all her life.  She will never walk "normal", but she certainly is walking a lot better than she was. 

GIGI GOT ANOTHER PEDICURE.........

It's been 3 months since Tyler trimmed her excessively overgrown feet and set an elongated shoe on her right front to keep it from turning backwards.

First of all let me say, this is the 2nd time recently I have gotten a finger or in this case a thumb caught up inside a donkey mouth.  When we were trying to get Gigi in the trailer this morning, I offered an animal cracker as incentive and I guess she was afraid I wasn't going to give it to her.  The nail is loose on the side, which let the blood ooze out this afternoon, so the nail lost it's black color.  It's still oozing, which John seems to think is a good thing.  I actually had a split on that thumb that has really been sore for weeks, haven't been able to get it to heal.  For some reason it hasn't bothered me at all since this happened.........!!!! LOL

When we started getting her in the trailer this morning, she really wasn't trying to be difficult, and loaded much easier than we expected.  John jacked the front of the trailer up, to make the back  lower, so she wouldn't have to jump so high.  We let her look at it a few minutes, I tried putting up a front foot a couple of times and all of a sudden she hopped up and in.  

We hauled her into Nancy's and Tyler met us there.   He observed Gigi for a little while, decided to do her in the trailer, could use the walls for support and try to do her standing up.  Nancy gave her a happy shot and Tyler and Buster went to work.

Tyler seems to think she will not turn the foot back, so he cut all the long growth and epoxy off.  It's really not epoxy, but I don't know what it is.  It looks like tar, but was a real bear to get off, some tough stuff. 

 He put a regular shoe on that is just a little larger than her trimmed foot and she seems to be just fine with it. 

This was after we got home and she seems to be doing good.

I think she looks great.  She was really pretty good on the front feet, but when he got ready to do the backs, she let him know that was over the line.  She can kick and really quick.  So for her trouble she got another happy shot.  

Tyler seems to think we won't have to bring her to Nancy's in the future, should be able to do her here.   That will be much easier on her and us, although I'm not sure about Tyler......!!! LOL

You might notice her other front hoof looks a little deformed.  Tyler seems to think the deformity was from the hoof being so overgrown.  The growth coming out of the coronet is coming out nice and straight, so we're hoping eventually it will be more normal. 

GIGI IS DOING PRETTY GOOD.....!!

Tyler is still out of town, so we can't get  her shoe reset, but even on feet that are longer than they should be, she's walking pretty good.  It will probably take a year or more of having an elongated shoe on that right front foot, but hopefully after time she will be able to walk on that foot without the shoe.  It worked with Falena aka Momma, but her's was a rear and wasn't anywhere near as bad as Gigi's.  We'll just have to see how it goes.   She seems more comfortable on her rear feet, when she first came here, she kept them underneath her in the founder position, to take weight off her front feet, which is really a good thing.

I took a good look at Rosie this morning and she is actually looking less huge.  She is carrying a lot of weight in her belly area.  This morning it looks like that is tightening up a little bit, more round and less bulky.  She isn't really a food whore and seems satisfied with the amount she gets, which makes this whole diet thing a lot easier.  John is giving her 5 pounds of hay a day, which is what most of the standards get.  Don't see any reason to drop her down below that, as long as we are headed in the right direction. 

80 DEGREES HEADED FOR 90.......!!!!

Good grief you'd think it was May rather than the middle of February.  We've really had very little cold weather and absolutely no rain so far.  Wonder what the summer will be like?  

Rosie has settled down a lot since we moved her into her own pen, which she actually goes into like it's the thing to do, thank goodness.  All that running around gets old in a hurry.  Hopefully with the clicker training she will get a little more friendly.  If it takes bribery, so be it.  I'm happy to say she doesn't seem to be a "food whore".  They are now completely off alfalfa and she is only getting 5 pounds of hay a day.  Sometimes she doesn't even eat it all, so I can only assume she had access to too much hay and was bored.  Somewhat like a lot of people these days I guess.............LOL  As much extra weight as she is carrying, it's going to take a long, long time to make a dent in it, I'm afraid. 

