A Wintery Fall Day

Not too much to report on the donkeys - they are furry and round, as they should be in this frigid weather.  Vida seems to be progressing well in her pregnancy; her tummy is getting bigger as the weeks go on!  Cody is doing well on his partial release from probation.  With a double layer of panels between them, he isn't able to get too much physical contact with the girls, though Frida still is a bit of a tease.  Since getting castrated he has vocally quieted down a lot, I haven't heard him do much of any full-on brays.  He has quite the repertoire of other noises which I will someday attempt to catch on video.  Frida is now the noisiest of the bunch - especially at feeding time!  She will be the one to let loose with a bray and is quite demanding when I am walking over to feed.  Vida has gotten into the fray with soft donkey "nickers". 

They are all really sweet and friendly, which is amazing considering what they've been through.  I have more photos that I had taken on my phone while doing chores that I will have to share, a few glimpses at their daily lives.  Today was a beautiful day for pictures and I even got a pretty pic of a huge gaggle of geese flying overhead.  Cody seems to be a bit camera shy, he constantly looks away or only gives me a profile shot and likes to come stand right next to me, which makes it difficult to even get a photo.  Silly boy!

  Frida, Vida & Cody



Vida's pregnancy shot - look at that growing belly!

A Bun In The Oven

It's official: Vida is pregnant!  I got the results of the blood tests on the girls a couple of days ago.  I was musing to my coworkers, wondering when the results would be in, when not a couple of hours later they came in on the fax machine.  The test, total estrogens, indicates if their values are elevated, which would confirm pregnancy.  Frida was 6.0 and Vida was 999.5!  Apparently in donkeys their levels run 20% lower than horses so Vida is closer to 1200, which means that she is between 150-320 days (5-10 mos) pregnant.  Doesn't narrow it down too much!  The average gestation length in donkeys is 360-375 days so, I have a little while still before really having to watch her.  Vida could be due as soon as January - we estimated that the two young mini donkeys in the seizure were around 7 months in August (so born in January) and they were almost assuredly Vida and Frida's babies.  It is possible that she was bred anytime after that so, who knows!  I'll just have to keep an eye on her progression - ie how big her belly gets and when her udder starts filling out - and keep my fingers crossed that everything goes well!  A mini donkey baby, how cute!

Mani-Pedis and Some Blood-Letting

Tonight was the first visit with the farrier since I've gotten them (A shout-out to Jim Williams of Tacoma for willingly coming and crawling around on his knees to trim these shorties!) and it went relatively well, considering their histories.



Cody's left front foot in September

Cody was first up and investigation was underway to figure out why he is lame in his front-end.  After some minor wrestling and some education on donkey feet (thanks again, Jim!), a small drainage tract was discovered in his right front foot, though it appeared to be dried up.  He definitely was more resistant to having that foot picked up but they will sometimes be like that if the opposite foot is painful so, I am not totally sure if it was an abscess.  More investigation is required.  I looked at his x-rays again that were taken a few months ago and marveled at how horrendous his feet were, and are.  His coffin bones (the last bone of their leg) in his front feet are horribly disfigured and the hoof capsules are also pretty messed up.  Jim thinks that after a few more trimmings we will be able to get him pretty squared away, though his feet won't ever be normal; demineralized bone doesn't ever fix itself.  All in all, Cody was a good boy and his feet are looking pretty good.  I will have to reassess his lameness in the daylight.



Frida's feet when I first got her

Frida was next and she showed her maturity by standing quite nicely for the majority of the trim.  She had a few moments of naughtiness but, she is a donkey...  Her feet were also atrocious when she was seized by animal control.  Horribly, grossly overgrown with some severe arthritic changes on the end of her coffin bone of her left front and some significant demineralization of the right front; even her back feet were way too long!  When she was first trimmed by a farrier, he broke out a small saw to take off the overgrown hoof!  Her feet are in decent enough shape, though they also will require some work to get them to the place they should be.

  Frida's feet in September, prior to the saw



Vida was the naughtiest of them all, though likely due to a lack of handling and experience.  She was jumping and backing and rearing like a little donkey-bronc!  Jim had extraordinary patience with her and with a bit of work, she ended on a good note by standing quietly but for one slip-up and having her last foot trimmed.  Thankfully her feet are in pretty normal condition so they didn't require a lot of work.  She and I have a date for some training in a few weeks when I am back on my feet and more mobile.

Dr. Arnold and Marissa went out to my place today to take some blood from the girls to send in for a pregnancy screen.  Originally Marissa was going to come this evening and practice gathering blood samples but she and Dr. Hagerman worked extremely late yesterday (till 10 pm!) over in central Washington so she only worked a short day.  There was a bit of downtime so I suggested that they go and do it without me.  Donkeys are tricky to hit a vein on as they have a large muscle running across their jugular vein in their neck so you have to try to hit the vein either on the upper third or lower third of their neck.  Marissa attempted on Frida but I guess she was a little squirmy so Dr. Arnold ended up taking the samples on the both.  Maybe next time...  I learned to take blood and give intravenous injections on newborn foals and youngsters which is really challenging since they have smaller, rolypoly veins and the are very spastic and jump when you poke them.  It was a great way to learn!

