Sha'ba is entering a new phase in his life. When he came here about 7 years ago we were told he was about 40 years old. His incisors were just nubbins, but he still had enough teeth in the back to eat hay. The last time we had him checked by Bert the equine dentist, he said there was nothing he could do with the teeth Sha'ba has left. For years he has gotten a lot of his calories from soaked beet pulp & hay pellets, but was still eating hay. Recently I posted a picture of a hole he dug beside his hay bunk, & wondered if anyone knew why he was digging like that. In hindsight I think he was showing frustration at not being able to eat hay. He hasn't eaten hardly any hay for a couple of weeks, just the pound or so of soaked mush. A few days ago I decided to up the amount of mush I was feeding him & he is eating all I'm giving him........and still not messing with the hay. Poor little guy, he hasn't acted hungry, but I would imagine he has been. He's been eating prickly pear cactus like crazy, but he's always done that. He was so starved when we got him, we thought maybe that was all he had to eat. I will keep giving him more mush until he reaches a level where he leaves some in his feed bucket a couple of times. Who knows maybe we can get a little meat on his bones. He doesn't need to gain much though, although he gets around real good, sometime in his life he has broken his right rear fetlock & it is now fused. So he doesn't need to be carrying a lot of extra weight.
I thought with the extra mush he would leave the cactus alone. NOT........!!!! The first thing he does when he goes out of his pen, is head for his favorite cactus patch. Unfortunately it's getting pretty small, I've told him there isn't going to be any cactus left, if he keeps eating it.
Tula is no longer limping, thank goodness I wasn't looking forward to trying to get up close & personal to find out what was wrong with her. Frijolita is walking much better also. We've started letting her go out at night again. We still don't know if she has been over on Burroland yet or not. I assumed that's where she pulled her groin, but anytime we see her it's on this side of the property.
I still haven't heard anything on Judy's blood test for Cushings. I guess I'll have to get in touch with the vet tomorrow & see what plan B is. Since the girls aren't limping now, I don't know if I will have the other vet come out after all. I was going to have him draw more blood while he was here, to send to a lab of "MY" choice..........!!! (G)
I guess I'm going to have to start giving a little talk, when we send a jenny to a new home. I have had 2 different homes call one was frantic, & one just puzzled, with clacking slobbery mouths, & other, to the unaware, weird behavior. I'll admit jenny flirting, looks like they have something caught in their mouth, or have a kidney problem, but I guess it's quite the turn-on for the guys. And of course some male donkey even though they have been gelded, continue to act stupid. For years we didn't take jennies, for that reason. Life was much simplier with only guys. But I'm glad we did start taking jennies, otherwise Buster would have never found Lucy for his security blanket. SPRING.........AIN'T IT GREAT..........? The other day little 34 inch Cheyenne was trying to get Chester's attention in every way she could. He seemed to think she was kinda cute, even if she can almost walk under his belly. I think the logistics of that relationship, doomed it from the start.......!!!! (G)
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