TOMBSTONE ZEKE NEEDS EYE SURGERY

Mike and Zeke have done walk-a-thons the last few years to raise awareness and money for donkeys in rescue.  

Now Zeke is in need of a little rescuing of his own.  Years ago he lost the sight in his right eye.  Recently it has started to bother him and the recommendation is to remove the eye and sew the eye socket shut.  It's rather common surgery, horses have a propensity for getting in medical trouble rather easily.  The surgery isn't cheap, $1200-$1500, which is a lot of money to come up with when you weren't expecting it.  

Mike and Teresa aren't rich and want what is best for Zeke.  Mike and Zeke have raised money for many worthwhile causes, so maybe it's time for them to receive.  If you have a little extra money that would go for a wonderful cause, you couldn't find a better recipient than Zeke.  There is a link to "Fundrazr" under New Stuff on the right side.  If you can help that's great, if not please keep Zeke in your thoughts.

LOOKIN' GOOD...........!!!!

 

This is how Boaz's knee looks this morning, it is dry, no redness and looks like it's getting smaller.  Dr. Nancy said to use Animax for the first couple of bandage changes and if it looked good, go back to the One Source.  So this morning that's what I did.  Anxious to see how it looks in a couple of days.

This is a very tall yucca in the pen area.  Lately it has become a "snack" for someone, we haven't figured out who.  I would blame Rosie, since she is a proven "alternative" snacker, but since we haven't seen her, probably shouldn't do that.........!!!  Looks like they have chewed up about as far as they can reach, whoever it is.  Unless it's one of the mules, which I seriously doubt.......LOL

PEPPER AT WARP SPEED.........!!!

Well maybe warp speed is a little over the top, but the old boy is still giving it his all.  In fact I took this video of him after I took the one of Gigi yesterday.  He was trying to catch up with Gigi, so he could show her what a "stud" he is..........!!!

GIGI IS DOING PRETTY GOOD.....!!

Tyler is still out of town, so we can't get  her shoe reset, but even on feet that are longer than they should be, she's walking pretty good.  It will probably take a year or more of having an elongated shoe on that right front foot, but hopefully after time she will be able to walk on that foot without the shoe.  It worked with Falena aka Momma, but her's was a rear and wasn't anywhere near as bad as Gigi's.  We'll just have to see how it goes.   She seems more comfortable on her rear feet, when she first came here, she kept them underneath her in the founder position, to take weight off her front feet, which is really a good thing.

I took a good look at Rosie this morning and she is actually looking less huge.  She is carrying a lot of weight in her belly area.  This morning it looks like that is tightening up a little bit, more round and less bulky.  She isn't really a food whore and seems satisfied with the amount she gets, which makes this whole diet thing a lot easier.  John is giving her 5 pounds of hay a day, which is what most of the standards get.  Don't see any reason to drop her down below that, as long as we are headed in the right direction. 

BOAZ LOOKS GREAT.......!!!!

 WHAT A BEAUTY....!!

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, when I changed the vet's bandage this morning.  I was so stunned to see how good it looked, I forgot to take a picture.......!!!  I'm hoping that this time we'll "git er done" and we'll only have to worry about keeping the scar tissue from getting banged up in the future.  

Found out today the Hornets have been put on the racing program for the 5th of April.  They took the A-modifieds off the program for some reason.  Anytime they need a filler, they think of us.....we're the only class that pays more to get in the back gate than the purse for our class.  That's OK, most of us would race just for the fun of it and they know it.  LOL

BOAZ'S VET VISIT........!!

ALMOST SPRING.......!!!

We hauled Boaz into Dr. Nancy's yesterday morning for his knee to get looked at.  She remembers what it looked like a couple of years ago and said she was really amazed at how well it is doing.  

 January 2012

 1st Debridement Jan12

March 10, 2014

It even looked a little better yesterday, less bumpy, but she said it was proud flesh and needed to go.  I was afraid that would be the outcome.  She didn't even have to numb it, just used a scalpel and made sure to stay on the proud flesh, which has no nerves in it.  Just a bountiful blood supply.  