 

So, I will send off the blood samples on Monday and we will see if either of them are in foal.  One interesting thing: when I spun the blood down to collect the serum and plasma out of the tubes, I discovered that in this case their serum/plasma was virtually clear whereas in horses it is typically tinted a medium yellow color.  I am not sure if this is normal since we don't collect blood on donkeys very often but it was curious and I think I will try and find out!

How Frida Got Her Bray Back

Over the past couple of weeks Frida has been greeting me every morning and every night with her laryngitis "bray"; a kind of low, murmuring precursor to a bray.  Until two mornings ago when she let loose with full-on girl bray!  Not with the same depth and volume of Cody's brays but with enough volume that it could be heard by the neighbors.  I had thought that she would always be a snuffly brayer but, she found her bray!  Needless to say, I was quite surprised.  She had been getting progressively louder with her murmur and my mom had even heard Frida's increasing volume over the phone so I shouldn't have been too surprised.  Vida, always the quiet one, started with her own murmuring snuffle pre-bray yesterday so only time will tell if she finds hers too. 

The girls are not so neat with their hay compared to their elimination patterns.  Every time I go out they have pushed a good amount out of the stall and into the paddock.  Naughty girls!  I brushed all three of them the other day and decided to attempt to pick their hooves out.  And I mean attempted.  I got one feet on each of them picked before they decided to run off.  Guess I should halter them and tie them up next time!

Cody still seems kinda sad to me.  His incisions from his castration are healing really well and he is normal otherwise.  He isn't braying as much as he was when I brought him home, thankfully!  He's come up lame (for those non-horsey of you, he is limping on one of his front legs) so I need to have the farrier out first to trim his feet and see if he can find anything to explain this acute lameness.  His feet had been poorly cared for previously and so he has some damage to the bones on the inside of his hooves so, I am hoping it isn't anything related to that and that it is something simple, like a hoof abscess (a pocket of infection in his hoof capsule). 

They all enjoy their daily treats - even Cody!  They are so cute when they gently take the treats from my hand.  Cody practically stands there with his mouth open and waits for me to pop the treat in!

I am still suspicious of Vida's pregnancy potential....  Marissa is going to come help me draw blood (and practice her technique!) Friday night and I'll send it off to the lab and wait for the results.  Could be she is just getting a "hay belly".  We'll have to see!

Cody Comes Home

I've been a bit remiss in updating the blog but it's been a busy time!  I brought Cody home on Saturday with the help of my brother Eric and sister-in-law Sammy.  He was a lot quieter once he was in his pen than he was before he went and had "brain surgery."  Eric and my dad moved the fencing panels before Cody came home so he couldn't have physical contact with the girls and, thankfully, Frida wasn't in season anymore.  After a few robust brays and some "talking" to the ladies, Cody settled in and grazed the grass in his paddock.  Frida & Vida checked him out and weren't so sure about having him back but all is well now. 

Mom came up with a new name for Cody: "Boca", which in Spanish means 'mouth'.  It seems fitting considering the bite and his loudmouth brays!  Any thoughts?

 

Eric riding the trailer

I've been enjoying getting to know each of the donkeys, though Cody is more reserved, perhaps pouting over his recent, um, change...  Frida is really fun and definitely the leader; she will frequently chase Vida off if she is in her way!  Every morning I go out to feed them, Frida talks to me via a bray that sounds like she has laryngitis.  It is so cute!  I'll try to get it on video to share.  This morning I looked out at them and Frida was bowing to stretch and Vida was itching her bum on the fence.  Vida is very curious, always the first one to come up and check things out, but is also skittish if she isn't quite sure about something.  I look forward to spending more time with them all and learning more about their personalities.  I am planning on drawing blood on Frida and Vida to check to see if they are pregnant, since they were likely exposed to a jack (probably Cody) before I adopted them.  I am doubtful that either are pregnant, especially Frida since she came into heat, but I want to be sure.  How cute would a little baby mini donkey be, though!! 

Cody's Recovery & Birthday Wish

A bit more swollen and painful, Cody was a little reluctant to trot this morning when Marissa took him out.  Nicole took over when Marissa had to leave for an appointment and by that time Cody was full on shivering! At that point Nicole comforted him and we decided to put him back in the stall and give him some pain meds.  It was then remembered that there was a foal blanket in the feed room so that was pulled out and put on him.  He didn't mind it too much and was much more comfortable later.  I turned him out into the roundpen later that morning and he had a good snooze in the sunshine and was very fascinated with the dogs a couple of houses down; he spent a good amount of time just staring at them. 

