QUILLA HAS A GIRLFRIEND............!!

Jenny has decided that Quilla might be the one. Actually she welcomes all the new boys when they get here. He is so smitten with her he won't leave her side. This morning it was just easier to put them both in her pen, rather than try to separate them. I have to doctor his legs when they get thru eating, which means he'll have to pay attention to me rather than her for a little while. I'm going to try using the honey, at least on the front legs, they are so scarred there isn't any hair to get in the way. Tonight is race night, so we'll be feeding early. They always think it's great to get fed early, but it makes a long time until breakfast.

He's still walking like on eggshells, but his feet don't bother him enough to keep him from roaming around with the gang. I noticed a chunk out of his back this morning, so I guess he got in someone's space. Everyone is so accepting of new ones, I don't know who did it. Max use to get them if they dared get too close to him, maybe Rusty has taken over that duty, who knows.

A new family has moved into our area & their daughter age 14 wants to be a Vet. She has been coming over to help with the evening feed & is really good help. She's been around horses, so she already knows how to work around them. She even manages to control Nicky the dog to a certain extent. John calls him a "dog-dog", I'm not sure what that means except he is the biggest attention sponge I've ever seen. He demands attention & we have never been able to break him of at least putting his big paw on you. She's good at making him quit, at least for the moment, so maybe she can teach him some manners, we sure haven't........!!! (G)

The cows are spending quite a bit of time over in Burroland so hopefully it won't be too long before the outside gates can be closed & Burroland opened up to the gang. Some of them still go over to the gate at night when John lets them out just in case, "tonight's the night".

QUILLA IS OUT..........!!!!

We let him out this morning, right after breakfast. He seemed to think this was great fun, even with all the eyes watching him. This is Jenny the mammoth watching to see what he is going to do next. Frijolita & Daisy followed him around for quite awhile, not sure why. I was in the pens & heard the thunder of hooves. Looked up & Quilla was headed for safety.........his pen. Unfortunately the girls were right behind him, & followed him in. As if that wasn't bad enough, BlackJack was already in there finishing hay scraps. Not the safest place in the world after all. The girls weren't being mean, it was like they wanted to check him out & he didn't want to be checked out. BJ could care less, he was interested in the hay.

They got all sorted out & headed out to explore. You might ask why the girls were even out. There has been no mesquite beans in poo the last 2 days. So everyone got to go out today, including Buddy Brat. They all really need the exercise, although I think Quilla will probably be pretty lame tonight. Everytime I've seen him today, he is limping a little more. But long term, the walking around should be good for him.


I finally got the honey today to try on the horrible sores on his legs. I have been trying to clip the hair around the sores, but for some reason my little Wahl clippers have went on the blitz. John took them apart & doesn't see any reason for them not to be cutting. The big clippers are really too big for doing legs, so I may end up using scissors, if I can get him to hold still. He's still a little antsy about having his legs messed with. I'm sure it would be a good idea to clip the hair before putting honey on the sores unless I want a sticky mess. It's probably going to be sticky enough even with the hair clipped.

Quilla has the classic pones caused by taking in more calories than his body needed over a long period of time. He doesn't seem to be a greedy eater, so it just a case of too much being available. His feet don't look like he's ever foundered, which would be a miracle, & he's certainly not Cushings. So we'll just put him on a diet, & see what happens.

Courtney got here just about dark last night. I knew he hasn't been haltered or led for over 9 years, so at first we tried just letting him stand & pick up his foot. No, he wasn't interested in such treatment. I put a lead on him stood at his head & gave treats as I felt necessary. He acted like a perfect gentleman, even with her using a headlamp, once he figured out she wanted him to lift his foot & I dispensed goodies. He seems to be as sweet natured as Daisy is, no spook, John drove by his pen this afternoon, dragging a car behind the tractor, & he watched the whole process like it was interesting. She had a hard time trimming on his clubfoot, it's growing every which way. She said it would be a good idea to get an x-ray to see what's going on inside, so we'll have to figure out a way to get one. We could haul him into the vet, but I'm not sure he would appreciate the trip, & I don't plan on needing a vet out here for awhile hopefully. Courtney plans on coming back in a couple of weeks, so we'll see how he's doing then. I'm sure his foot feels better to get all that gnarly growth off, he was walking on part of the hoof wall on one side. He was a little ouchy this morning, probably because the tendons & ligaments are being used differently after the trim.

