Forever Home Donkey Rescue

LITTLE WISTER THIS MORNING, HE IS GROWING LIKE A WEED

Yesterday morning old Pepper, choked on hay.  I would imagine his molars are getting worn down close to the gums & no longer grind the hay.  I tried to clear him for a couple of hours, before we hauled him to the vet.  As he did the last time he cleared by the time we got there, but he got tubed anyway, just to make sure.  Dr. Megan said there was a little bit of resistance at the top of the stomach, so it's probably a good thing we went ahead & tubed him.  Otherwise he might have choked again at suppertime.  

We had to go down to Sierra Vista yesterday afternoon to say good-bye to an old friend from Saudi that stopped in the area on his way to California.  While we were there we stopped at Lowe's to see if they had a shredder/mulcher thingie.  

I read about using them to chop up hay to feed those that can't eat regular hay.  We thought about getting hay cubes, but most of them are alfalfa.  

They had this one, so we brought it home & it is simple enough.......well except for the learning curve of NOT trying to chop it in an 18 gallon open bucket.  John said there is a reason the chopped hay, leaves or whatever goes into a closed zipped bag.  It is also a good idea to wait until the motor COMPLETELY stops before opening the bag......!!!  But other than a few slight problems like that, John said it works very good, cuts all the hay about 2 inches long.  

He's even decided to chop hay for Cisco & Cheyenne, since they both have trouble chewing up the longer hay.  

Heloise is suppose to get here in about an hour or so.  The weather is blustery & chilly today.  We were going to put her into an overflow pen, but it has no shelter.  Since she will be staying in for a couple of days to get use to us, I decided to throw BlackJack out of his pen & into the overflow pen.  He doesn't care, in fact he stayed in that pen for a few months not long ago.  As long as he gets fed he could care less where he is. 

I'll try to get pictures of Heloise when she gets here, it will be just about feeding time & John is on a jeep tour.  Depends on if the herd is more interested in seeing the new girl, or more interested in eating....!!!