We discussed different ways of keeping it covered if and when it does heal.  It will always have to be covered with something, to protect the scar tissue, which of course has no elasticity and will always be thin.  Since it's on the outside of his knee anytime he lays down it will get mauled.  She recommended mole skin which of course is nice and soft.  But he is so active, (that means he enjoys entertaining the "ladies") that anything we put on him is probably not going to stay unless we figure out a way to keep it from getting rolled up during dismount.........LOL  Maybe something with velcro....???  

First I got to get it completely healed, then I'll worry about permanent coverage.  

Last night after feeding I went thru my used fly masks and hung them in all the pens.  Some of them are pretty torn up, but I'm keeping the good ones for later, when the fly season really gets going.  

John's getting pretty good at getting Gigi's mask off and on, although he does have to put her in the redneck squeeze to put it on.  He can usually get it off without the squeeze.  Haven't tried putting a mask on Rosie yet...........not looking forward to the experience..........!!!!  LOL

BOY DID I HAVE FUN LAST NIGHT

John took this picture of the pretty little pristine car when we got to the track yesterday afternoon.

 I won the main event, BUT the car isn't quite as pretty as it was.....!! LOL  Somebody tried to tear my door off.   We don't race for another month, so John will have time to plan his attack.  He's got a lot of "straightening" to do, unfortunately.   He actually likes to do that sort of stuff.  When we were dating I had the front of my 1950 Chevy pretty well mangled by a 1963 Ford Galaxie.  So John went to the junk yard, got the parts and put it back together, so I wouldn't be without wheels.  My kind of guy...........LOL

See why I need to have a black bumper.....!!!! LOL  A white bumper gathers too much paint from the other cars, if I happen to "accidentally"  bump them. 

After I won and drove under the flag stand to get my trophy, John ran all the way over from the pit bleachers, way on the other side of the track, which is a 3/8's mile track.  It's a wonder he didn't have a heart attack. 

I'll finish this later, our poo picker-upper didn't come today, so John is picking up.  Unfortunately on race nights they are in the pens about 12 hours, which means there is a lot of poo.  He just came in and said he did Boaz and the mule's pen and had to dump the bucket.  We usually get 2 buckets.  Since there are 17 pens, this might be a record.  So I better go help.

It's later and I'm back, and we managed to only have 4 buckets, don't know if that is a record or not.  It's been awhile since I picked up poo and my back said, it wasn't interested in continuing this past time.  I've noticed as I "mature" my body does not appreciate having to do something out of my daily routine.  Actually there's a lot of things it doesn't appreciate......!!! LOL

When we got home about 2am the donkeys were all more than ready to get out of their pens.  A lot of them let John know they had been in pens long enough and wanted OUT.  We've tried to explain to them about how some equine stay in stalls or small pens all the time, but I don't think they care, they just wanted OUT. 

Quilla and Ruger were play fighting this morning, first one would chase and bite neck, then the other one would take a turn.  They played for a long time, until John went out to do round up, that was more important, since they were fed early yesterday.  Quilla seems to be a very good "uncle" for Ruger and Wister, he puts up with their nonsense and seems to enjoy it.  Ruger doesn't always hang out with Ruthie and Wister, but he does spend a lot of time with them, which is why I think they would make a good trio, if I could find a forever home for them. 

THIS TIME TOMORROW WE'LL BE HEADED FOR THE TRACK......!!!

We took this picture this afternoon before the one in the 21x was touched up.  John painted it the other day and I hadn't looked at it closely.  I noticed this afternoon that it needed more black on the one, so John said if I'd mark it he'd paint it.  Too bad I didn't notice it before we took the pictures....!!! 

Anyway tomorrow night is the first night of our regular season of racing.  I hope we have a good year and not too many crisis'.  

Last year we just had the BlackJack Racing on the trunk, but this year I had a decal made from a picture I have of BlackJack.  It made a cute decal, but John just about pulled his hair out trying to get it on the car.  The little "hairy" edges didn't want to cooperate.  

It's just about time to drag out the fly masks for all.  A couple are already wearing masks, as they are fly magnets.  We don't have a lot of flies yet, but as warm as it's been, it won't be long.  