This morning I spent about an hour upwrapping & doctoring his front legs. In the process, I found other areas on his hind legs, sheath & belly, that although smaller & newer looking need to treated agressively. I used 2 tubes of ivermectin just to cover all the areas. They make a liquid ivermectin to worm cattle with. I'm thinking of getting it & putting it in a spray bottle. The horse wormer is rather messy to use like that & difficult to make sure you covered everything.

This is going to be a long process.

Last night Jack "allowed" John to take his fly mask off out under the big mesquite tree, which is unusual as Jack doesn't like anything done to him outside of his pen. He also took a treat, but wouldn't go in his pen. This morning he went in his pen & ate breakfast, although when John let him out, he started calling, although not running around like a wild mule. Also this morning when John went out Jack & Rusty were standing fairly close to each other, so hopefully they will start hanging out together. It's so hard on animals when they lose their "buds", although some of them seem to understand more than others. Jack has always been attached to Max, ever since he came here.

I've been leaving Quilla alone since he came Sunday. He is not the touchy feely type & although he will stand if you go to him, he will not come to you. Courtney is suppose to come out today & try to trim on his nasty looking club foot. So I went out this morning to put a halter on him if I could. He stood in a corner & if I wanted to come over & put a halter on him, that was OK, although he wasn't going to pretend he liked it. His Mom said he had some sores on his legs he gets every summer & she had put some Swat on them. I didn't pay much attention at the time, but by this morning the Swat had worn off & I think we're dealing with some real bad jack sores. This is one front leg, the other one looks about the same around on the other side. The dark area is destroyed skin, it is like poorly cured leather. Everything I've read says jack sores are the same as summer sores on horses caused by habronema (stomach worm) larvae. But I am not convinced, although these are definately round circles. He wasn't real thrilled with me, a stranger getting up close to look to see if there are larvae in the circles. I washed them down with betadine water, powdered them with zinc oxide powder & wrapped both legs. One had lots of dirt & gravel in the sores, so I used thunja zinc oxide which is a cream on those to loosen the crusty crud. Tomorrow morning I will unwrap both legs & see what they look like. At that time I will probably go ahead & slather ivermectin on topically, just in case it is habronema. I'm going to be gone for a couple of days, & John doesn't do doctoring. So I want to doctor & wrap effectively for a couple of days. If it is habronema, the ivermectin would be the best thing to use. You can't heal the sores as long as there are larvae in there, so there would be no sense in putting on something to heal. But I can keep them covered so the flies can't reinfest.

I'm going to put Quilla & Daisy together in Max's pen for awhile. Although Daisy & Frijolita have eaten together for months, they really don't seem to have that much in common. And Frijolita has a lot more interest in eating everything in sight than Daisy does. Quilla doesn't seem to be a piggy eater either. So we'll see how they get along, personality wise, they seem to be a good match to me, but I've been wrong before.

R.I.P. MAX APRIL 15, 1990 - AUGUST 9, 2009

When John went out this morning, he found Max dead, where he usually laid at night. Except for a small amount of blood running from his nose, there was nothing to give us an idea of what happened. Although he had been getting more unstable on his rear legs, because of his broken neck, he ate as usual last night, chortled to get into Jack's pen at bedtime to eat his leftover hay, & acted normal.

John started digging this morning with his little sub compact tractor & backhoe. He stopped after 9pm tonight, & still has finishing up to do tomorrow. We buried him in the corner of his pen.

Both of the mules have been upset all day, running around & calling for Max. He was their leader. Tonight when I put everyone in to eat, Rusty hung back, but finally went in his pen. Jack would not go near his pen, continued to run around yelling & when we tried to herd him into his pen, he showed he can still run, even though he has a bad fetlock on his right rear leg. He kept going back to the big trees on the other side of the wash where the "horsey group" always hung out. We finally gave up after about an hour. I hope he settles down by tomorrow.

Rusty tried to paw Max & get him up, & took the tarp off him. Most of the donkeys came by, & at one time the 4 minis, & Chester, stood almost in a circle around his body for a minute or so. When Murial the mule died a few years ago, they did the same thing, made a circle stood for a little while, & then wandered off. All day Jack would not go near where Max was laying, which was fairly close to Jack's pen. Don't know if that has something to do with his erratic behavior or not.

