BOOFER UPDATE

Vet just called, said his blood count is about what it was right after his transfusion last night, but she would like to hold him at least another day and check his blood a couple more times to make sure it's holding.  

She said he's been a very good boy, although he doesn't like one of the male techs, but he does like the "girls".  She also said he seems to love his kennel, and had to pee before they got around to taking him for a walk.  Rather than pee in his kennel, he managed to pee outside the kennel.  It's amazing to hear how social he is, considering he's basically been wild his whole life, with very little responsibility to do what someone else wanted him to do. 

I asked if they had any idea what caused this.  She said a lot of times they never find out.  Just heard from a friend that her cousin had almost the exact same scenario yesterday up in Phoenix, with her 9 year old dog.  The vet said there was no guarantee, so they put her down.  Of course if his red blood count doesn't hold, it might get a little more complicated.  His liver x-rayed a little large, she said if the bone marrow wasn't manufacturing red blood cells,  the spleen and liver would try to take over and that might account for the enlargement. 

So it sounds like, if his blood numbers hold, we'll pick him up tomorrow.  If not, I guess they'll do another transfusion.  

POOR BOOFER

A couple of nights ago, Boofer wasn't interested in eating his supper.  Boofer's the dog we took to the vet to have body clipped last month.  Didn't seem particularly sick, so I didn't worry about it.  Yesterday he wasn't interested in eating all day, although I did get some Tramadol down him in deli ham.  Had to poke him with some Predizone.  This morning when we checked him, he was sitting up, so I came in to scramble an egg to mix with cottage cheese.  Add a little green beans and you have an almost perfect "sick" diet for dogs.  Wasn't at all interested, but I checked his gums and they were WHITE, no color at all.  Local vet isn't open until 8am, so I hit the telephone book and found a clinic in Sierra Vista that opens at 7am and said bring him in.  Gave John a choice of taking him or feeding and he chose going to the vet.  So off they went.  

John has called along the way, when he got there the tech looked at his gums and he went directly in.  Drew blood, high calicum (possible tumor), low red blood cells, high white blood cells and low lymphatic cells.  They asked about poison, I don't know of anyone right around us that uses rat poison or anything like that.  But he's a wanderer and it's not that far to the next road north.  Their recommendation was a blood transfusion, which of course they don't do.  So the last I heard John and Boofer were headed for a Specialty clinic in Tucson.    Well, actually the phone just rang and it was John at the Tucson clinic.  This is something that I find "interesting" in vet clinics these days.  They give you an estimate before they do anything.  I find it strange they know what it will cost (will probably end up more) but they don't know what the problem is.  Seems like a disconnect there to me.  Maybe they are just finding out what your level of acceptance is.  I would imagine a lot of dogs and cats get euthanized at that stage.  They don't talk about 100's they go right to the 1000's.  

John said Boofer will probably have to stay at the clinic, for a few days. Wonder if they factored that in, now I'm getting snitty aren't I?  It might be a good thing John did go instead of me.......!!!!  LOL

Well at least the donkeys are all doing pretty good right now.  We had a group of kids out for a tour this morning from Caring Connections, a local group that works with at risk kids. They bring kids out 3 or 4 times a year, in fact one of the girls said she had been here before.  They do just fine, but there is usually at least one little boy that is a busy little bee, and sure enough..........  LOL  I remember years ago there was a group from Tucson that came out once a month.  One of the boys, actually he was probably late teens early 20's, with mental disabilities,  all he wanted to do was to get in the wash and dig in the sand.  He wasn't interested in the donkeys or listening to his handlers.  He'd almost run to the wash, being chased by someone.  I told them to let him go and let him dig if he wanted to.  One of the pleasures of living beyond the sidewalks, weird behavior can be tolerated without causing a crisis.  They said they couldn't let him do that, because he'd want to dig other places.  Poor kid, if digging made him happy, let him dig......!!! 

Anubis seems to be back to normal, I still think she had a stroke.  She had a spell like this in January and now this one.  If she has another one we'll take her to the Specialty clinic as the vet recommended.  If they tested her now, I doubt that they would find the cause, since she is back to normal.

Suppose to hit 100 degrees this week-end.  The last couple of days have been in the high 90's, so I guess we'll be use to it, by the time it gets here.  I just hope we don't have a long hot summer.  June is the hottest month in Tucson and then we're suppose to go into the monsoon season.  So far for the year we are a little over 1/2 inch above normal rainfall, which is really good.  But that won't last long if we don't get some rain in July and August. 

