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!!