PEDRO

I have been busy!

Busy trying to find out some history on,

"PEDRO"!

Yep that his is name.

I got an email from a gal in Tri-Cities that said she thinks she use to have Pedro.

She described him to me from what she remembers, and the one thing that stuck out,

was he 

"KNEW HIS NAME!"

And he does!

He responds to Pedro.

So Pedro it is!

And she said that he would be about 12 years old now.

So Off to the vet we go.

He needs a check up and I needed to know more truth of his age.

Because I don't know what I am looking at when I look at his teeth:

 He has a bit of a little tooth here that has offset his teeth.

He is very good about letting you look in his mouth.

He needs a good toothbrush.

(Mental note next time I go to the store.)

I was not sure how he would load.

When I get to the trailer, he does put his front feet in,

Looks around and backs out!

Then it was a battle of "push-N-pull" which was not working...

So I went and got my light whip, 

and had Hubby get in the trailer, and just put a bit of pressure on the lead rope.

I kept tapping him on his back legs right above the knees, and 

IN HE GOES!

Now hubby is locked in the trailer with this wild burro!

Rut Row!

He is screaming: "LET ME OUT!" "LET ME OUT!"

"I have an Ass up my Ass!"

Well not really!

Pedro was such a gentleman,

He just crowded Hubby at the door. So hubby had to slide out.

So off to the vet we go.

He rides really good. 

Was a good boy for the doc,

Well we just had a little incident where 

Pedro let the doc feel down his back leg, and 

just when the doc had his fingers in just the right spot.....

WHAM!

Pedro kicked!

Right on target!

He was in the stocks and so therefore the kick

smashed docs index and middle finger pretty good!

It wasn't like I did not warn him!

(I really did feel pretty bad about it.)

Once the doc quit peeing down his leg, and regained his composure,

he continued with the exam.

He said that:
Pedro is:

A good weight.

Very healthy.

One back foot needed to be trimmed.

Teeth needs to be done.

And he was about 10 years old.

YEAH! Good age.

So he got his vaccinations, and will be ready for the booster when Libby and Star get theirs.

And I got a tube of 'Miracle Gel' to give Pedro to get his feet done

so that he would not kick my farrier to the next county.

So on Friday I had my Farrier over.

I explained the case.

She was ready to take him on.

So I gave him the meds, and she worked on his front feet.

He has no issues with his front,

and really only a bad issue with one back hoof.

By the time she was ready to tackle it 

Pedro was in LaLa Land!

 Little Drunken Donkey!

He had not a care in the world!

She trimmed twice this amount off the one hind foot.

I am sure that the last two times he got trimmed,

that he kicked who ever did it, and they just never touched that one hind foot.

Now he has them all trimmed nice and neatly.

 He was pretty out of it for about 6 hrs!

Here he is getting some carrots, and watched carefully so he doesn't choke.

 I thought maybe some food might be good.

And then I walked him around a bit too when he wasn't staggering so much.

I could of blown him over with a feather...

My heart broke!

He was so pitiful looking/acting!

PEDRO: "There is two of you, and your spinning!"

He recovered well, held a grudge for about a day, 

and then back to his wonderful, loving self!

He has the most awesome personality!

Very quiet. I have yet to hear him bray!

Star brays quite often.

So today:

It was sunny but it was very cold!

A friend came over because she wanted to meet Pedro.

She is a donkey lover and has shown me quite a bit of things about donkeys.

We take him for a walk, and part way thru, I told her I have a saddle for him.

That was all it took.
Off to the round pen we go!

Isn't he just adorable?

Ignore the to long cinch!

Took the saddle and cinching quite well.

Even did a trick or two!

Left his foot on the step till I could get a picture.

AND....

YES.....

I RODE MY ASS!

My friend rode him first!

She was really brave!

He did so awesome!

Never once bucked.

Even knows the "one rein stop" 

Only because I only had one rein, but when I pulled on it, he stopped!

After this, we went for a long walk.

 Up and down hill.

Thru the rocks and over logs!

He will be a good:

"Trail Challenge Donkey!"

I see a 

"HORSE SHOW in his future!"

Now to work in getting him a horse disguise made!

A Donkey from Central Oregon

I have re-instated my ulcers over this buddy thing for Star! 