Gigi seems to have reached a level of comfort, with no improvement.  She is still spending time standing up, and going out of her pen.  But she is also spending time laying down.  Haven't heard from Tyler in a week or so.  Not sure how long the elongated shoe can stay on without being reset.  

We've had quite a few people come out to see the donkeys lately.  This is a good time of year for visits, when the winter visitors hit town.  Later in the spring we will probably get groups of kids from local organizations.  Once it gets hot we generally have very few people come out, which is a good thing.  All the donkeys want to do is find a shade tree to stand under, when it's so hot.

MOLLY AND JACK WILL BE LEAVING THURSDAY

The woman that came out to see them never got back in touch with me, so I assume she isn't interested.  Thursday we'll haul them to Terry for fostering and possible adoption, IF, they behave themselves.  Actually Terry has told me about some of her other animals and it sounds like they'll fit right in.......!! LOL

Terry use to come out and groom every week, before she got so many animals of her own.  She also took Rusty as a friend for her old mule Zeke.  Zeke hated Rusty guess he saw him as a competitor, so Rusty came back.  She even took Tula one time to see if she could get Tula more people friendly.  Didn't work, and while Tula was there she turned Terry's 2 donkeys wild.  For some reason all the other donkeys see Tula as the head jenny, doesn't matter where she is. 

It will be a great place for Little Jack Horner and Miss Molly Brown and they will get more attention than they would here.  Now if we could just find homes for Ruthie, Wister and Ruger.  They are about the only ones we have adoptable, unless someone might be willing to take on a project.  

This is Boaz's knee as of this morning.

This is Gigi this morning, when we doctored her bed sore.  Tyler thinks she is improving much faster than he expected, especially on the right front, that has the elongated shoe.  Tyler and Nancy were talking about doing a tendonectomy if she couldn't walk on that foot flat.  But she seems to be able to use it very well.  She's spending more time up and less time down, and I am giving her less bute each day.  Once she is off the bute, we will start letting them out of the pen.  Can't wait for the fun of trying to get Rosie back in the pen, she is the "squirrelist" donkey we have ever had, yet she will come up and get right in your face. 

GIGI MIGHT BE FAMOUS SOMEDAY

 Tyler came by today to take a video of Gigi and how she is walking.  He is going to a farrier symposium this week and I have a feeling he is going to "present" her even though this adventure is just starting. 

I wasn't here, but John said Tyler was quite impressed with how well she is walking.  Yesterday she was trying to run and kick at the same time.  (John wanted her to go in a direction she saw no need to go)  She is getting easier to work with, she has a bedsore on her right hip that has to be doctored & bandaged almost daily.  When we first started she was doing a lot of kicking, not necessarily at us, but she wanted us to leave her alone.  Animal crackers make everything better. 

This is the brothers, Wister, and Ruger

Unfortunately the brothers aren't bonding like I wanted.  Wister is more than willing, but Ruger is pretty much a loner.  Even putting them in a pen to eat, hasn't led to a relationship.  Ruger actually spends most of his time by himself and the people that adopted him, said he went off and did his thing, rather than hanging around with Pancho.  So when I get some time, I am going to go thru my list of people looking for horse companions and see if anything looks interesting.  Ruthie seems to raise weird children.........!!! LOL  Wister still runs to her when John lets them out of the pens and tries to nurse.  And she's just about as bad, sometimes John has to put a halter on her to get her to go in the pen she shares with Boaz, because she doesn't want to leave Wister's pen area.  She is also a loner except for her babies, so I guess it's a family thing.   She has nothing to do with the other jennies. 

NAME CHANGE.......!!!