BOY, I'M GLAD THAT'S DONE.......!!

 My back and hands are glad this is over.  I won't be using either the rest of the day.........LOL  This is Coquette on drugs..........!!!  It's a good thing I just went ahead and just gave her the Dormosedan, rather than try to reason with her.  Even drugged, she tried to be uncooperative, but couldn't override the stuff.  She would have been a lot of fun without drugs, I'm sure. 

BEFORE

Quite a difference huh?  Her stored fat also shows up much easier.  This poor girl has been on a diet since she got here, almost 3 years ago, she only gets 4 pounds of hay a day and all she can find.  She must be finding plenty, I know she runs all the pens looking for leftovers as soon as we let her out twice a day.  In fact when we turned her loose, she went directly to Penny's bunk to pick up scraps and she was still pretty groggy. 

AFTER

IT'S AMAZING HOW MUCH HAIR COMES OFF ONE DONKEY.  WE'VE GOT MORE THAN THE LOCAL BIRDS CAN HAUL OFF, THAT'S FOR SURE........!!!  lol

SPRING CLIPPING....2 DOWN, ONE TO GO........!!

This is the last time I ask John to take a picture of Quilla helping me clip Daisy.  Good grief, a little less of my fanny would have been nice.............!!!   LOL  He's very literal, I asked him to take pictures, he was sitting on the feed room porch.  The thought of moving to a better location to make the picture more interesting, never occurred to him, I'm sure.  She's really a good girl to clip, although she was getting a little antsy about where I was clipping.  I don't think it was so much a problem with where I was, as it was because the clippers were getting pretty hot.

Not sure what Quilla's interest was, although I think it might be animal crackers.  He was just clipped a couple of days ago, and remembers the drill very well.  He stayed thru the whole process, of course every time she got a cookie, he got one too, so it's no wonder he stuck around.

Anubis is doing very well, a little stumble here and there, but not much.  I keep asking her if she's ready to go back in the pen with Nicki.  So far she just lays on her nice bed on the courtyard and wags her tail.  We'll probably put her in later this afternoon.  She's made friends with Saddik on her outings to go potty.  He seems to think she is pretty cute and she doesn't seem to mind him jumping around like a maniac.  So far he has gotten along with everybody, well except for a rabbit he tried to chase this morning.  He's fast, but the rabbit was much faster, thank goodness.  

I saved Coquette for last, I'm pretty sure she won't be as cooperative as Daisy and Quilla, last time I did her, we had to put her in a redneck squeeze and believe me clipping around the pipe, gave her an interesting hair cut.  I'll just drug her with Dormosedan instead, if I have to. 

THIS PICTURE MAKES ME LAUGH.....!!

Hope it makes you laugh too.  You have to admit it's certainly different.......!!

The test for Valley Fever came back for Anubis and it was negative, which is a good thing.  Of course that leaves us not knowing what is wrong with her.  My personal opinion is stroke, the vet won't say.  If we want to continue trying to figure it out, we'll have to take her to one of the specialty clinics in Tucson.  We went to one of them with one of the cats years ago and since they have all the fancy machines you can get any type of test needed.  

This is how she looked yesterday, very lethargic, although the predizone (spelling doesn't count) is keeping her appetite good.   She finally went poo today after 3 days and quite a bit of pumpkin.  And today she isn't quite as rocky on her feet.  She was stumbling so much she would fall on her face.  I left her harness on, so we could pick her up when she fell down.  

Today she is stronger and more engaged in her surroundings.  She also has more control over her tongue.  It would go out the right side of her mouth and she didn't seem to have the ability to pull it back.  Today was better.  I'll watch her over the week-end and see if she continues to improve, before calling the clinic.  

Poor Rusty the mule.  He's still gimping around on his bowed tendon and swollen fetlock.  He got them at different times on the same leg.  My experience on bowed tendons is, you can treat it, keep them penned and it takes weeks, or you can let them decide on how much they move around and it takes weeks.......!!!  At least for donkeys.  Since he's a mule, I hope he has enough sense to take care of himself like a donkey and not have to be babied like a horse.  He seems to be doing OK, spends time laying down and hanging around the pens.  He likes to slowly paw the air and look sad.  I've told him I can't fix it, but he seems to think I should.  

