I HATE WIND....................!!!!

Seems like the last few days, wind has been a large part of our daily lives.  I know, spring in the desert, what should I expect?  It's not as if I haven't lived in other desert areas, which "surprise" have wind in the spring.  But, I don't have to like it........!!!! LOL  The weatherman says this is just a warm up for Wednesday night.  NIGHT, I thought wind was suppose to die down at night.........I hope she's wrong.  

Doctoring is going pretty good, we seem to be staying ahead of open sores and gooey places.  I got a black light flashlight as per Patti's suggestion to look at bald spots and see if they might be ring worm or something.  She forgot the most important thing when dealing with Tish, very simple instructions.........!!!!  Like, what the hell am I looking for.......??  LOL  I went out this morning and looked at all of Boaz's spots.  All of them just showed up with a purple light except for one that was pretty gooey from zinc oxide, it had little bright dots, mostly on the hair, so I assume the zinc oxide had something to do with it. 

 

 The eyes and penicillin wash is going well, although I do think I have a tear duct aka nasolacrimal duct possibly plugged.  Dr. Nancy will be back in town next Monday and we're doing OK, so we'll just watch it for now.  

It seems like every day we get farther and farther behind with getting stuff done.  I have no idea where time goes, and usually at the end of the day, I can't really  name much accomplishment, it's mostly "stamping out forest fires", rather than actually being able to stand back and appreciate a job well done.  Oh! well we aren't bored........!!! LOL

Racing this week-end, John was trying to figure out some way of putting one of the golf cars up on the trailer sideways, ahead of the race car.  Good idea, but the golf cart has a pick-up bed on the back which makes it longer than 8 feet.  That means it would stick out past the fenders, also past the bed of the trailer.  He rigged up some ramps sideways on the trailer that stuck out past the fender, for the wheels to sit on.  Tried it out, but you talk about jeri-rigged, I can't imagine driving down the highway with that thing bouncing along.  SCARY.....!!!  He's trying to figure out some way of getting across the track if I win another race without having to "beat feet".  I told him if he did manage to figure out a way to get a golf cart to the track, I'll probably never win another race........!!!!  LOL 

GROOMING DAY..........YEA........!!!

Grooming is one thing that gets neglected around here, we just run out of time doing other stuff that seems more important.  Some of them shed out pretty good on their own, or they rub it off, which makes them end up looking rather flea bitten.  

Amy and Morgan and one of Morgan's friend's is out there, even as I type, making a lot of donkeys and mules happy.  Amy and her family have 2 of our donkeys along with 6 horses, so needless to say they get to do a lot of grooming with their own animals.  But they love to groom and decided to come out for awhile.  

They have had Big Gus and Rambo aka Bo for years.  Big Gus was going to be a "hard sell", he had one of those personalities, that takes a special person to appreciate.  When they come out to see if he would fit into their family, I ask them if there was anything in the back of their pickup that he could destroy.  They didn't think so, until we came back from seeing some of the other donkeys, and the  50 foot hose they had was in pieces.  They laughed and thought it was funny, and I knew this was Gus' forever home..........!!!  

Bo was a couple of years later, I asked them to foster him, because he couldn't think of anything except girls and since he was a gelding he kept everyone stirred up, until I could find a home for him.  Without jennets around I guess he is a good boy, so they decided to keep him.  We named him Rambo and Amy said he was too sweet to be called Rambo, hence the name change to Bo. 

John wants to see if they can groom on Rosie and Gigi.  They will of course have to be tied, unlike most of the others, hopefully it will go well.  Last night John took Gigi's fly mask off with her not in "her" safe corner, so maybe a little grooming will feel good enough for her to relax.  Reba had to be tied too, she likes to be groomed, but unless it's "official" she wanders off and you have to keep up.  They tied her and she almost fell over she was so relaxed.  But no "tie" no "stand still".  Sometimes they can be so funny. 

