I got home this evening to find a little baby donkey sopping wet. Now, it didn't rain and there was a wet trail leading from the water trough which could really only mean one thing... Fergus took a little dip. Thankfully he is fine, if not a bit soaked. And thankfully I had the DonkeyCam still running so I was able to look back and see what happened. Since I know he is ok, I don't feel too bad that I find this kind of amusing!
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Hello, My Name Is...
I was getting ready to post about bringing my horse Rumba home when I realized I never officially announced what the little guy's name is! So, drum roll please..... Fergus!
The name, recommended by my sister Jennifer, means man of strength, man of force, virility, supreme man, highest choice, and so on. It seemed fitting for the little guy, who fought so hard and showed such strength in his first few weeks of life to have survived what he did. He is doing quite well, now at a little over one month old. He is active and playing, pestering his mom Vida and Aunt (grandma?) Frida daily. He lost some hair on his legs where there was a fair bit of trauma and his eyes are still healing, now just having corneal scarring. Otherwise, you'd never know what he has been through!
His little baby front teeth have broken through, right on schedule. Here's a fun tidbit for those non-horsey out there: foals, like human babies, have baby teeth, which we call caps. The front part of the mouth have teeth called incisors and there are six on top and six on the bottom. The middle four come in starting at 6-7 days old, the next set come in at 6-7 weeks old, and the outer four come in around 6-7 months. They also have premolars and molars, the premolars having baby teeth and the molars just coming in as permanent teeth later on. The caps and permanent teeth all come in according to a "schedule" which is one of the ways we in the veterinary/horse community age young horses. They have a "full mouth" i.e. all permanent teeth when they are 5 years old. I'll try and see if Fergus will let me get a picture of his little front incisors...
Well, that's it for now. Stay tuned to hear how bringing the big guy Rumba home went. It resulted in something surprising, at least to me!
The name, recommended by my sister Jennifer, means man of strength, man of force, virility, supreme man, highest choice, and so on. It seemed fitting for the little guy, who fought so hard and showed such strength in his first few weeks of life to have survived what he did. He is doing quite well, now at a little over one month old. He is active and playing, pestering his mom Vida and Aunt (grandma?) Frida daily. He lost some hair on his legs where there was a fair bit of trauma and his eyes are still healing, now just having corneal scarring. Otherwise, you'd never know what he has been through!
His little baby front teeth have broken through, right on schedule. Here's a fun tidbit for those non-horsey out there: foals, like human babies, have baby teeth, which we call caps. The front part of the mouth have teeth called incisors and there are six on top and six on the bottom. The middle four come in starting at 6-7 days old, the next set come in at 6-7 weeks old, and the outer four come in around 6-7 months. They also have premolars and molars, the premolars having baby teeth and the molars just coming in as permanent teeth later on. The caps and permanent teeth all come in according to a "schedule" which is one of the ways we in the veterinary/horse community age young horses. They have a "full mouth" i.e. all permanent teeth when they are 5 years old. I'll try and see if Fergus will let me get a picture of his little front incisors...
Well, that's it for now. Stay tuned to hear how bringing the big guy Rumba home went. It resulted in something surprising, at least to me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)