RAIN, RAIN, RAIN

I'm always amazed when the weatherman gets it right.  They said rain & we actually got 3/4 of an inch of rain overnight. 

Needed the rain, BUT, the vet was suppose to come out this morning to check Jenny, pull blood on Cisco & Rusty, & probably removed a growth from Buddy Brat's sheath.  They called & cancelled, can't use x-ray, etc when it's raining.  Besides wet donkeys aren't going to be the most pleasant patients. If there is anything a donkey hates worse than being wet, it's being touched when they are wet.  Really puts them in a cranky mood........!!!   

Cisco actually choked yesterday morning on a piece of carrot.  I sure hope we can find out what is wrong with him.  So for now, he will be getting animal crackers as a treat, rather than carrots.  

Also have a problem with the ACTH test for Cushings for Rusty.  It seems right now they are not manufacturing the testing material according to the vet.  It can be compounded, but of course compounded medicine is usually more expensive.  She suggested trying Rusty on a low dosage of pergolide & see if it helps with his exuberant hair growth. 

Both Pepper & Daisy are on 3mg of pergolide a day, which I get in 1.5 capsules.  Too high a dosage to start out on, so she was going to figure out a good starting dosage & let me know.  

We talked about the fact that Jenny seems to be walking a little more comfortable & the drainage from the foot is almost gone.  I haven't put a sugar/dyne poultice on for over a week, & am only soaking her foot twice a week in epsom salts & betadyne.  She thinks it might be time to see how much proud flesh we can get off & use a pressure bandage.  She was also pleased that the hoof wall growing in at the coronary band looks to be good growth.  She said because of where the proud flesh is, the new hoof growth will basically push the proud flesh off the foot as it grows.   Not sure I want to see that.  

Ruthie is still bagging up, as they say, but no other changes.  I keep remembering with Mocha, that she didn't even look pregnant, but Tucker showed up anyway.  Ruthie usually hangs around the house & pen area, but this morning when John went out, she wasn't to be seen.  He took off frantically to find her.  She was down below the house vacuuming up mesquite leaves that blew off in the horrible wind that accompanied the rain last night. 

GOT HIM...!!!

We just got home with Bijou a little while ago.  He's a cute little bugger, hairy as he can be.  Not sure how all that mane & tail is going to hold up in the mesquite, but I guess we'll find out.  I could roach his mane, but it's taken him a long time to grow such a pretty one, so we'll see how it goes, once he's out of the pen.  

I think the majority of the herd are over on Burroland, so far Rusty, Jack, Ruthie & Ruger are the only ones that know he's here.  Ruthie & Ruger are trying to figure out what he's doing in their pen.  At least they will still have a pen, once the "musical" pen dance is over at feeding time tonight.  BlackJack will be eating in the outside bunk, which he will think is great, because he will get fed first.  That's the only way we can keep him from "helping" us feed everyone else........!!!

He does have some nasty looking feet, but he's walking good right now.  Susan said he has good days & bad days, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

Putting Wonder Dusty on Boaz's leg hasn't been going all that well.  If the area is dry or scabbed over, it doesn't give the Wonder Dust a chance to do it's job.  This morning I put a soaking wet wash rag on his leg, covered it with a Walmart bag, & vet wrapped it.  Left it on for about an hour, & quite a bit of the dry stuff came off, although not around the edges.  The vet said she might have to cut away the edges to get good clean tissue.  We'll take him in to see her next week, hopefully by then I will have a lot of the over growth off, if I work on it every morning.