Rusty, the white mule has no problem, he has never seen a grooming tool he didn't like.  You could groom on him until there was no hair and he'd think it was just great......!!!! 

The penicillin wash seems to be working on the eyes.  They are clearer, dry, not goopy and not as swollen.  But we are still ready to haul them to Tucson if the swelling doesn't go down pretty quick.

Have some people coming out today to maybe adopt a donkey.  They lost their jennet on Easter Sunday and their gelding is very lonely.  Hopefully we will have someone that will work for them.  

TIS THE SEASON TO DOCTOR I GUESS......!!!

 WHICH IS WHY I DON'T RIDE ANYMORE......!!! 

I've got 3 in leggings or brown gauze bandages, and Boaz looks like he's been bathed in bright pink Thuja Zinc Oxide.  He's got "it" whatever "it" is.  He had a place on his shoulder yesterday, I globbed it up with zinc oxide and this morning it's dry..........but.........the hair has sloughed off.  That's one way to tell if you have it, the hair completely lets go.  I was rewrapping Quilla's legs and asked John to go down to Boaz and doctor him.  So he grabbed the zinc oxide and headed off to play nurse.  All of a sudden I hear yelling and all sorts of noise going on.  I yelled to see what was going on.  It seems Boaz prefers a more gentle touch, especially when dealing with his "boy parts" as John calls them.  Lysa is cleaning pens and we girls got quite a laugh out of the situation, John didn't think it was very funny, for some reason.  Boaz didn't kick AT John he just kicked, but it got John's attention. 

Pepper has a messed up eye.  He's had on a fly mask most of the time, so have no idea what's going on.  I washed it out and put some ointment in it yesterday and this morning it was dry but still closed.  I was going to use some penicillin (vet recommended in the past) 2cc's squirted in the eye, but discovered I don't have any.  I went thru all my goodies awhile back and threw out everything that was expired, I'm sure that's where it went.  

Gigi is finally letting John put her fly mask on and off standing in the corner where the squeeze is, but with it closed.  So she is accepting John actually standing in her space without a panel between them.  She's really walking good for her and her bulging shoulder doesn't seem to stick out as far as it did.  Tyler said it might have been broken at some time, I think it's deformed from walking oddly most if not all her life.  She will never walk "normal", but she certainly is walking a lot better than she was. 

VERY PROUD OF ROSIE.........!!!

SOMALIAN ASS MOMMA AND BABY AT BASIL SWITZERLAND ZOO.  THEY ARE EXTINCT IN THE WILD AND IF A DONKEY HAS "BRACELETS" ON THEIR LEGS, THEY PROBABLY HAVE SOME OF THESE AS ANCESTORS.

Brought the car home in one piece and won the main event, so all in all it was a good night.  Even got my trophy from the Easter bunny, how cool is that.......!!! LOL

Of course we didn't get home until 2am, didn't get to bed until 3.  Unfortunately the donkeys could care less what time we got to bed or how tired we are, they expect breakfast to be served as usual.  It got served, just not very quickly. 

I really should be ashamed of myself with how I bad mouthed Rosie about probably chewing the bandages off.  As far as I could tell she didn't touch them.  The one with just brown gauze had Animax on the leg, which is really good for bacterial infections, so I left it alone.  The other one had zinc oxide on it to get all the dirt and crude soaked off............ hopefully.  We put her in the squeeze to put a halter and lead on her and then tied her and opened the squeeze.  She was a little squirrelly about me cutting the Elasticon bandage off, but all in all not bad.  

Once I got it off I found out a lot of what I thought was dirt was actually scabs. So I scrubbed her leg to get most of them off.  This is really weird, it popped up within a couple of days and really didn't look like much of anything, until we looked closely.  So it got covered with Animax and bandaged up.  All in all she really did well, I wouldn't say she cooperated, but at least she stood still.  