I could not make up my mind 

on the Donkeys at the rescue in Cove.

Oh I fell in love on sight!

I sure did...

But there was something nagging at me.

I think it is because

this guy showed up!

I found him on Craigslist.

And he was local.

So I stopped in to see him!

Isn't he just adorable?

Look at that face!

So because of the facility he came from,

Which resembles a dog pound only it is equines.

I am keeping him in quarantine for 6 weeks.

He looks very healthy, but it is for the safety of Libby and Star!

He comes with no history.

Oh the gentleman checked his teeth and said he was 12 years old,

But I am not so sure.

If he is only 12, then he has been worked hard and put away wet!

This is when I went to look at him.

 He ties really well.

Follows you around like a dog.

Loves attention.

Well mannered.

Let me look in his mouth.

Lets you pick up his front feet and clean them.

He even let 'me' check for the family jewels, 

but did NOT want the 'man' to do it. :))

(He has none)

HE HATES:

 His ears touched.

Can't pick up his hind feet.

So far those are the only two things I have found he does not like.

Isn't he adorable?

He has cow poop and mud glued to his belly and legs, and it is to cold to give him a bath!

I am concerned about his feet though.

Both front feet look like this one.

(See the bulb looking hoof?)

Anyone know why?

One hind foot looks good, the other one a bit long, which gives me suspicion that the last time he got trimmed, he must of kicked the farrier to tim-buck-too, and that foot never got trimmed.

So...I have been spending a lot of time with him.

I just go out and sit.

Give him treats.

Brush him a lot.

I wormed him today.

I think he is in his 20's.

The information I was told:

He came from Central Oregon.

He was purchased as a buddy for a pony.

And pretty much has been through two horse traders that I know of for sure.

The 'horse trader'  went to buy the pony

and came back with more than he bargained for:

This donkey, 1 goat, 2 of the cutest little pigmy goats, and a young cow!

He was also told this donkey use to pack.

So Now I am on the hunt!

Central Oregon could be anywhere!

I want to find out some history on him.

What he use to do for a job.

And most importantly,

His NAME!

Because he hasn't told me what it is yet.

So if anyone recognizes him,

PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

I am Donkey Driven and need your Advice:

I am in quite a dilemma here

and I need some help/advice from,

YOU!

(Horse and Donkey owners!)

As you know, 

I am a first time 

"Donkey" owner.

Star is a doll.

Her and Libby get on very well together.

They do "love" each other!

But:

(Yes there is a but!)

I feel that Star is not 100% happy!

She loves Libby.

She likes her home here.

I just feel that there is something missing.

Star will just stand and stare a hole thru me.

I feel she is trying to tell me something

and I am not sure what it is.

I thought that maybe it could be she wants a friend of her own kind.

So I went on a Donkey Hunt!

From Texas to Arizona to Oregon and Washington.

I found a donkey rescue 2 hours from my house.

There are three Donkeys that need a home.

So yesterday hubby and I drove over to look at them.

In my mind,

"I felt that a donkey would have to 'pick-me' as their friend."

Or I would come home with nothing.

When we arrived there were several of these cuties waiting at the gate to meet and greet this 'new comer'

when we pulled up.

 This cutie was the first one in my pocket.

Her name is Ghida.

 She is not at all shy!

She will "really" get into your pocket!

She leads about as well as Star does, sort of.

She is not as good with her feet, but will allow you to touch them.

 It was raining, and we were all soaking wet.

She is not a lovey dovey kind of donkey,

but she does like to hang out with you.

 She is:

Curious.

Nosy.

Cute.

Gentle.

Pushy.

Nibbley.

Treat driven.

And:

she is 25 years old!

 There are 2 other donkeys there that need a home also,

but they both came from the same home,

and one is very very shy!

The other one is shy also, but did walk up to me and want her butt scratched and let me love on her. 

And she even scooted in-between me and Ghida.

I just feel that Star would need a buddy that would take the horse by the reins and show her that it is 

OK to play! 

It is OK to walk up to someone! 

It is OK to just be a donkey!

Pictures below:

This donkey,

(I can't remember her name)

But she looks like a wooly mammoth!

Oh my gosh she is cute!

And so much hair!

He said people are always asking him:

 "Is that a buffalo donkey?"