You probably knew this was going to happen.  John never could remember Kia's name, he was sorta OK with Sephia.  But long term it didn't work, soooooooo they are now Rosie and GiGi.  John had suggested Rosie at first.  But it seems like a lot of these "pinks" ie strawberry roans are named Rosie, so I wasn't thrilled with such a common name.  But with Rosie as her name we can call her Reactive Rosie....!!!  She will come right up to you and get in your face.  But if you walk towards her she takes off like a race horse.  Never had one do this before, we've had them that didn't want you in their space, but not one that almost goes thru the corral panels and then will go up to you nose to nose.

Gigi is the one with the feet.  Tyler just came by to take the 1st of weekly pictures for a special study he's doing.  He said he needs to have 3 different difficult cases to follow from beginning to end.  He is amazed at she is doing as well as she is.  She's walking on the foot that was so twisted and now has an elongated shoe on it, so she can't turn it under like she's done probably her whole life.  

He said the muscles and tendons are all involved and hopefully with time will get a little longer.  She spends most of her time laying down which is to be expected.  But she does get up and move around a little bit.  She may have to wear a elongated shoe the rest of her life, just depends on how much those tendons and muscles can stretch. 

Cisco is doing good after his bout of choke last Thursday.  He's still on antibiotics in case there was some damage done to his esophagus with the plug of hay and the poking and prodding with a tube to break it up.  He seems to be OK, but is still on mush only, no hay.  

Last night was the 1st race night of 6 over the next 2 weeks.  We took both cars, so John can play too.  I don't know how many cars there were in the pits, but it was full, we had to pit in the parking lot.....!!!  LOL  Along with a lot of other cars.  

John is out in the driveway right now trying to get the my car operational for tonight.  In the heat race one of the other cars ran off the track and rather than blend with the on coming traffic, he kept his foot in it and flew across the track heading for the infield.  My car stopped him from getting to the infield and pretty much straightened him out on the track......!!!   LOL  I kept going but my car would no longer turn to the right at all, unless you had a gorilla to turn the wheel.  Good thing we run left on the track, I guess.  

I finished 2nd in that race and John finished 3rd.  John didn't believe me when I said it wouldn't turn right, until he drove it.  He said to just go out take the green flag, so I'd get paid for starting the main.  Well, it wasn't too bad going left, so I managed to hang on and place 2nd with John in 3rd again.  They shortened our races from 20 laps to 12, which I am really grateful for, it was still a bear to wrestle.  

One of the tech inspectors came over to me later and asked where I finished, I told him 2nd.  He said well you've just been put into 1st place because the 1st place car didn't go to tech.  Not the way I want to win, but I'll take it.  Unfortunately the guy had already had the trophy presentation in front of the grandstands and as of now still has it.  They said they'd get it back from him today, so we'll see.  It's been a long dry spell, I won my last trophy in 1980, so I'm overdue.  

Most of the officials last night were with the big fancy expensive cars.  When I went to get paid, we all were discussing how petty it was to hang onto the trophy when you've been disqualified, etc.  Then the guy looked at me and said, "is it true you are 72?"   I told him no, I was only 70...!!! LOL

John thinks the problem, hopefully the only problem, is the power steering pulley which is rather badly bent, we don't even know what happened to the belt, it's gone.  So he is out there, trying to beat this thing into some semblance of perfectly round.  If he can do anything with it, we'll pick up a belt on the way to the track, so John will have something to do when we get there.  If not, he wants me to drive the Toyota and I want him to drive it.  He gets a lot more out of it than I do, I have to rely on power, which it doesn't have.  He has a little more finesse on the track, so I don't know who will end up driving it the Kia doesn't make it.

NO ANIMAL SHOULD HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS.....!!!

This is what Sephia had to go thru today because the the lack of basic foot care for probably all her life.  Tyler seems to think, because both feet on her right side grow out to the side, that her problems started "in vitro", because of the way she was carried.  In these situations usually 2 or 3 weeks of casts or braces fixes the problem with little newborns.  Unfortunately that did not happen for her.  

The x-rays showed some areas of concern, but nothing dramatic, so she got a happy shot, actually she got 3 total.  It took awhile to get her feet hacked off, at one time 2 farriers were each working on a foot to speed up the process.

