What a way to start the day. No matter how tired we are from the day before there are always chores to be done. As Jim often says what's inconvenient for us is life or death for the horses. Sure puts things in perspective.
Jonathan and Jane had breakfast together. They don't spend a lot of time together, but meet on occasion. Jonathan is 37 and Jane is 20. I don't know if that creates a generation gap or not for donkeys, but apparently they enjoy each others company- sometimes.
Levi and Daisy wait sort of patiently for their meal. Sometimes Levi just looses it and gets going around the pen at 90 miles per hour. He can outbuck any horse when he's feeling good.
Sparkle gets a blanket when the evenings are cool. We don't want him to use any calories trying to keep warm. Jim calls him Spackle because he says he needs Bondo to fill in his hollow places.
Wild Bill stays close to his friend.
Looks like we'll have power today. We needed the generator yesterday.
Dr. Darling and Kelly arrived to take care of a few things.
Frankie had wounds on his fetlocks caused by the way he gets up and down. They developed into summer sores with insect invasions. He developed proud flesh which won't heal on its own.
Moon Dancer impatiently waits for Frankie. She watched the entire proceedings.
Frankie was sedated and his wounds were abraided. The proud flesh was removed.
Hey, Kelly. I'm getting sleepy.
A little clean up and we're all done.
His legs got a good wrapping. We'll change the bandages every two days for the next 10 days.
Dr Darling decided to take advantage of his sleepy friend. "Hey, Doc. You are getting pretty personal."
"Hold me up, Kelly, til I wake up a little more."
Soon Frankie was ready to go back with Moon Dancer. His legs are great, but he tore open the old surgery scar. Frankie, you keep us busy.
Then it was time to assess Jane and Kackson. The have acute Cushings. Jane is moving, but her feet really hurt her. She is eating some and is more alert then she was.
Poor Jackson is not eating well at all. He was given a vitmin B shot and some antibiotics. He'll get antibiotics daily. I wrapped his sore legs where the meat bees have been bothering him and I medicated all his other sores. Then he got a fly mask.
He and Jane are on our watch list. Dr D will be back a week from Friday and we will do a quality of life evaluation. It's so hard because we love these two donkeys so much. They have so much personality and have been well-loved their whole lives.
The best part of the day after Dr D and Kelly left was that I decided to put Jackson in the barn. Now the end of the barn is probably only about 20 feet away from Jackson's standing spot. I opened the fence where Navajo, Lexi, and Gracie live. I pulled one way -hard- and Jackson nearly sat down, pulling hard the other way. When he did move it was clear over to another spot.
I closed the fence and meandered over to Jackson, explaining in my best donkey talk about how good he'd feel if he'd only move to the center stall.
He thought not. I thought so. It didn't surprise Jim that when it came to stubborness between a donkey and me I won. Four steps forward, two back. Three to the side, one back. We finally made it. And he was happy. He found a salt lick and licked with zest.
He has a special vitamin lick, timothy hay pellets, senior mix, hay and lots of water.
He'll get his shots, fly spray and lots of encouragement to keep going.
He is surrounded by other horses, donkeys and mules and won't be lonesome.
Because one of Home At Last's missions is to educate there is something that is very rare that we need to tell you about and Jackson has it. He has super numerary mammary glands on his sheath!!! Enough said.
No comments:
Post a Comment