I'll leave the bandages on for 2 or 3 days to give the Animax a chance to do it's thing and to hopefully start new cell growth.  This looks like something she's probably had for quite some time, she's probably another one with a poor immune system.  Patti from Desert Equine Balance suggested Spirulina and Chondroitin sulfate    for Boaz this might be good for her too.  Unfortunately I think it has to be taken for weeks before it kicks in.  I'll be seeing Patti tomorrow night, maybe I'll try to pick her brain, that is if mine has recuperated from sleep deprivation. 

FUN MORNING.......!!!

  GOOD KENYA OWNER - ALL DONKEYS SHOULD BE SO LUCKY

 John noticed last night at feeding time that Rosie had blood on one of her front legs.  I had noticed earlier that her legs looked like they might be interesting to the flies.  But the place he saw was where she had bit it, either because of flies or because it hurt or itched or something.  To late to do anything then, so I decided we'd work on her this morning.  

She will let John put her fly mask on and will allow him to pet her, BUT if you want to do anything more than that, she has to go into the squeeze.  Got her in the squeeze and we had to go thru the "you're not touching my leg and if you do you are going to have to move a 1/2 inch at a time."  We're talking about from 3 inches above her knee to the coronet right above her hoof.  And all this time John is shoveling animal crackers in her mouth, while I try to not get an arm caught in the corral panel.  What is really irritating about her is, she isn't the least bit afraid of us and acts like she has actually been messed with.  But at this time in her life she has decided she isn't interested in cross species relationships with people.  We had to come to an agreement about biting again, just because I am messing with her leg does not give her the right or use that opportunity to grab my hand or arm with her teeth........!!! LOL  I popped her nose about 6 times before she gave up.  So back to getting her to let me touch her leg, ALL OVER.........!!!   Once she decides to let you do something, she stands perfectly still.  

Not sure what she's got, it's dry scabs, although there is dirt mixed in with it, so I assume it has oozed at sometime.  For today, I wrapped the worst one with zinc oxide, brown gauze, tape and covered with Elasticon tape.  The reason for that is I think she will try to take the whole thing off, just a feeling.  I hope the zinc oxide will help clean off the dirt and scabs, so I can get some idea of what I'm dealing with.  It doesn't look like what Quilla gets which ends up as little bloody circles, or what Cisco gets, which oozes a horrible sticky serum. Boy I wish I lived close to a vet school.......!!! 

The other one isn't near as bad, so I went ahead and put some Animax on it & left off the Elasticon to see if she will leave it alone and that would be enough bandaged.  I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she comes in tonight with both bandages off and looking quite proud of herself.....!!! LOL

Moving Ruthie in with the boys is going pretty good.  She gets cranky with Ruger when the mush runs out, guess she doesn't remember he's her little boy too.  

Racing tonight, so we'll feed early

We'll get to do it all over again tomorrow morning. 

WORMING DAY........!!!

 

Not exactly the type of face that presented itself for worming this morning.  Although Rosie and Gigi surprised me.  I figured they had never been wormed, but judging by the way they grabbed the wormer tube and hung on, I think they knew what was going on.  Thank goodness they were getting the apple flavored instead of the "ugh" flavored cheap stuff.  When our Tractor Supply opened a few months ago, they had a lot of specials.  One was good tasting wormer at more than half price off, so I got all they would let me buy.  Unfortunately their limit didn't cover the amount of animals and mules we have.  So I had to pick and choose who got the good stuff.  The others got double cookies afterwards.  

I have heard that mules are a conflicted animal from birth, they aren't horses and they aren't donkeys, so they have an internal battle all their lives.  We knew Rusty was going to be a pain, he always is, but when we walked in the mule pen, Reba almost knocked John down getting out.  Unfortunately for her, she only ended up in Tula's pen next door.  John really needs to stay light on his feet and pay attention to his surroundings or he's going to look like road kill one of these days.  Reba's big enough to make a dent......!!! LOL 

Justin is always a little pain in the butt, we have to chase him around the pen about 5 or 6 times, then he hides his head in the corner and I put the halter on him. 