The decision was made to work on her in the trailer so she wouldn't have to get out and get in.  It cuts down on working area, but in the long run, I don't know if we could have got her back in the trailer afterwards.  Her feet were so different after trimming, one of them with an elongated shoe, that she couldn't hardly stand up, let alone do anything taking experience to accomplish.

We had to wait for her to get over the effects of the sedatives which took quite sometime.  When we started out, it was clear that the trip was going to be traumatic for us all.   I rode in the trailer with her, and John drove at about 20 mph with instructions to not use the brakes if at all possible.  For some reason even using them as lightly as possible made her really scramble to keep her balance.  She was covered with sweat and it was dripping on the floor, she was so stressed, poor girl.  I don't know which of us was happiest to get home.  

I know she is going to be sore, besides changing her feet, she also spent a lot of time, flipping and flopping around in the trailer.  Although it is 6 foot wide, there was usually a wall or gate in her way when she was trying to get up.  

BUT WHAT A DIFFERENCE................!!!!

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. 

IT'S NOT PRETTY.....!!!

But we're already getting our ducks lined up to try to help her.  On the way home from picking them up we stopped by Tyler's house.  He's real lucky, we drive by his house every time we go someplace...!! LOL  

The plan of attack is to get her back in the trailer this Friday.  Should be "interesting", she had never been out of the pen she was born in 11 years ago, and with these feet loading was difficult.  It actually went much better than we expected, but once she was in the trailer, she couldn't hardly stand up on the mats, because of walking on slick hoof material, rather than sole and frog.

John drove very slow all the way home and I'm sure she was having to fight to stand, but she never lost her balance.  

Friday we will haul her into Dr. Nancy, this is when a mobile vet would REALLY be nice to have.  SIGH!  Tyler will be there, and she'll take x-rays so he has an idea of what he's dealing with.  Then he'll get out the sawz-all and start removing as much of the extra growth as he can. With horses they usually gnaw the excess off a little at a time, over time.  With donkeys they usually just take it all off at once, which really freaks out horse people.  But in the long run the quicker you get it off, hopefully the less internal damage. 

She moves around, is alert and if we can give her some quality of life, that's what we'll do.  

I was so interested in getting pictures of these feet I didn't get a picture of the older over weight jenny.  Just take my word for it, she's fat, lots of large pones and a pretty good size bubble butt.  Hopefully we can get some of the weight off her.  The owner had 3 bales of alfalfa, and we brought it home to transition them from alfalfa to bermuda hay over the next few weeks.  She's fat enough she probably has fatty liver disease, and if we tried to stop feeding alfalfa all at once, chances are she would develop hyperlipidemia which can be fatal.    You haven't lived until a vet comes out with a tube of blood, reaches down into it with a paper clip and draws out a glob of yellow fat, as big around as the tube and over an inch long.   Looked like a big fat grub worm...........UGH!

The older jenny was named Jenny and the one with the feet was Betty.  We've already had a Jenny and have a good friend named Betty, so we're going to give them different names.  I went thru a lot of different names, so far the front runner is, Kia for the older jenny and Sephia for the younger one.  My race car is a Kia Sephia.......!!! John just shook his head.  It's not final, so if anyone has some good names for these girls, let me know.  

Speaking of the race car, the next 2 weeks are going to be murder.  This time of year in sunny Arizona is when our track has a big race program for Late Models and Modifieds that usually run in Canada, and the east.  Needless to say their weather isn't conducive to racing now.  That's all fine and dandy, but they've decided to add some of the local classes to the program, so the "big" boys have time to work on their cars between races.  We are suppose to run 6 programs in 9 days....!!!  I think they are trying to kill off all the old people out there.....!!!  They are paying extra and also we will get back our entry fee if we make the main event, so now John is going to take the Toyota and race it too............  At least that's what he says now, we'll see if that sounds like fun, after the first couple of races, he might change his mind.  LOL 

I've found someone to take care of Mother, which is a load off my mind.  Anna lives on the next road north of us, so the 2am drive home won't be as big a problem as driving back to Benson would be.  I was afraid Mother would get feisty about having someone stay with her, but she seems to be fine with it........  Whew...!!! 