Max was a gentle giant, & loved to have people come to visit. He loved for them to feed him pellets & would use his lips to play a tune on his gate, to get their attention if they walked away to visit with the donkeys. Before his hind legs got so unstable, he would air dance in his pen, if he thought breakfast was coming too slow. When you talked to him, he had a way of cutting his eyes at you, like a little puppy. Considering he probably weighed 1200 pounds, he was a pretty big guy to be trying to look cute, but he managed. We will miss him very much.

QUILLA IS HERE..........!!!

This is Quilla when he arrived. They said he wasn't that difficult to load, so we assumed he wouldn't be hard to unload. Does this look like the stance of a donkey that's ready to get out of the trailer? I guess he figured since he had already ridden in the trailer & it hadn't killed him, he'd just stay there rather than face the unknown. John's in the trailer irritating him with a whip. He's looking at his Momma as if to say, "get rid of this horrible man Mom & let's go home". But he finally hopped out. He's not real big on leading, so it was quite an operation to get him to his pen. But we made it, & right away Chester came up to greet him.

He's been eating real good & I'm not sure who has the most pones, him or Daisy. He doesn't look Cushings which is great, & we feed a basic Insulin Resistance diet anyway. So we'll just watch the amount of hay he gets. I'm afraid he's going to miss his bran & COB though..... (G)

His feet have not been trimmed for years. He's actually self trimmed pretty good, except he has a club foot on the left front that needs some attention. It's clubbed, & flared on one side & rolled under on the other. They thought he is crippled, but I would imgaine when that foot is trimmed correctly he'll walk a lot different. Courtney is going to try to come back out Monday & we'll see if he likes getting trimmed any better than he liked coming out of the trailer. His Mom picked his front feet up, & he didn't fuss. But we'll see how it goes.

HURRY UP IN THERE, WE'RE READY TO EAT.....!!!

Courtney finally made it out to trim. She had been trying to get out here for a couple of weeks, & something always happened. Today a feral cat she had been keeping in her bathroom, got out in the rest of the house, & it sounds like he made a heroic effort to get out. Tore down all the curtains, & cleaned off all the shelves & anything else up high. So she was later than she expected, guess she was trying to tidy up her house. She managed to catch the cat & took him back to where she found him. He doesn't sound like he wants to become a pet, unfortunately.

The trimming went pretty good, she was thrilled with how good Chester is walking. Jenny isn't doing too good right now. She has abscessed in both front feet & the hooves look what they use to call shelly. They don't look solid. I'm afraid to soak her feet, they look like they would fall apart. She did so good for over a year, & all of a sudden they really look nasty. She's walking OK, but not as free & easy as she was.

Everyone was fairly cooperative, although Daisy makes all the others look like wild donkeys. You touch her leg & she raises the foot. Then she just stands there until you're done. None of the others are that nice about it, although they have been worse in the past.......!!!! (G)

We didn't know if she could trim on Pepper. He is so lame on his right rear he has a hard time raising the other feet. He did pretty good, she only trimmed his fronts, & did it as quick as possible. Last time she tried to trim him, he almost fell over, so he was better this time.

And Jack the mule got his first trim in years. Just the fronts, Jack can be a real challenge to work with. He did pretty good, although we could tell it wasn't what he had planned to do today, but he wasn't as bad as he could have been. I seen him at his worse, when we use to try to give him shots...............!!! (G)

The new donkey comes in tomorrow. All the pens are full, so I guess Chester & Tula will have to double up again, at least for a few days. Then he'll go in the Fat Farm with the girls & Buddy until mesquite bean season is over. Even though the girls probably wouldn't bother him, Buddy can be obnoxious & this way he will have a few days to get use to all that goes on around here. He's been by himself for 2 years, so this will be quite a change in his lifestyle.

I checked the gate into Burroland today, & there are footprints going in & cow patties here & there. Hopefully it won't take too long before the donkeys can go back over there.

A PARADE OF MICE...............!!!!

We've developed a mouse problem in the feed room It's concrete block, & should be mouse proof, although we are averaging one a night, & sometimes more depending on how many times we reset the live trap. Last night John caught 2 at once. A little boy & a little girl.............Hmmmm.......little boy should have been paying more attention to something other than the little girl....!!! (G) John swears there is no way they can get in around the pipes, BUT this morning I noticed there is a hole in the dirt above where the pipes come out. At least at the rate we're catching them, they don't have time to set up a permanent home, hopefully. He's going to check under the cabinet, which means he'll have to take the cabinet floor out. Might wait until it's cooler, although the feed room is air conditioned & the house isn't.................!!!!