He was quite vocal today, breaking out with some fits of braying, and I like to think he was wishing Nicole a happy birthday and thanking her for helping him!  Speaking of birthdays, I guess I need to pick some dates for them, since I have no idea when they were all born.  I have an idea of how old they are so I'll have to figure it out from there.  A lot of the horse industry goes by a January 1st birthday but I like each of them to have their own day! 

Nicole & Cody

Later that day Cody was put out in one of the outside paddocks in hopes he will move around more and be more comfortable.  He was quite enjoying the bits of grass growing in amongst the weird green weeds (still don't know what they are but at least they don't hurt the horses/donkeys!).  He looked so little compared to the big old trees...

The girls continue to be cute but are becoming a bit messy as I found hay strewn about tonight.  The dumpster was delivered so I now have a place to put manure again.  Someday I hope to build a compost bin so I can use their composted manure to fertilize the pastures.  Just another thing to add to my list!
 

Vida



Hay in the Caddy and the Poo Fairy

The morning started off with putting a bale of hay in my Grandpa's Cadillac wagon (don't worry, it was on a tarp!)  Due to my current condition my friend Nicole was again kind enough to come by and put it in the car so I could take it to Cody at work.  He was feeling much better this morning - his incisions look good with a bit of swelling and he was much brighter.  He was also much friendlier and seemed to enjoy some company when we went in to check on him, feed him, and give him his medicine (which he took like a champ!). 

We had a couple of horses come to the clinic today for routine appointments and he quickly let them know he was there by calling out to them.  One horse handled it like a champ while the other was pretty spooky.  Cody got to come out of the stall this afternoon when my coworker Marissa put him in the round pen for his daily, required exercise.  I didn't have a chance to take a picture as I was in a meeting but I peeked out and it was priceless!  She later informed me that he knows how to lunge (go around in a circle at a steady gait); it makes me wonder what kind of life he had before he came to me...  I'll keep you posted on how he does.  I expect to bring him home on Friday so we will see if he has calmed down at all around the ladies or if he needs to be banished to a different spot on the farm for a while. 

Marissa followed me home this afternoon to help me out by cleaning the paddocks - I probably could have picked them myself but there was no way I would have been able to move the cans of poo with a bum leg.  Frida and Vida were quite interested in visiting with her as well as watching as she picked up their piles.  They weren't totally sure what to make of it....  While Marissa was picking the paddocks I noticed that Vida was being a rogue pooper and going in a completely new spot while Frida went over and pooed on a preexisting pile.  That Vida, I think she is a bit of a trouble maker!

Marissa then got to feed them some treats and, of course, made some lifelong friends.  They are definitely beggars - especially Frida!

Aw Nuts!

Marissa helps Dr. Hagerman & friend
with Cody's castration

Changing the world, one jack at a time...

Cody was castrated today - a little lesser of a man?  I think not!  My friend Nicole came and helped me load him into the trailer this morning since I am still in a cast and I wasn't sure how he would be.  He was a perfect gentleman!  The castration was pretty routine for a donkey, though he didn't take kindly to the procedure and was a little resistant.  Poor guy was so mad when he woke up that when I went in to his stall he pinned his large ears back and kind of groaned.  He then proceeded to stand in the corner for a while recuperating and, I am sure, trying to figure out what the heck happened to him!  The next week or so will be uncomfortable for him as he recovers but hopefully this is only a brief blip in his new life and he will lose some of his stallion (or jack, in his case)-like tendencies.  Time will only tell...

Frida and Vida continue to win my heart!  They come up to the gate whenever I arrive to see them and follow me around when I am in their paddock.  They enjoy sleeping in their hay and are still not so sure about the vitamin/mineral supplement I got for them.  I think they were getting a horse grain at the farm where they were so the supplement probably seems pretty bland to them.  I got some low sugar, hopefully healthy treats to give them and they are total chow-hounds!  Frida kept bugging me for more but I have to remain strong in the face of their cuteness and not give them everything they want.

  

The First Day

All was quiet when I went out this morning to feed the donkeys - until the girls started moving about to see what I was doing and Cody got excited and let out an impressive bray.  Bet my neighbors appreciated that at 8:30 in the morning.  The girls are very friendly and inquisitive, though a bit shy and skittish when you try to approach.  They had made a nice bed out of their hay in the stall but I appreciatively noticed that it appears they poo in a pile in one spot!  After years of cleaning up after my horse Rumba, who likes to grind everything into a nice mix, it is the small things that make me happy.  Cody, like Rumba, made a mess of his stall, having paced for a good portion of the evening, I suspect.  I spent a brief amount of time with them, fed them and headed off to work.  As I left the paddocks and got into the car, Vida followed me to the gate and stood watching as I pulled away.  Too cute!