I finished clipping Quilla today.  I got a little bit better with the clippers, finally got them adjusted, boy does that make a difference..........LOL  Daisy will be next and then Coquette.  Coquette is going to be a challenge.  I'm trying to decide whether to give her a chance to behave herself, or just go ahead and drug her.  The last time I wish I had drugs........!!  

Tonight at feeding time John said Boaz had a bloody place on his lip.  Sure enough, I took 5 or 6 habronema larvae out of a place about the size of a dime.  Didn't notice it yesterday, it's at the back corner and hard to see.  Just finished a 5 day Pancur Power Pac worming for Rosie.  Not sure a Power Pac kills habronema, but figure it can't hurt.  

We're doing pretty good so far with skin problems.  I wish someone would do a study on the link of summer skin problems and poor immune systems on equine.  And find a cure............!!! 

CLIPPING DAY..........ALMOST

I finally got my new blades, the ones I'm having sharpened are still in Phoenix.  I was going to clip Quilla yesterday, but we had to take Anubis into Tucson to the vet.  Over the week-end she started acting like she did in January.  At that time they did x-rays and didn't find anything that would make her wobble and whine if you mess with her neck.  At the time they gave her predizone and tramadol and she got better.  We came home with predizone again, they tested her for valley fever but won't find out the results for a few days.  She's doing better, back to eating, but still stumbling around.  If she doesn't have valley fever, guess we'll be taking her to a neurologist.  

So this morning, I got out my toys and started on Quilla.  John put the new blades on the clippers and we had a heck of a time getting them adjusted.  Not sure we ever got it done, I only got about half of him done before they overheated and I couldn't hold them.  That would lead me to believe they needed to be adjusted different than we had them.  My arms and hands are so useless, that between that and the clippers not working very well, poor Quilla looks like a plucked chicken, well at least half of him does.  The other half awaits further attention.  

I don't know if he's ever been clipped before or not, but he stood like it was no big deal.  Well except when I ran across a mat in his armpit.  It was really close to the skin and pretty tender.  So I used the furminator It's hard to tell he's been clipped, although if you look at the ground, there's quite a bit of hair on the ground.  I'm leaving his legs hairy to discourage the flies.

I think next year I will try to find someone that knows what they are doing, maybe it won't be as traumatic for the donkeys and also me..........LOL  There are 3 of them that will have to be clipped every year.   Quilla and Daisy because of the Cushings disease and Coquette just because she is overly hairy.  She isn't really old enough to have Cushings, but perhaps I should have her tested.  Maybe next time I have the vet out on a farm call. 

So tomorrow John will put new blades on for me and we'll see if I can at least get Quilla finished. 

GRANDKIDS OUT FOR A VISIT

 Saturday the kids came out for the afternoon.  I'm pretty sure when they went home they slept good at least the 2 little ones...........LOL  Becky and JR spent a lot of time chasing them, so they probably were worn out too.  Some of the donkeys love kids and will stand still as long as the kids pay attention to them, Gus is one of them.   

Becky and Kyler being entertained by Pepsi and Cheyenne

 

The golf cart was a big hit

Of course we had to sit in the race car, thanks Becky

I got my new clipper blades, so we'll try clipping again.  It's not hot yet, so no big hurry although I've noticed as I get older it's easier to put things off until later.  Probably should make the effort to "git er done" ASAP.......!!  LOL

Everyone is doing pretty good, although Courtney is going to have to come out again and build an epoxy sole for Gus.  We had to take the last one off because it was coming loose around the edges and we were afraid rocks would get under the edges. 

Started Rosie on a 5 day Panacur worming treatment this morning.  She has had sores on her belly ever since we got her 1 1/2 years ago.  They are in a line, will get better with treatment, but never actually go away.  If she has thread worms or neck worms, this could possibly be the cause.  

SADDIK IS MAKING HIMSELF AT HOME

 LOOKS RIGHT AT HOME ON "HIS" GOLF CART

A few days ago I showed him how to get in the cart and since then he seems to think it's his.  He's also figured out if he stays in it, he probably won't miss any trips.  LOL  He really is a smart boy, wish we could find him a great home.  

We've been working on not chasing cars when they leave.  He's actually doing very good, we went out the other day and probably stopped the truck, with me getting out 4 or 5 times in the driveway to apprise him of the fact that I was going to "kill" him if he continued trying to follow the truck.  We're still working with him, so far he hasn't shown any interest in chasing the truck again, guess I made my point.........!!!  But Doug's little SUV is still a possibility.  This morning he went out, Saddik was sitting by John and John distracted him every time he started to get up and it worked.  We'll see what happens when there isn't someone to distract him.  