Penny had to go into the squeeze, and while she was there I had to adjust her legging.  It is almost impossible to wrap a leg above and below the knee with a polo wrap effectively and she has fly damage above the knee unfortunately.  She doesn't mind the polo wraps thank goodness, putting them on with her on one side of a corral panel and me on the other, is a good way to break a hand or wrist if she decides to freak out and act stupid.  But she stood still, although afterwards refused to take an animal cracker from me.  Guess she wants to keep her independence.  No problem with Coquette, we couldn't hardly work with Penny in the squeeze, because of Coquette outside the squeeze.  I ask her if she was a nurse.  She had already had her wormer and really thought she should continue getting cookies.......!!

Starting tonight Ruthie is going to be eating with her boys, Ruger and Wister.  She is not holding her weight being with Frijolita at feeding time.  I thought they both ate at about the same speed, but guess not.  Frijolita is a real "Hoover" when it comes to food. 

THE SEASON IS HERE......!!!

ONE OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE............EVER.....!!

FLIES.........  I hate flies...........!!!!  This year I'm trying something different.  I am getting twice as many fly predators each month as I have before.   As of now I have not hung any fly traps on the property at all.  I was talking to Ed at the feed store, and he said why would I want to invite flies in?  Since he is in the business of selling among other things, fly traps, I figured it couldn't hurt to try not using them.  

So far I don't think the flies are as bad as they usually are.  I'm pretty sure I'd be seeing lots of flies in the traps by now.  But I'm not seeing that many on the donkeys.  Everyone is wearing fly masks except for Ruger and Wister.  They are busy enough taking masks off some of the other guys.  I'm pretty sure if they had masks on, they wouldn't last till lunch time.  LOL So they can fight the few flies around, for awhile, maybe then they will appreciate their masks, although I doubt it.  

Quite a few of the donkeys will walk to you when they see you carrying a mask and lower their heads.  I assume they have put 2 and 2 together and appreciate the masks.  I just wish they would learn, when someone takes a mask off, that someone........anyone would pick it up and bring it to the house.  I'd be willing to trade the fly mask for animal crackers.........!!!!   Sure would save John a lot of walking, he's bound and determined to find any and all missing masks.  So far I think he's found 2 that were missing from last year, and has 2 or 3 missing from this year that he can't find.  Gives him something to do I guess.  

Having said that, the flies not being as bad, does not mean there aren't flies.  And some of them are stable flies, which aren't attracted to the traps anyway.  A few days ago I wrapped Quilla's front legs because one of them had fly damage.  This morning I wrapped Penny's front legs.  Stable flies usually stay below the knees, but she has scarring above the knee and they were starting on her.  I have at least 3 more that will probably have to be wrapped before it's over with, but for now they are doing OK. 

NOT MUCH HAPPENING AROUND HERE, AND THAT'S A GOOD THING...........!!!!

ZEKE AND MIKE PENCIL DRAWING BY  LOCAL ARTIST, Clement Scott

I really like the boredom of one day being just like another.  We don't race tonight, so that cuts down on the kinetic frantic getting ready.  Actually John does all that getting ready stuff, I don't think he would trust me to do anything on the car, any more than I trust him in my kitchen.....!!!  LOL  We learned many years ago, to stay out of each others areas and to not try to work together.  We're still married and having fun, so it's worked.

Usually in the morning after we feed, I come in to take care of Mother and hide out while John and Lysa do the work......!!!!  This morning John was picking up poo, and I actually made the effort to go out and help him.  That's one thing we can do together, neither of us cares how it's done as long as it gets done.  The first thing I noticed was the flies and sun have gotten to Quilla's bare front legs.  As I moved along, picking up poo and refilling water buckets I checked out Cisco's sheath, just for fun....!!!  I've had him on Benedryl since January, hoping to get ahead of his allergies.  Well, obviously a fly has landed on his sheath in the last day or so, because he's managed to scrape it into a bloody wound.  Sigh....!!!    I was so hoping that we could keep it at bay without having to put Thuja Zinc Oxide on it every other day.  I'll have to keep an eye out on his legs, he gets sores on his legs with lots of serum oozing down the legs.  Makes a mess and is much easier to deal with if I catch it early.  