I'm waiting for some people to come out to see the donkeys. This time of year we don't have many visitors. But this woman was here a year or so ago with a group of kids & has family visiting. The donkeys stay in, it's much easier to see them in the pens than roaming around under the trees. Although they enjoy the company, until the people get here, they yell & scream when we go out of the house.

Last night when John went out to let everyone out, Frijolita managed to outsmart him. He's not sure how she got out, but the gate was open, & she did. Poor little Daisy didn't figure out freedom was just a few steps away, before John noticed what had happened & closed the gate. So Daisy & Buddy Brat had the pens & Frijolita had a night of freedom. She showed up in the pen area this morning, but really didn't want to go in. They are really fun to watch, when they start trying to outsmart you. Although it's not much fun, when they actually accomplish it........!!!

Right now I'm having a rebellion on eating mush & supplements. They all get at least a small amount of soaked beet pulp & soaked Lakin Lite pellets so I have a way of getting their supplements into them. Since they've been on the new hay most of them aren't eating their mush, although Sha'ba, & Jack still enjoy it, they don't have many teeth. Pepper has reverted to eating hay & refusing mush. The new hay tested as being very good, so I'm wondering if it is furnishing all the vitamins & minerals their bodies need? Even Sha'ba although he's still eating his mush has started eating the new hay. John's been giving him less than a pound in the evening, & most of it is gone in the morning. It's very short & must be tender enough that he can maul it enough to swallow. I'm thinking of stopping supplements for those that aren't interested for awhile & see if absence makes it more interesting this winter. Right now it's so hot, they may just be not hungry, although they are still eating all the mesquite beans they can find.

The mother & daughter behind the Little House stories...!!
From an article in the New Yorker by Judith Thurman
"Laura Ingalls married Almonzo Wilder in 1885. Their daughter, born a year later, was named for the wild roses on the prairie."

Looks like our little group will be larger by one Saturday. I don't know a whole lot about him, including his name. It's something like Quila, maybe short for Tequila......??? As I understand he is overweight & crippled & lost his horse buddy a couple of years ago. Sounds like this should be a good place for him. It also sounds like he will be going directly into the Fat Farm with Daisy & Frijolita, rather than being able to roam around & snack on mesquite beans & other delicacies.

Frijolita has a new game, called "grab the small holed hay net & throw it around the pen". I think she might be trying to throw it over the corral panels. Maybe she is trying to tell me something........!!!

We've had to use an eye bolt & clip on Buddy's hay net to keep him from slinging it & hay all over the place. He figured out if he shakes the heck out of it, the hay will eventually start coming out the holes. It's much easier to pick up off the ground than getting it out the little holes, although he is really good at that. We've decided we need to use another eye bolt & clip though. With it just attached to the wall in one place, he can pick the hay net up & still shake it. I'm hoping being attached in another place will cut down on his ability to "outsmart" me.

FRIJOLITA IS THE ESCAPE ARTIST........!!

Yesterday morning John was cleaning pens, & heard the gate rattling. Looked over & Frijolita was working it over even though John had locked it. He said she looked like she knew what she was doing, & seemed to think if she kept at it, magic would happen. Daisy was standing by, ready to escape although she wasn't participating in the actual gate opening project. John ignored what was going on & she finally gave up. We haven't seen her mess with it since, but than again, we've made sure to keep it locked. I think the bean crop is getting rather scare on the 10 acres, they are actually showing interest in coming in to eat. For awhile we've had to almost drag them, kicking & screaming in to eat. I told them either they eat hay to mix in with the beans in their system, or they will be in pens like Buddy & the girls. The new hay really looks & smells good, & they are more interested in eating it than the old stuff, so it might just be a coincidence. Pepper will leave his mush of beet pulp & Lakin Lite to eat hay, which is unusual for him.

This afternoon John prepared the trash trailer, for a trip to the dump tomorrow morning after chores. He came in & said he would have to wait until morning to put some of the more interesting items in the trailer. It seems that Rusty the white mule & Justin the small but determined mini donkey, found a bag of old egg cartons, left over from when we had more hens & we had eggs to give away. When John found them they had egg cartons strung from here to the next county.................!!!!! Justin isn't tall enough to take the bag out of the trailer...........BUT......Rusty is. I guess he started it & Justin joined in the fun. So John will have to finish his load in the morning, while everyone is in their pens, & we're ready to head for town.

It's still very hot, the humidity has dropped, but still no rain.