HORRIBLE CONDITIONS IN MEXICO SLAUGHTER HOUSES

This article should be required reading for every American, that thinks closing down the equine slaughter houses in the U.S. "fixes" the problem. There's nothing I can say about the article except don't read it before eating, or going to bed. But do read it.........!!! And maybe share your thoughts with your Congressmen.

Mexico Horse Slaughter

CHESTER'S A NEW MAN............!!!

It is amazing to see the difference in Chester's demeanor today. He had spent a lot of time laying down, every day & I assume at night too. This morning when we went out to feed, he was on his feet, flirting with Molly mule thru the fence, & challenging poor old Sha'ba thru the fence on the other side. It's amazing what a good foot trim will do for a guy. This afternoon about an hour before feeding time, I opened the gate & let him out. I watched him for awhile & he seemed to be doing OK, very interested in eating mesquite leaves.

When John went to round everyone up, Chester really wasn't interested in going back into his pen, even though Shiloh was trying to keep him from rubbing noses with Belle. Chester has some "war" wounds, so I guess they were busy establishing their pecking order. Shiloh is a pretty good street fighter. It took him 2 years to come out of his shell, but once he did, he has definate ideas on how things should go. Even though Chester is lame he's bigger than Shiloh, so hopefully no one will get hurt. We'll let him out a couple of hours every afternoon for a few days, till he gets use to being out & having the other donkeys to interact with. He rubbed noses with Jenny & that seemed to go well.

CHESTER GOT HIS FEET TRIMMED

Before they could be trimmed, he had to go to sleep for awhile. This is Dr. Tibbets searching for the vein. John & Katie weren't just standing there observing, they had him pinned against the fence. For some reason he wasn't the least bit interested in cooperating with all these people. Actually it went better than it could have. He's not mean & although he tried to avoid us, he gave in with a certain amount of grace.

Katie trimmed off a bunch of hoof & frog. She grabbed hold of the frog & started pulling. I thought maybe she was going to pull his frog off his foot, but it was all overgrowth from not being trimmed in a long time. His feet look good & this afternoon, he seemed to be moving better. I'll give him a couple of days to get use to his new feet, & then let him out to start roaming with the rest of them. I really think he's going to have better use of his shoulder & will be able to walk easier, once he gets out & gets some exercise.

Dr. Tibbets also removed the proud flesh off Jenny's foot. As we expected it really bled, & had to be wrapped in a pressure bandage. The worse thing was behind the proud flesh were maggots. The flies really liked that foot, now I know why. UGH!

Had to lance a large swollen area on Pepper's nose this morning, probably an infected cactus thorn. Poor old boy, it looked sore & from the way he acted it was. He doesn't like to be messed with & lets you know it. He throws his head around, & when the area of interest is on his muzzle, it's a rather hit & miss operation. This evening it looked pretty good, so hopefully he'll be OK in the morning.

Buddy's jaw is still swollen where the tumor was removed from the bone last week. Haven't heard about the biopsy yet. Dr. Taylor was really interested in finding out what kind of tumor it was, since it looked rather unusual.

CHESTER UPDATE

No big surprises although he still isn't thrilled with a fly mask. At his old home they had fly misters, so I don't know if he's ever had many fly masks in his life. He thinks turning his butt to you will make it go away. We've found out if you pop him on the butt with the fly mask, then he will stand & let you put it on.

Yesterday Terry came to groom, whoever would like to be groomed. Chester even got to get brushed. He was a little hesitant, but Terry is so quiet & patient, that he relaxed & I'm sure will look forward to next time.

Old Pepper is still limping around & his soles are still below the hoof wall. Katie will be here Thur to trim Chester & I'm sure she'll agree that Pepper needs less sole than he has. Jenny's feet are growing out enough now that the weak & missing areas of her hoof wall have reached the ground. That means they are breaking off & leaving large chunks of hoof wall missing. So far it doesn't seem to bother her. If she starts being tender footed, I'll have to wrap her feet. I'd rather not, because if you wrap you take a chance on trapping moisture, a great environment for bacteria or fungus growth.

Our new boy is settling in just fine. The swelling in his leg is going down, & he's walking much better. Yesterday morning I walked out the door & saw a donkey I didn't recognize, under the big mesquite with Sugar trying to play. I yelled & wished I had a camera. His head jerked up, ears at attention, looking at me like, "see how smart I am, I figured out how to get out of that old pen"........!!! We were afraid he would be evasive, but John got behind him, & he went back in like gentleman.

The Vet & trimmer will be here next Thur to get his feet shortened. Once that's done & he has a couple of days to learn to walk with short feet, we'll let him out & see how it goes. I think he will get along just fine, if he doesn't try to overdue it the first few days, till he gets use to moving around over rough ground.

We're thinking of doing a name change on him. If they have a name when they come, we usually don't change it. But we think we have a perfect new name for him. If the gray males don't have a name we use gun manufacturer names for them. You know "gun barrel gray"..........!!!! We would like to name him Winchester & call him Chester, which would also have meaning. In the show Gunsmoke, one of Matt Dillon's sidekicks, was named Chester, & he was crippled. I e-mailed the former owner & asked it if would be OK with him. Haven't heard back yet. I do find it easier to remember Chester without thinking.

Molly is going great guns on this clicker training stuff. She started out confused, & I thought maybe this isn't going to work with her. But once the light bulb went off, I can't walk around carrying the target without having to almost run for my life..........!!!! Well that might be a stretch, but she definately wants to put her nose on the target.