 He told me a story that he took her packing and she got spooked and run off.

He could not find her, and thought she was gone forever.

When he got back to the trailer, there she was, 

Standing there as if to say: "Where have you been?"

 She is also 35 years old!

(I don't know how long ago he took her packing.)

I know donkeys can live a very long time!

I don't know if it is another donkey that I need!

I know that when I went to visit these donkeys, that they all,

Everyone of them, (but one)

clambered around me, 

wanting attention!

(They all have a wonderful home.)

Where as, when I go out to my pasture, 

Star always walks away from me,

and I have to negotiate with her to walk up to her.

Once I can put my hand on her,

she melts like butter!

This does bother me.....

(I don't know how to fix it.)

and yes, I do the turn my back on her thing, and she does walk right up behind me.

My thoughts are this:

Does she need another donkey to show her things?

Her pasture mate before Libby was a donkey.

I do believe that Libby is her first horse buddy, 

and they do get along beautifully.

Another reason I have been thinking of a donkey is:

When I take Libby out of the pasture,

Star runs to and fro and panics!

Of course this just breaks my heart!

I don't like to leave her alone.

But then would I have 2 donkeys doing that?

Also I have one and a half acres of pasture.

I see tell tale signs of Star already digging and tearing up the pasture.

This would most likely be two fold if I get a second Donkey.

Right now, I feed pasture 6-9 months of the year

and grass hay the winter months.

I believe feeding hay would be extended and my pasture would most likely not support three.

I have all these thoughts and then some running thru my head.

I do not take on ownership of any animal lightly!

It is big commitment.

My pets get better care that most, and I love each and every one of them unconditionally.

Even though Ghida is a totally cutie!~

I do worry that she is 25 years old.

I don't want another Poncho incident.

I am not asking you to 'tell' me what to do.

I am asking for feed back and YOUR THOUGHTS.

What would YOU do?

Lay it all out for me:

The good.

The bad.

Maybe something I have not thought of.

Sometimes someone else's perspective can shed some light.

What IS Lipoma?

S.A.F.E.

Save A Forgotten Equine

updated their website.

They lost three of their special horses lately.

One of them:

Brandy

was lost in just about the same way I lost 

Poncho! (You can read about it here.)

So I googled:

LIPOMA

and came up with this:

COW

It actually means:

Case of the Week!

The blog is a DVM

and on January 3rd, 2011

he did a post on Lipoma'!

Please go visit his blog,

(I am sure he looks at his page views as much as I do.)

