Saturday, January 30, 2010

IT'S GETTING "KINDA" BUSY AROUND HERE

Yesterday we did a home study for a woman that came out this week to visit with the donkeys.  I saw an ad on Craigslist for 2 jennies & gave her the information & said we'd move them for her if she decided she wanted them.  We also said we would do a home study.  

 CANADA 1937

They are pretty girls both about 6 years old.  Our recent rains have made a mess of the pen they are in & they are standing in deep mud.  Unfortunately their feet haven't been trimmed in a long time, the owner said she hack sawed the feet on one of them when she got them about 8 months ago.  The slippered feet, standing around in mud for days, is a prescription for thrush, white line disease & just about anything else than could cause hoof problems.  

Susan decided to take them, even though they aren't socialized.  I think she might be a rescuer at heart.  We will be hauling them from Hereford Monday, if all goes as planned we will bring them here for a few days.  I am trying to coordinate taking them to the vet to be trimmed by a farrier under sedation.  It would be the easiest answer for everyone involved including the girls.  And it would also give us the opportunity to see if they have any problems with their feet developing.  

While they are here, we will make a small corral around the back of the trailer.  We will feed & water them in the trailer, & they will be able to hop out & visit with whoever comes by to visit with them.  It should just be a few days, I've already talked to the farrier, & he's game.......!!!!!!  Have to wait until Monday to talk to the vet.  She's the one that brought a cowboy & dart gun to geld Paladin, so she has an adventurous outlook on life...........!!!  Ha!

I've been having great fun with my new microscope.  It was a very  much appreciated donation to the sanctuary, (thank you guys, you know who you are)  so I can do fecal samples.  A neighbor has been helping me, & although he is microscope trained, he's not use to looking for worm eggs.  I think he's a trained hydrologist.  I have some pictures of what worm eggs look like, but just about the time I think I know what I'm looking at, something else looks interesting too.  I'll get it figured out, in the meantime, what a fun thing to work with.  There were some prepared slides with the microscope, & the one of bee parts is really something to see.  I went on the internet to see if I could buy  prepared slides of the types of worm eggs equine have.  So far I haven't found them specifically, but they sure have a laundry list of other weird things you can get to look at.  I'll keep looking. 

Pepper is really having a hard time during this wet humid cold time of year.  He takes so long to eat & then he usually lays down.  A lot of time he doesn't even go out of his pen during the day, which means he doesn't get any exercise.  At night he has to stay in the pens because he has his blanket & Whinny Warmers on.  Unfortunately some nights he can't stand on 3 legs enough to get the warmers on, so then I wrap his legs in polo wraps, to help keep them warm.  Hopefully when it warms up he'll be able to get around more which will help his legs.  His legs are all arthritic & he has a bad knee & a hip that was probably cracked a year or so ago, poor old guy.  His ears are still up & he's still interested in the ladies, so although he doesn't move around much he's still enjoying life, which is good.   

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