I'm trying something different this year.  I've always hung out the nasty smelling fly traps bags as soon as the flies showed up.  Someone told me that since they attract flies, they actually draw flies into you area.  Makes sense, so I'm not going to hang any traps and see what happens.  I got my first order of fly predators from Spalding  last month and the 2nd batch today, so we'll just go with them, for awhile.  

Monday we will take Boaz into the vet to see what she thinks his knee needs to be cut on again.  Poor boy, he just takes it all in stride, he's very easy to work with.  

Well John's shelter experiment isn't going too well.  He found out you can put enough pressure on PVC pipe if you bend it in an arch to break it.  He marching ahead with plan B as soon as he can get to Tucson and get some more PVC.  Not sure where this is going to end up but hopefully the animals will get a shelter eventually.........!!!  LOL

ALL READY TO GO........!!! 

HAPPY OR SAD..........?????

We had a man up in the Showlow area call and was interested in a donkey or two.  After talking to him for awhile, he was interested in the little herd of three, Ruthie and her two boys Wister and Ruger.  It sounded like it might be a good fit, although the 300 mile distance made doing a home study and delivery problematic, at least for us.  Kathy at Longhopes Donkey Shelter said to have him send pictures of the barn, fencing, hay, feeding area, watering area, pictures of his other equine and their feet.  Leave it to Kathy to come up with a good idea.  She said that's what they ask for at Longhopes when it's a long way away.

He was also looking at a couple of young ones and this morning e-mailed to say they are going with the young ones.  They won't even get them until May, so I assume they are really young.  I'm sure that will work out good for him and I really wasn't looking forward to putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together, so it's a win, win situation.  And we will keep looking for a 3 donkey home for them.  

Steven is here today to help John put up a shelter in Wister and Ruger's pen.  We already have two shelters built like the one they are building.  John came in awhile ago to have me look at the first "bow" of PVC to see if it was OK.  Nooooooo............!  It was about a foot taller than the other two shelters.  He said the PVC was the same length, but he forgot, that pen is only 12 feet wide.  The other shelters are about 14 foot wide, so it makes them shorter.  So they are out there trying to figure out how to make it shorter.  It will have to be cut off, but how much?  I told Steve he is suppose to be the voice of reason, but he said he's not getting involved in management he's just labor........!!! LOL  

The next big project will be to replace the chain length fence between the dog pen and 2 of the donkey pens.  The donkeys have used the fence as a butt scratcher, and it's about to fall down.  The problem there is it will have to be replaced in one day between morning feeding and evening feeding.  Should be interesting, I've noticed as we get older, it takes much longer to finish things.......!!!  

I think for all practical purposes, winter is over.  We have lizards, bugs and hummingbirds are coming thru, trees other than mesquite are leafing out.  It's suppose to be in the 80's today.  Of course yesterday morning was 32 degrees and John had a little ice on his bird bath, so who knows.  I know one thing we are very dry and it's probably going to be a very hot summer.......!!!  :-(

WISTER IS GROWING UP.....!!!

John has been finding teeth caps in the boys feed trough this week.  So far 2 whole ones and a partial, I guess he swallowed the rest of that one.  I don' t know how many teeth they lose as yearlings, but it's kinda fun to find them, almost like Easter egg hunting.........!!! I have a pile of weird and unusual items, from pulled teeth to sialolith cysts, to a tumor causing ingrown eye lash.  I'll just add Wister's teeth to the pile......!!!  LOL

When we have tours come out to see the donkeys one of the most asked questions is, how do you get them back in the pens at feeding time?  Well, this is the view from my kitchen window most mornings.  Getting them in the pens isn't a problem, except they usually have definite ideas about who should go in first.  Almost all of them want to be first, well except for Daisy.  John calls her Blondie, she usually is one of the last ones in because she seems to forget from one feeding to the next where her pen is.  What's funny is, if you pop her on the butt, or yell at her, she immediately remembers where the pen is.......!!!   But then she pouts and usually won't even take her treat.  LOL