So while John continued picking up poo, I got my medical kit and headed out.  I doctored Quilla's leg and went ahead and wrapped both front legs.  Although only one was bloody, the other one wouldn't be far behind, I'm afraid.  

Over the years I've wrapped legs with just about everything.  Most things work, some are more labor intensive than others.  Since I put a bandage on the sore area, and wrapped that in brown gauze, I just went ahead and wrapped the other leg in brown gauze too.  If it holds up OK, I might try it on the others.  This morning he was trying to impress Coquette, with his manliness, so we'll see how well the gauze holds up under fire.  I know Boaz's doesn't hold up very well, when he's entertaining the girls.  The gauze would be great, it's lightweight and breathable, which would be nice when summer gets here.  

Wister and Ruger were also involved in the "orgy"...........!!!  Wister leads a very interesting life, one minute he's nursing off Ruthie, the next minute he's on Coquette, actually showing the others how it's done......!!!  Who knew, you would think getting gelded at age 4 months would curtail that behavior, guess not..!!!

Gigi is really walking good with her new shoe.  She seems to be comfortable and I never see her laying down, except when she's enjoying one of the sandy bathing areas.  I am really impressed with how she is doing.  Just wish both her and Rosie would be a little more cooperative.  John is putting on and taking off fly masks now.  Rosie will "allow" John to put on and take off without being in the redneck squeeze, but lets him know it isn't her idea. 

Gigi has to go in her squeeze.  She sees him coming and goes in the squeeze to wait for him.  We've tried closing the squeeze and hoping she would go stand "beside" outside it.  NOPE!  There has to be a corral panel between them, then she will just stand there and let him put on or take off.  

Neither one of these girls are afraid of us, but any interaction so far is on their terms.  If it's dark John can do just about anything with Rosie, in daylight, not going to happen. 

GIGI GOT ANOTHER PEDICURE.........

It's been 3 months since Tyler trimmed her excessively overgrown feet and set an elongated shoe on her right front to keep it from turning backwards.

First of all let me say, this is the 2nd time recently I have gotten a finger or in this case a thumb caught up inside a donkey mouth.  When we were trying to get Gigi in the trailer this morning, I offered an animal cracker as incentive and I guess she was afraid I wasn't going to give it to her.  The nail is loose on the side, which let the blood ooze out this afternoon, so the nail lost it's black color.  It's still oozing, which John seems to think is a good thing.  I actually had a split on that thumb that has really been sore for weeks, haven't been able to get it to heal.  For some reason it hasn't bothered me at all since this happened.........!!!! LOL

When we started getting her in the trailer this morning, she really wasn't trying to be difficult, and loaded much easier than we expected.  John jacked the front of the trailer up, to make the back  lower, so she wouldn't have to jump so high.  We let her look at it a few minutes, I tried putting up a front foot a couple of times and all of a sudden she hopped up and in.  

We hauled her into Nancy's and Tyler met us there.   He observed Gigi for a little while, decided to do her in the trailer, could use the walls for support and try to do her standing up.  Nancy gave her a happy shot and Tyler and Buster went to work.

Tyler seems to think she will not turn the foot back, so he cut all the long growth and epoxy off.  It's really not epoxy, but I don't know what it is.  It looks like tar, but was a real bear to get off, some tough stuff. 

 He put a regular shoe on that is just a little larger than her trimmed foot and she seems to be just fine with it. 

This was after we got home and she seems to be doing good.

I think she looks great.  She was really pretty good on the front feet, but when he got ready to do the backs, she let him know that was over the line.  She can kick and really quick.  So for her trouble she got another happy shot.  