We've got some people coming Saturday to visit with Wister and Ruger, but I don't think they have a large enough area for the boys.  They love to run and play, but I think these people just have a small pen.  Too bad from what I've heard they would make real good donkey parents. 

This is Amy and Beau in the Dragoon Saloon last Saturday after the races.   It's an outdoor type of bar and he had no qualms about going in to visit.  

Yesterday morning Amy was here to pick up poo and came in the house limping.  It seems she had seen Boofer and Nicki playing "wishbone" with Saddik.  What makes it really interesting is Nicki was in the pen, but they both had hold of him, Nicki on one side of the fence and Boofer on the other.  Amy said all she could think of was vet bills.  Unfortunately she stretched the large muscle across the front of her thigh, had to go to the emergency room, get it wrapped in an ace bandage and walk with crutches until they tell her different.  Saddik didn't even act like anything happened to him.  

The equine are all doing pretty good.  Rusty the mule is still gimping around.  He bowed a tendon probably stepping in a rock squirrel hole, we have plenty of them.  He's doing better, but it seems like with a bowed tendon, it takes forever to heal. 

We're fighting the battle of keeping socks up on legs and polo wraps on Penny's rear legs to keep the stable flies at bay.  I've figured out how to use polo wraps on rear legs pretty good, well at least I thought I had figured it out.  Just noticed Penny is dragging one of them, so we'll have to catch her at feeding time in a redneck squeeze.  She's so much better than she was when she came here about 3 years ago, but she will not stand to let us work with her.  Well, actually that isn't true, John can pull up her socks on the front without the squeeze or tying her.  Unfortunately I'm not in her inner circle for some reason.  If I want to work with her, it will be what we call "official".....!!! LOL

FIRST ANNUAL DONKEY RESCUE WALK

Last Saturday was a lot of fun.  We hauled the above loud mouth aka Beau one of our alumni down to Tombstone so he could be in the race.  None of us including Amy his "mom" knew how he would behave, because behaving isn't really his favorite thing.  He seemed to think challenging Zeke was what he needed to do.  When we left the race start area, Amy was looking for a tree to tie him too, her arms were getting tired.  We made jokes about all the yucca, cactus and rocks along the race route, that he could drag her thru........

We headed for Tombstone to set up our "kiss an ass" booth.  Mike at the Doc Holliday Saloon let us set up right in front of his door, which was in a high traffic zone for tourists.

Taken by one of the Tombstone Vigilettes

Taken by Grandma, Tina Eden
 

Pedro, costume winner, Tombstone Vigilette's picture

Zeke and Pedro in costume contest, by Joanne Rummel

A lot of people said they would bring their donkeys, but didn't.  We all had a great time, but it would have been even more fun with more participants.   Of course Beau would probably have lost his voice.  Maybe next year. 

Amy said he did just fine once they got moving, the race was about 3 miles, they said 2 1/2, but I'm pretty sure it was longer than that.  He came prancing into town leading the race and really seemed to enjoy all the attention.  

Cheyenne's little friend was with Cheyenne most of the day.  She's go off for a little while and pretty soon, she'd be back to pet Cheyenne and Cheyenne seemed to enjoy it as much as the little girl.  Pedro's outfit was a little more than Cheyenne could handle.  I think it was the chaps on his front legs............LOL  When she first saw him, she put her head under the panel and "escaped"  I wasn't there, but I guess she went to the middle of the street and just stopped, didn't know what to do.  John put his arms around her neck and someone came with her halter and she was OK to go back to the pen.  No more problems, I guess she decided he wasn't that bad.  

