Every day is just like the day before, the nights are cooling off, thank goodness it gives the donkeys a break from the 100* plus days. The humidity is high feels like the Midwest in August, still no rain for us. It's around us, just not here. Suzanne's grandkids are leaving soon and I was really hoping the big wash would run while they were here. They won't see anything like that in the Midwest. Our wash hasn't ran in over 2 years, so it is overdue.
The high temperatures have started the mesquite beans to ripen on the trees, although they haven't started to fall yet. Some of the donkeys know they are up there and are doing their best to shake the limbs to make them fall. Koshare is the main shaker. He comes out of the pen after breakfast and starts his daily routine. We've been trying to catch him on his hind feet, with his head up in the tree, trying to get those beans to fall. He obviously has been successful, because the other donkeys stand around close and wait..........patiently. IT'S GOING TO BE A LONG HOT SUMMER..........!! The trees aren't loaded like they were last year, and the pods don't seem to have plump beans in them. But I don't know if the pods have as much sugar/starch as the beans, I would guess not, but who knows. Time to start watching poo to make sure they aren't getting too many beans, or we'll have to restrict their time out of the pens.
Koshare with Suzanne, thanks Roger Thompson for the picture
John Henry is settling in. The first few days were a little rough he wasn't eating, which for a donkey can become a crisis quickly. We've dealt with hyperlipidemia before, not sure he had it, but it's very unusual for a donkey not to eat if food is available. He was picking at food, so it wasn't a crisis. Dr. Jeremy said we'd try Karo syrup, which is the home remedy I've used before. The vets give an IV of electrolytes and glucose, which is a little fancier, but a couple of syringes of Karo got him back to eating. I think he's use to being in a dry lot with food available most of the time. He needs to get over that, he doesn't clean up his hay, so he either has to stay in the pen or the pen has to be shut up, so the greedy bunch can't eat it all. Believe me they know who leaves food and are willing to squabble over it.
Because he wasn't eating his body thought it was starving and the liver was ready to release any fat it had available (which most domestic donkeys have or have had fatty liver disease.) The problem is the fat is released into the blood stream and depletes the oxygen and they can die from lack of oxygen. Years ago we lost a pretty little pregnant jenny. We had a necropsy done because she had only been here a couple of weeks and we didn't know if she had something that could run thru the herd. Her organs were all white, they had no color and obviously no blood flow. Since then we have dealt with the problem at least 3 times and Karo has done the job thank goodness.
Suzanne and I are doctoring Gigi's foot every other day probably for the foreseeable future. It's not getting any worse but the open area has to be kept clean which means covered with a bandage. She started out insisting she wasn't going to lift her foot. But the last couple of bandage changes she been cooperative. I think animal crackers and peppermints make a difference........!!! LOL I hope she continues to be cooperative when Suzanne takes the kids back to their parents. John will be the "hold-ee", she might decide he isn't the regular crew chief and make him wrestle to get that foot off the ground.
Big Gus has made his 2nd break for freedom. This time he got out on John and Suzanne. He managed to catch Suzanne half way thru the gate, as he merryily took off a different direction than he went the other day. Guess he'd seen that and wanted to see something else.
To add to the fun, we had a tour coming in and sure enough they showed up while ALL of us were involved in trying to change Gus' direction. They even came down the back road where we were chasing him, turned around and headed back to the driveway. By this time John is late for an appointment, Gus has met a bull with horns on the trail, which the bull didn't appreciate and Mikaela and Suzanne are plowing thru mesquite brush, you couldn't expect him to stay on the trail.....!! LOL
Finally got him turned around and managed to get a halter and lead on him. He wasn't within sight of the driveway, so it was going to be a long walk. I took the golf cart and headed up the trail to see if I could find the couple on the tour. Sure enough they were waiting at the driveway, along with our truck and Suzanne's truck. At least the gate got closed, so none of the other donkeys could go on a walk about.....!! He has a special tree he stands under and watches the gate, and if it looks like he can make it, it's amazing how fast the old boy can move......!!! One of the reasons we're never bored....!! LOL
4 comments:
I wish I could send you some rain. We have had so much and then the hurricane passed through here and dropped about 5 or 6 inches along with lots of wind, trees down, electric lines snapped but no one was hurt, that is good.
I wish you could send some rain too, everything is so dry, there are wildfires all over Arizona, last count I heard was 2 dozen. Some of them are 1000s of acres.
It had been so dry here and wild fires breaking out everywhere. Now it is so wet my yard has to much water standing to mow the last two weeks. The storm left a lot of flooding down here. Some rivers are still coming up t one inch an hour and town are just filling up with water, houses and business alike. People are being rescued in boats and tall emerg. trucks. I feel bad, some of the older people have lived in their homes for years and never seen this kind of flooding they say.
We're still hoping for rain, it's all around us.........!!!
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