MEET MACHACHO

 I always like to give a special name to donkeys that come in without a name or have had a hard life.  Machacho has had a very hard life judging from his looks.  A woman called me this morning wanting to rehome him, although the reasons she gave, didn't quite match the actual donkey.  What she probably didn't realize is when we saw him there is no way we wouldn't have taken him.  

She said she had only had him a few weeks and she had too many animals and he was having to have hay pellets because he couldn't eat hay, and she couldn't afford to keep feeding him pellets.

The obligatory welcoming committee when the trailer returns to the property.  There were more donkeys, but by the time I got ready to take a picture they went to the other side of the trailer to get a better look.

Machacho is going to be a long term work in progress, he hasn't been wearing a fly mask and has lots of habronema larvae damage under both eyes.  He has edema under his belly, and wounds at the throat area.  He also has a large open area in his right armpit.  Quite a few other assorted small cuts and scraps all over.  

Long term he has a large open area above his left nostril that couldn't be anything except man made I'm pretty sure.  He also has a smaller opening on the right side.  We had another donkey years ago that had a similar smaller opening that looked like someone had punch a hole thru to maybe use a bull snap instead of a halter to lead him.  Sha'ba also had both ears cut about half off.  Sha'ba was a term of respect for an old man in Arabic  Machacho is a word for a young man in Spanish.  Machacho isn't young, but I don't know if he even had a name when he was young.   He has a special one now. 

He was shut down when we picked him up, not involved in what was going on around him although he leads and does what  you ask of him.  We got him home and the first thing Suzanne and I did was give him a bath.  I'm not sure, but I think he liked it once he figured out we weren't going to hurt him.  His ears started rotating and he started looking around.  

We had to put Willie in his pen, he wanted to help, got in the trailer and in general was in the way.  Willie seems to be taking over Big Gus' job as amb"ass"ador.  He likes to "help" when anyone is doing something outside.  He's a lot easier to work with though, he has manners..........LOL

We gave Machacho some cut up Bermuda hay when we got him home and he ate it just fine.  Tonight he got more hay and some senior feed and had no trouble eating it, so I'm not sure what the problem was for the woman to have to feed him pellets.  Tomorrow we'll try him on some hay pellet mush, but I have a feeling he will eat just about anything we put in front of him.  

Tonight I went out to help let the donkeys out and take off fly masks.  I had some animal crackers in my pocket and although Machacho wasn't going out I stopped at his pen and yelled for him to come over.  He came over head up, ears up and trotting. He already thinks animal crackers are pretty good.  When I first tried to give him some, he sniffed at them a long time before he took one.  By  tonight sniffing wasn't necessary, but watching your fingers is pretty important if you want to keep them attached to your hand....LOL.  I doubt that he's had many cookies in his life.    

We'll probably give him a day or two to acclimate to all the donkeys and the change in his life style and then we'll let him out to roam around.