Here's the first info out of Hawaii that I've found about the donkeys being brought to the mainland. It sounds like the good heartedness of one man started the project. I hope it all goes well, that many large animals on a plane is mind boggling. My next question would be, who cleans up the plane? (G)
When Georgette & I were in Miles last week-end Mark told us, rather than bring frozen beef to Hawaii they use these 747's that have been redesigned to haul live cattle. I guess there isn't enough cattle on the islands to feed the population. They put 4 cattle in pens that hold 4 cattle, & load the pens "ie" crates side by side & away they go. I think Mark said there will be 6 donkeys per crate. What a project I'm glad to see other organizations are involved, I hope with funds, because something like this certainly isn't cheap. All the jacks will be gelded before the trip, so that's good. When we went out to the headquarters, we saw a LOT of jacks that need to be gelded, as soon as it cools off. Texas A&M brings their students out which gives them practice & gets a lot of jacks gelded in a day or two.
We picked up baby Tucker & Mocha yesterday in a hellious rainstorm, it rained most of the trip home & we had some rain after we got here. Welcome home, little man........!!! They rode just fine. Georgette went with us, I think she thought the little guy was going to ride in the van like he did when he went to the doctor........but.........he is a lot more livelier than he was a few days ago. He would have been bouncing off the seats, with his sharp little hooves, & probably bouncing off Georgette too. So he rode in the trailer like a big donkey.
I found out that not only did he get infection in his umbilical stump because we didn't find him for awhile after he was born, but he was also a dummy foal. That means he probably was deprived of oxygen before or during his birth. I guess we were lucky he could even nurse because a lot of times they can't. The clinic thought he probably wasn't nursing well enough to get all the colostrum he should have gotten, so he got a plasma transfusion.
We have to give him karo syrup every day & he's also on antibiotics for a few days. He had an elevated temperature today, not much but higher than I'd like. It hasn't stopped him from running all over the pen. Poor Mocha seems to think she has to stay right with him, so she's getting quite a workout. The clinic was impressed with what a good protective mom she is, considering how young she is.
When John tried to catch him to give him the karo syrup, is when we found out that he's a lot more livelier & much faster than he was a few days ago. One person certainly couldn't dose him or "heaven forbid" take his temperature, he really doesn't like that being done. I told John we need to work on getting him to come to us, rather than us having to catch him, because he's already faster than we are. We can trap him in his shelter, but that probably won't work very long.
Maybe I can get some more pictures of him tomorrow.
2 comments:
Can't wait to see pics of Tucker.
Last night he was running around like a wild man. This morning I went out with the camera & he just stood & looked at me...!!
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