HOPEFULLY WE'VE TURNED A CORNER

 LOUISE, 

(I forgot I took a couple of pictures of her)

After sharing Louise's necropsy with friends that know a whole lot more than I do about a lot of things the consensus was, the other 2 girls were probably about as compromised as Louise had been.  

The problem is & believe me this is simplistic, otherwise I'd really be confused.  With fatty liver disease, if they quit taking in enough calories, the fat in the liver breaks off & gets in the blood stream.  They can end up with hyperlipidemia which is probably what Louise had.  It can be caused by stress, (left her home, got her feet trimmed, went from eating alfalfa & sweet feet to bermuda & beet pulp, etc)  And of course was about 10 months pregnant.  

The other 2 girls weren't eating very good either, so I was told that I had to get them to eat.................!!!!   Friday night John brought them some of the chicken's alfalfa, but they just picked at it.  So I spent a lot of yesterday on the internet e-mailing back & forth trying to figure out what they might eat.  Then John took me to the store to get just about everything anyone suggested, although I couldn't find Fenugreek.  John said I need to shop a little higher up the food  chain than Wal-Mart........!!!!  We also brought home a new cutting of alfalfa, needless to say John got that unloaded & hidden in the hay barn first thing when we got home, & before anyone figured out what was going on or he would have been mobbed.  

I have piled on my kitchen table, assorted jellos, such as strawberry, lime, orange, cherry.  Apple juice to spritz their hay if necessary.  Applesauce if the juice doesn't work.  Cheerios, & peppermint & banana extract to use for "spritzing".  Baby foods such as carrots, &  peas.  So far I tried orange jello powder sprinkled on pellets.  Mocha said, NO.........Thelma seemed to think it was pretty good. 

I got a little over 4 pounds of pellets down them yesterday & this morning they ate pellets pretty good.  But the bermuda hay from yesterday was still there this morning.  John took it up to the hay barn, mixed it 50-50 with some alfalfa & the last I saw of them, they were plowing thru it, looking for...............the alfalfa of course.  So hopefully we won't have to use all the exotic "flavors" to entice them to eat.  If they do have fatty liver disease and/or hyperlipidemia or both, it is absolutely vital that they eat & keep their systems operating thru-out. 

One suggestion that was really neat was to make a tea from alfalfa, put it in a spray bottle & spray the bermuda with the alfalfa tea.  I might try that this afternoon just to see if it works.  What a great idea, they wouldn't be getting much alfalfa that way.  

Old Pepper is managing to either get up or stay on his feet the last few days, John hasn't had to get him up anyway.  He's still got 3 nasty "bed" sores on his hip where he was down for quite awhile the last time.  But the ears are up & he is still upset that Burroland isn't open. 

Everyone else is doing good.  Jenny walks so much better in her boots, I've about decided she's just going to wear them all the time, rather than try to work her out of them & back to barefoot.  It isn't worth the effort, if she's comfortable wearing them.  The only real problem is, we have to keep a close eye on her to make sure the boots made for horses, don't make her coronets sore. 

Saw our first rattlesnake yesterday.  He was on the back porch & the outdoor cats showed John where he was.  This morning I looked out the bedroom window & saw Selena half rear, spin & move about 15 feet, stop come back & start using her nose to figure out what was making all that noise.............!!!!  YIKES, I started screaming for John, he was having breakfast.  The snake was still rattling like crazy & Selena is still acting like she's going to put her nose on it, or at least close enough that I could envision another rattlesnake bite.  By the time John got out there, the snake had decided he'd had enough & had crawled into a convenient Rabbit Bush.  There is everything in that bush, including rabbits, it's about 20 feet across.  Of course when Selena saw John she went to him, in case he had a treat, so that got her away from the area.  WHEW!  sure don't want no more rattlesnake bites.  Everyone says to kill them, but our theory is, if you know where your snakes are, you're better off than having new snakes coming in & surprising you when you least expect it.  Wish we could explain that to the donkeys.