Everyone else is doing good. I think everyone is enjoying the cooler weather, I know I am.

BISCUIT IS HERE

We picked Biscuit up yesterday as planned & it went well. We transfered him directly from one trailer to the other, so he didn't have to step down. His feet are horribly long & one of the first things we will do, is get them trimmed. We were going to try to do it, but this morning his bad leg from elbow to knee is swollen, & after looking at his feet, they need some professional attention anyway. We'll probably have the Vet come out & put him on the ground, so the farrier can work without trying to balance Biscuit on 3 legs. Besides he's been used as roping donkey, & consequently doesn't want his legs messed with, let alone his feet picked up. He does stand around with his bad leg turned under, although when he walks he walks like he should. We might have to find some sort of brace for him to wear for awhile to retrain the nerves & muscles, we'll see what the Vet says.

He's a big boy, about the size of BlackJack, & seems to be very mellow although not a snuggly type of fellow. We use a golf cart to haul the hay buckets thru the pens. Sometimes this is a problem with a new donkey, if they've never seen such a thing before. He didn't even pay any attention to it.

The Vet checked Molly's belly & scar tissue from her surgery. He said she has a very small hernia, but other than that said she should be just fine if someone wanted to train her to ride or anything else. We've been playing around with clicker training the last few days, & I think she just wants to be a fun loving mule, with someone to play with her, rather than having to work........!!!

They x-rayed Buddy's lump on his jaw & the decision was made to remove it. This is Dr. Taylor doing his thing. Buddy's head is under the blue drape, his neck is to the left. He's laying on his back on a table. They had to use a hammer & chisel to break the lump away from his jawbone. He was a little drunk when they brought him out of recovery, but we managed to get him into the trailer, with Biscuit. Buddy preceded to try to kick the snot out of Biscuit. I had a vested interest in this process, since I was in the trailer with them at the time. Buddy was too wobbly to be accurate & finally decided he better keep all feet on the floor of the trailer.

Molly had to ride in the 2nd section of the trailer, because when we put her in with Buddy that morning, she decided she was going to kick him into next week. And she didn't give up, so we quickly moved her & shut the gate between them in the trailer.

The logistics of getting a Vet & a farrier out here at the same time, is going to be fun. Hopefully I can get them together this week, but that would be some type of miracle, probably........!!!

HEADED FOR GILBERT

As soon as we get the pens cleaned & everyone gets thru with their breakfast, we'll get on the road with Buddy Brat & Molly. It's about a 3 hour trip, if everything goes well. The owner of Biscuit will bring him to the clinic to turn him over to us. While we are at the clinic we will probably have them look at his shoulder. It was never x-rayed, although the Vet that said it was a broken shoulder has worked with race horses, & probably has seen enough lameness to know what he was talking about.

Pictures tomorrow..........!!!!!

CINDER GOING HOME

We're picking up Biscuit the donkey with the broken shoulder Monday when we take Molly & Buddy Brat up to Gilbert to the Vet clinic. It's a good thing Cinder is going home today, or we would have to build another pen.........!!!!! I don't know how crippled he is, so we will keep him in a pen for awhile. The man said he walks normal sometimes, so hopefully he'll be able to get out & roam with the rest of them.

Tula is doing pretty good with her "training". I put a long rope on her halter & she seems to have a working knowledge of halters, ropes & things like that. That's not to say she accepts them gracefully, but she certainly knows where to put her feet to avoid stepping on a rope.

Molly the little mule is getting a little pushy, so I guess we will have to start "mule training 101". Since she's never been trained & I've never trained, this should be interesting. I've been trying to lead her by just putting my hand under her jaw & have her follow me. She thought that was fun for awhile, but she wants to move faster than I do, so I guess we'll have to revert to halter & rope for leading.

Jenny is walking pretty good right now. I'm still working on a blob of proud flesh that is growing out of her right front hoof. The Vet gave me some creme to put on it, that didn't work. In the past, I've had good results with Equaide on other types of wounds, & I think eventually it will take care of this blob. It's going to be a long process, because of the amount of tissue involved.

Donkey Rescued

When we checked Pepper last night about 10pm, he was ready to go out, & didn't feel warm, so we let him out. This morning he was back to his usual hungry pushy obnoxious self. I can't imagine 1 bute brought him back from death's door, so can only assume whatever he had wasn't serious. Seeing him stand with his ears hanging was scary.

He is still stumbling & favoring his right front foot. I picked it up this morning & noticed his sole is really thick & below the hoof wall. My first thought was he had false sole but it doesn't sound hollow if you tap on it with a hoof pick. Walking on the sole like that is probably why he is limping.

I'll get in touch with Katie & see what she thinks we need to do, if anything. His feet & sole are so hard, I know I can't trim it.

This is what we face when we open the door & attempt to walk out of the feed room at feeding time. Belle is on the porch & always makes sure she is closest to the door. These five don't go into pens to be fed, they all eat at about the same speed.

Tonight when Pepper came in for supper, he seemed lethargic & was coughing a little bit. I took his temperature, it was 102.5, average for donkeys is 97.2 - 100 degrees. I gave him some bute, & John will check him tonight when he lets most of them out for the night. Hopefully it isn't anything serious. Although Pepper has Cushings & is Insulin Resistant, he's never been sick since he's been here, except for one episode of founder over 3 years ago.