BlackJack had his admirers too.  We took Cheyenne because a lot of times children are afraid of the larger donkeys.  Cheyenne is only 32 inches tall, they are more comfortable with her.  I don't know how many people asked how old she is and were shocked when we said about 22 years old.  One of BJ's friends has a private donkey rescue just across the New Mexico state line.  Most of her donkeys are mammoths, even larger than BJ.  She said she has to stay off Craigslist, I think she has 26 which is more than we have.  I had heard about her, she seemed like a very nice person.  She said her husband usually says, "what's one more" when she finds one that needs a better home than they are in.  I've heard that from John a few times too...!!!  LOL

Still got Saddik, the dog that adopted us.  Saddik is Arabic for friend, and he is about the friendliest dog you could ever meet.  I doubt that he's 6 months old, smart as he can be, learns what's allowed and what isn't really quick.  We've got out feelers to rehome him, but aren't holding our breath.  He is such a good dog, I can't imagine why anyone would dump him, but I guess they did.  He doesn't seem to care, he's having a great time, running around, "helping" us.  He's not real sharp about the donkeys and has had a couple of close calls.  As far as the donkeys are concerned he doesn't belong here yet, and he blunders around in their space, much to their disgust.  They take after him and have kicked at him a couple of times, but so far he's been able to get away.  If one of the younger ones decides to really go after him, he better find something to hide behind or under, or we'll have a vet bill. 

OUR FAMILY IS GROWING........I HOPE NOT PERMANENTLY......!!!

One of the neighbor's asked a couple of days ago if we had seen a skinny brown dog running around.  We hadn't, but last night we did.......!!! When we were feeding he was hanging around on the perimeter watching what we were doing.  Doug said hi, and that was it, he's been in our hip pockets ever since.  Nice young large dog, (look at those feet) has been around people, has some manners, has had his toenails trimmed recently, so I'm hoping someone didn't dump him.  That's always been a problem out here unfortunately.  

I left feeding him to the guys and finally ask today how much they were feeding him.  I don't think a cup here and a cup there is adequate for a young dog that doesn't look like he's been eating regularly for awhile.  Well I forgot about the turkey Doug fed him last night....!!!  LOL  We'll start out with 3 cups three or four times a day and see how that goes, I'm not that familiar with feeding large dogs, so we'll have to see what works. 

I took a couple of pictures and put them on our local community Facebook page, so hopefully he's just lost.

Today was the day to start clipping the hairy ones.  Decided to start with Quilla, here is a before shot.

This is what Cushings looks like

Got out all my toys, ready to go to work .....and...... both of my blades were dull.  I tried "chewing and gnawing" for awhile, tried both blade sets and bless Quilla's heart, he just stood and let me chew.  I did about 1/2 of the other side of his neck and decided it wasn't worth it.  Came in the house, sent off the blades to be sharpened, went on-line and bought 2 more lets of blades.  Jeesh!  So hopefully by next week I will have four sets of blades, surely one of they will be sharp enough to do the job.  Daisy and Coquette are waiting their turn too, that's why I decided to get more blades. 

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN........!!!

Ruthie, Ruger and Wister after goodies......!!!

It looks like the boy won't be going up to Flagstaff after all. For some reason in all the e-mailing back and forth the subject of their size never came up.  She had seen pictures of them, but for some reason assumed they were minis.  I just assumed she knew they were standards.  She mentioned something about minis, I said they were standards and we finally got on the same page for information.  I am certainly glad we didn't drive all the way up to Flagstaff, a distance of about 300 miles, open up the trailer and have her say, "they aren't minis".  That would have really been disappointing for everyone involved. Makes John happy, he never wants to see any of them leave for a new home. Neither do I, but I guess I'm more practical, if we find homes for the adoptable ones, then we will have room for others that aren't adoptable.  Although at this time we're still trying to get our numbers down to our self imposed limit.  Haven't been there in years unfortunately..........

Today we went down by Tombstone to borrow some portable panels to use for the Kiss an Ass booth in Tombstone this Saturday the 9th.  We're still working on the logistics, we've never developed a set pattern for setting up a display, so every time is an adventure.  The woman has the cutest little mini horse and a beautiful big black Standardbred gelding and 3 other horses, I think all of them drive and also ride, except for the mini, she just drives.  She has a real nice horse motel, which I was admiring.  She said when they moved down here from Phoenix years ago, the first thing they built was the mare motel, not a place for them to live, a place for the horses.  That's my kind of person........!!! 

It's starting to stay in the 40's and low 50's at night now, so I'll probably try body clipping my 3 victims next week.  One a day will probably be about all I can handle, my clippers are the biggest ones Stewart makes I think, probably used to clip cattle.  I know they are a lot bigger than the ones we use to use on the show dogs when I was a kid.  My hands are so small and my wrists so weak, it's quite a wrestling match.  John said he'd try it, but they'd probably look like they'd been thru a war.  Not that they look groomed when I get thru with them either.  LOL