  

Vida



Frida

After work I stopped at K&S Saddlery to exchange the weanling size halters that I had bought for suckling size; their heads were smaller than I thought!  Frida and Vida got purple and hot pink halters, respectively, and Cody got a manly baby blue.  The girls again greeted me upon arrival and Cody again brayed when they started moving away from him (or maybe because I was going to feed them soon.)  I really hope my neighbors don't mind too much... (When I had brought them home yesterday one neighbor came by after Cody let loose with an exceptionally loud, excited bray thinking that perhaps a horse was in distress!)  I put on the girls' new headgear and gave them a quick brushing - they seemed to quite enjoy that!  I went to go do the same for Cody but he wasn't all that interested and, considering what happened yesterday, I wasn't either.  Out of curiosity, when he put his nose through the fence in front of me, I put the brush up and he grabbed onto it strongly and didn't want to let go.  Definitely was not going to mess with him tonight!  I sat with the girls for a while more.  Vida was seemingly fascinated with me while I was sitting on the ground; she sniffed me for a good 5 minutes and then had her face mere inches from mine for another 10.  We had a good conversation while Frida enjoyed dinner.  I love how their big ears rotate when I talk to them.  Frida was funny when she went to get a drink from the trough, unsure of this black pool of water.  She stretched her little neck as far as she could before taking a good long drink.  All in all, I have fallen in love with these two sweet girls!  How could I not?!



Cody



Cody is going to work in the morning to get castrated.  I am hoping that this will help change his behavior and give him some relief from his current state of mind (and body).  He is a sweet boy when he is not all revved up, I swear!  I am not naive enough to think that there is a guarantee that it will be the solution but I will keep my fingers crossed.  If anything, I want to make sure he has the best life possible and, if that isn't with me and the girls, I will be sure to find his forever home.  But I sure hope it is with me...

Introductions & First Lesson Learned

So my dad and I went and picked up the donkeys this afternoon.  I adopted three donkeys in total, two girls (jennies) and one boy (an intact jack).  Here is a bit of info on each:

Frida - inspired by Frida Kahlo and so named due to her awesome eyebrows when I first met her, though she has since shed them out.  She is approximately 12 years old and light brown; she has had at least one baby.

Vida - of Spanish origin meaning "Life", inspired by her new lease on life.  She is 3 years old and medium brown; she has also had a baby.

Cody - the name he came with; I am thinking of changing it since I don't feel like it fits him.  He is 5 years old and dark brown; he is the most likely the father of the babies that Frida & Vida had this year.

Cody

We got them home and unloaded them and put them in their respective paddocks.  Frida and Vida immediately went to eating the grass that had grown in the gravel paddocks while Cody proceeded to become neurotic, wanting the be with the girls.  Come to find out, Frida is in heat!  She was doing the classic donkey signals (chewing and backing up to him).  Poor guy!  He just paced and paced.  Stupidly I tried to get him to stop for a moment by grabbing his halter and he then bit me but good on my arm!  I let him be at that moment and later confined him to his stall, though he continues to pace.  Time for him to go to work tomorrow for a little "snip snip" I think.

My brother and sister-in-law stopped by to meet the new family members.  The girls were very good and quite friendly, coming over to visit and get scratched.  I think Sammy is a donkey-whisperer since Frida and Vida seemed quite taken with her! 

Lesson #1: Don't get in a jack's way when there are receptive ladies!



Eric & Frida bonding; Vida grazing



Sammy & Vida





The Bite

Vida was quite interested in Greta, who was not so sure about these new creatures!







The day has arrived

Several weeks ago 6 miniature donkeys, along with several horses and miniature horses were put up for adoption by the local animal control.  I had previously met all the equines through work and, of course, fell in love with the donkeys.  They were little ragamuffins that needed some love and a good home and I happened to have a vacancy.  Oh geez!  Of course, the timing couldn't be worse.  I was having surgery on my ankle to repair a lax ligament and my house is soon to go under construction for some repairs and remodels.  But, how could I resist?!

So, the couple of days prior to my surgery I went out and prepared the paddocks and shelters, bought supplies, and generally freaked out that I wouldn't have enough time to get things together before I was incapacitated.  Then of course I find out I am supposed to pick them up on the day of my surgery!  Well, I got that all figured out (they were to stay at the farm that animal control was keeping them at) and I went and signed the paperwork two days after surgery.

In the downtime following my ankle repair, I read two donkey books that I purchased after discovering that donkeys are quite a bit different from horses, especially in their nutritional needs.  I'll share some interesting tidbits I learned in another post.

I am now ready to go pick them up.  My leg is casted but I am able to walk on it, albeit I do kind of hobble.  Now, I just need to convince my father that he wants to help me...