STILL DOCTORING THE GIRLS

Lysa & John, Penny in the "squeeze" & her best friend Coquette "helping"......!!!

Every morning we doctor.  Coquette has some sort of "thing" on her face.  All the hair is gone & it itches, at least she rubs it, which of course if she opens it the flies love....!!!  I found one of Cisco's old crusader masks, had to sew it back together, but it covers the lower part of her face so the flies can't get to her, even if it is open.  SHE HATES IT...!!!  Keeps shaking her head & trying to rub it off.  "Going to be a LONG summer, I guess".....!!!!  Hopefully she'll get over it soon.  

I don't know if it is fungal or bacteria or what, lice, mange, I mean there are a lot of things it could be.  They all look about alike to me unless there is habronema, they seem to be my speciality...!!! Got rid of the ones on Penny's face & in her eye & so far no new eruptions, now that she is wearing a fly mask.  Hopefully that's the end of that.....!!  The whole side of her face is bald probably from years of habronema sores all summer, but at least she doesn't have to put up with the itching now.  

They are settling down, Penny hasn't let loose with one of her "famous" kicks since Tyler was here.  When we have her in the squeeze, I desensitize her legs with a rope, nothing dramatic just wrap it around & pull it back & forth.  She's doing real good, seems to accept it.  Of course I haven't tried anything horrifying like using the rope to pick up a foot, or trying to pick one up by hand.  I also haven't tried working with her outside the squeeze, not too thrilled with the idea of her being in a position of being able to swing that loaded end around at will........!!!!  LOL

Suppose to have a group of teenagers come out next week to groom.  They are in some kind of "keep the kids entertained for the summer" program at Ft. Huachuca, down by Sierra Vista.  There will be almost enough for each one to have a donkey to groom, which will be great for the donkeys.  Most of them still have winter hair hanging on.  

Everyone else seems to be doing good right now.  Courtney is coming out this week-end to trim Gus & whoever else needs it.  Gus is the only one we have right now that needs regular trimming.  I offered to haul him to her somewhere, but she wants to look the others over to make sure they are self trimming properly. 

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A PEDICURE MAKES.......!!!

COQUETTE'S FRONT FEET WHEN WE PICKED HER UP LAST WEEK

HER FEET AFTER TYLER WAS HERE YESTERDAY

Who knew there was an actual hoof capsule in that mess. I guess her feet had kept growing taller and taller like a stovepipe, until the length of the frog in the back, pushed her forward and collapsed the front hoof wall That's what she's been walking on for a LONG long time.  

We all figured she would really be sore from the tendons in the back of her legs contracting, but she seems to be enjoying her new freedom.  I've seen her turn a foot back for a second or two when she's standing, but she hasn't offered to turn either of them back to walk...........  YIPPEE!  

  

NOT A BAD LOOKING FOOT BOTTOM, CONSIDERING

THAT'S BETTER...!!!

I

I was afraid when she came in this morning she would really be sore from the tendons in the back of her legs being stretched.  But she came in walking like she was fairly comfortable.  We had her in the squeeze this morning doing some doctoring and unfortunately everyone else was out including her buddy Penny.  She threw an absolute hissy fit, down to and including pawing the ground "hard" with both front feet.  So I think she is doing OK........!!!! 

Penny was as big a problem as we thought she would be.  She is a fear kicker, which means you don't always know what will set her off.  Well she got set off, when she saw Tyler come in with his tools and it pretty much went downhill from there.  He brought "back-up" with him, 2 strong young men.  She didn't manage to kick anyone directly, a couple of close calls.  I didn't get any pictures working on her, we were all too busy, ducking and running.......!!!   For a little girl, she can be formidable. 

Tyler, bless his heart thinks he's having fun.........!!!!  LOL