We took Tucker & Mocha into the 24 hour vet clinic in Tucson this afternoon. We thought he was recuperated from his choke Friday, but he choked again this afternoon. We worked with him for an hour or so, & decided the best thing would be to take him in so he could be tubed.
They were waiting for us, took him in, endoscoped him & really didn't find much except that whatever it is that is suppose to be over the palate is under it. They think it is temporary because he would be doing a lot of coughing if it was that way all the time. It's what keeps food from going down in his lungs. Then they tubed him, & ran into a little bit of resistance right at the top of his stomach.
We think it was hay. I've been soaking all their food since Friday, except for the hay. They said he has nice looking teeth & should be able to eat hay, but if the little sphincter thingy at the top of his stomach, constricted just as something got there, they said it might keep anything else from going down. He's been chewing on just about everything in sight, so he might be cutting teeth, & if his gums are sore, he might not be chewing his hay properly. In other words...........who knows. We left them there for the night & will pick them up tomorrow if he does OK. We might have to feed Mocha soaked pellets for awhile, rather than hay to keep him from eating it & not chewing properly.
Mocha is such a sweet little girl. She wasn't too happy about going into the trailer again, even with Tucker already in it. After banging her mouth & knocking out a tooth Friday, can't say I blame her. We led her from the trailer to the clinic & then into the stall area & she did better than some of the ones that have had a lot more lead time than she has. She is more than willing to try to do what you want her to do if she knows what it is.
As soon as they were put in their stall, Tucker started picking up little pieces of hay off the ground. There wasn't much, because they didn't want him to have access to hay or shavings or anything like that. But he was finding some.
Yesterday we had 2 groups of people come out to see the donkeys. One group came out with Terry. Terry use to come out & groom donkeys every week, until she got too many animals of her own that need to be taken care of. She had a group of friends that wanted to come out & groom. But we spent so much time visiting with the donkeys, we didn't get any grooming done. That's OK, the donkeys love to have people visit, grooming would have just been icing on the cake, so to speak.
Then we have a couple come out that are interested in getting some donkeys. They were real nice & will be good donkey parents I think. We'll be doing a home study hopefully next week. Once all that is out of the way, the next step will be to find them some "fur" kids to add to their family. Not sure we have anything right now, but I'm sure we'll be able to help them find some.
We're talking about taking Jenny up to the clinic up at Gilbert. This morning I soaked her foot because when I went out to check her there was a small area about 1/2 inch below her coronet that was oozing blood that was almost black & smelled horrible. I have a feeling it is a hold over from when she was so lame on that foot a few weeks ago. Now that it's open she isn't lame, but obviously something is wrong. We could probably take her to where Tucker & Mocha are in Tucson, but we've always taken our "interesting" cases up to them & they've never let us down. I'll probably call in the morning. The trouble is, this next week is pretty much filled in, equine dentist Thur for Drifter, Rusty & maybe Jenny. Friday will be pedicures for Thelma, Mocha & Drifter. Once Drifter has all his problems taken care of, I'll will call Tricia & make arrangements for him to go to his new home.
We're going to miss the little guy even if he hasn't been here very long. He "helps" you anytime you are outside. When we were trying to load Mocha he was trying to get in the trailer, which needless to say, didn't help get her loaded. If you yell at him, he just looks at you with sad little eyes, & his ears hanging out to the side, so I try not to yell at him.
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