Tyler seems to think we won't have to bring her to Nancy's in the future, should be able to do her here.   That will be much easier on her and us, although I'm not sure about Tyler......!!! LOL

You might notice her other front hoof looks a little deformed.  Tyler seems to think the deformity was from the hoof being so overgrown.  The growth coming out of the coronet is coming out nice and straight, so we're hoping eventually it will be more normal. 

RAVENS

We never know what we are going to find when we are out with the donkeys.  Last night I was filling up water buckets in the pens.  I noticed one looked like it had a lizard in the bottom that had drown.  I hate to find lizards or mice in the buckets, we try to keep them full, so if the little critters fall in hopefully they can get out.  

So I dumped the bucket to clean it and low and behold, it wasn't a lizard, it was a piece of roasted chicken breast about 5 inches long.  My first thought was, where in the world did that come from?  We haven't had roasted chicken in ages and we certainly wouldn't put the leftovers in the water buckets, if we did.  

Our resident ravens are the likeliest culprits.  They have an affinity for trying to wash their food or soak it or something.  We find all sorts of food stuffs in the waterers, up to and including bread.  Believe me, that is NOT appreciated, that calls for a dump and they seem to like the Ritchie watererer for bread, which is not a simple dump.  

They raised one baby last year, so far this year we've only seen one, so we assume the baby got ran off and momma is sitting on the nest, and poppa is going out shopping.

Actually we also have raccoons, but we've seen the ravens dunking food in the waterers.  I had a raccoon as a pet when I was little.  One of my favorite things was to give Butch a sugar cube and watch him wash it............!!!  Kids are such cruel little beings aren't they......????? 

NOT EXACTLY WHAT I EXPECTED

MIKE AND ZEKE ON THE STREETS OF TOMBSTONE WITH AN ADMIRER

TERESA AND ZEKE ON THE STREETS OF TOMBSTONE

TOMBSTONE ZEKE WILL BE HAVING HIS EYE SURGERY NEXT WEEK.  A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT HELPED PUT THE FUND RAISER OVER THE TOP.  HE'S WORTH IT.........!

Yesterday we finally got an experimental cat box ready for use.  A friend of mine had a storage container with a hole cut in it for a cat box and it cuts down on cat litter being dragged all over the house.  With four cats, 3 of which like to sneak up on the other one and make her run at the most opportune moment makes for a lot of kitty litter EVERYWHERE.  Kathy said it actually works, so we figured to give it a try. 

As you can see Nigel took to it immediately, unfortunately not in the way intended.  I have taken the top off, to see if that helps them figure out how to use it.  

Most of the donkeys now have fly masks on.  The flies aren't that bad, but even a few usually go for the eyes, which has to be irritating.  We haven't put masks on Wister and Ruger.  We did put one of Ruthie and haven't seen it since, which is one of the reasons we haven't bothered with the boys.  I'm sure they won't stay on very long.

Boaz's knee is still looking good, I sure hope this time it heals.

 Yesterday I received a summons for jury duty.  This has always been something I've wanted to do, came close a few years ago, managed to make it into the jury box, but the druggie didn't show up.  I told the guy sitting next to me, that we should have just went ahead, found him guilty and the next time the sheriff picked him up, he could go straight to jail.  Wish I had a picture of his face, he seemed to think I was a little judgemental I guess........!!!   I'd love to be on one of those big ones, but I have a feeling neither side would want me, especially the defendent.  LOL  I'm a little too black/white in my opinion of right and wrong to be swayed by a bunch of lawyers jabbering I'm afraid.

Unfortunately with Mother being bedridden, there is no way I can go down to Bisbee and play with the system.  I got in touch with them and explained Mother is bedridden and I am her primary care person, actually her only one.  So I have a call into her doctor for a "get out of jury duty" letter.  I hope he doesn't want to see her, she is so frail no telling what a trip to town would be like for her and for me.  Hopefully he'll take my word for it and write the letter.