 I AM going to copy and paste from his blog to here, 

simply because I do print my blogs out in a book at the end of the year, 

and I would like to have this information in it:

~~~~~~~~Copied from his blog:~~~~~~~~

 http://equinevetblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/cow-strangulating-lipoma.html

Monday, January 3, 2011

COW: Strangulating Lipoma

It has been a while since I posted a case of the week (maybe at the rate I’m going it should be case of the month—but then the acronym COM just isn’t as nice as COW). This was an older horse I saw on emergency last week. The history was a sudden onset (less than 2 hrs) very severe colic. In fact when I arrived, the horse was down, in shock and unable to get up. With the assistance of lots of good drugs we were able to get the horse comfortable enough to stand just long enough to do a rectal exam. Rectal exams are probably the single best diagnostic aid we have in sorting out colic’s. On rectal, a very tight band could be felt. This almost always means that something is twisted or displaced.

As it turned out, the cause of this horse’s colic was what is called a strangulating lipoma. They are called that because it is a lipoma that ‘strangles’ off a portion of the intestine. Lipomas are benign tumors of fat. In horses, they tend to form in a very thin membrane, referred to as the mesentery. Lipomas really do not cause a significant problem for the horse until they somehow get wrapped around a loop of intestine- almost always the small intestine. Once they wrap around a loop of intestine, the horse VERY quickly becomes extremely painful. The only way to fix the problem is surgery. Often they wrap tight enough around the intestines that they also occlude the blood flow to that section of intestine. If the circulation to the affected loops is significantly compromised then the intestine quickly begins to die, in which case at surgery the strangulated loop of intestine would have to be surgically removed. That is why, if surgery is to going to be pursued, it needs to happen ASAP. Even if surgery is elected for, sometimes you just cannot get the horse on the surgery table fast enough to save the intestine. On average about half of horses treated surgically survive in the long term.

Strangulating lipomas are so devastating, in large part, because they strike out of nowhere. There is nothing that can be done to prevent them and the only effective treatment is surgery. It is virtually impossible to detect these tumors until they cause a strangulation. The only thing that may lessen the development of these benign fat tumors is to keep your horse from getting too fat. Because it takes quite a bit of time for these tumors to form, they usually do not develop to a sufficient size to cause a problem until the horse is in its late teens or twenties. For reasons we do not yet fully understand, geldings and ponies tend to be at a greater risk for developing lipomas. The only effective treatment for a strangulating lipoma is surgery. Current estimates for an uncomplicated surgical colic are in the $5-7000 range. This type of colic is at a higher risk for post-surgical complications, so they can easily cost in excess of $7,000 to fix.

Here are the life lessons from this case: 1. With any severe, sudden onset colic, a veterinarian should be consulted immediately. In these cases, banamine is rarely ever powerful enough to suppress the severe level of pain. 2. Keep banamine on hand. Banamine is a medication that is quite effective in suppressing pain originating from the abdomen. Often a mild colic can be managed with this medication alone. If the pain does not resolve within 45-60 minutes of an oral dose of banamine, then a veterinarian should definitely be consulted. 3. Surgical costs are expensive and are almost always unexpected. It is wise to have some funds set aside in an emergency fund or have colic insurance. 4. Lipomas are just one more reason to add to the long list of reasons to keep your horse from getting overweight. Even if you do, as in this case, strangulating lipomas can and do still occur.

Here are some pictures of what they actually look like. The picture below is of the lipoma (after being unwrapped from the small intestine). Also notice the congested blood vessels to the small intestine as a result of the lipoma inhibiting the normal flow of blood.

Here is a picture of the distended loops of small intestine that develop as a result of the inability for ingesta to move through.

Posted by Deron Nelson DVM on Monday, January 03, 2011  

~~~~~~~~~~End of Dr. Nelson's post~~~~~~~~~~~

THANK YOU Dr. Nelson for posting this.

I miss Poncho every single day!

Middle Son

Our Middle Son lives in California.

I get to see him about once a year.

At Christmas!

The time goes by to fast, and all to soon he is headed back home.

Middle Son

Paints Bikes.

The kind that race on asphalt.

That go really really fast.

Here he is on HIS bike

that he painted.

 (the #923 is for September 23rd, the day he almost died when he wrecked his bike.)

 He recovered well from his accident and we are so blessed for that!.

(Video link to Robert's ride)

This model is promoting his business.

 His website is:

MotoGloss Paints

(You can click on the link)

 Middle Son's business is growing!

(I'm sure the cutie model might have something to do with it.)

Always nice to have a pretty young thing sitting on your product bike.)

This bike won something.  It is owned by Chris Siglin.

(I can never remember the little details.)

Middle Son painted it!

(I remember that important thing.)

2011 AFM Banquet Film.

The above link goes to a film 

Make sure you watch the very beginning,

then it is really good the last half.

He does not race professionally.

He races "track days".

It is exciting!

It's an adrenalin rush!

For him!

Me, as a mother worry like crazy.

I would not be normal if I didn't.

Stay safe!

And

Keep the rubber side down!

Century Link! BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE!

We use to have:

For our telephone service.

Then they sold out to:

When I was with Qwest I paid $35.00 PER YEAR for

unlimited Long Distance.

Then a few statements year into being owned by Century Link,

I noticed I was being charged

$17.00

PER MONTH

for unlimited long distance!

I would not use $17.00 per month in long distance if they charged .25 cents per minute!

WAIT JUST ONE DOG GONE MINUTE HERE!

So I went to Verizon, and found out I could get a land line

for a whole whopping:

$19.99

PER MONTH

This included free long distance!

WOW!

So I hurried up and switched!

12/28/11 to be exact.

January I get a final billing from Century for $5.01 and I promptly paid it.

This month, 

FEBRUARY

(count it, 2 months LATER!)

I get another bill:

$1.42!

Well it won't let me even look at it on line, because now, I do not have an account with them!

So I called.

After going through their automated system that 

takes two days 15 minutes

I get a live person!

"Hello this is JP in Boise!"

To save you from a long drawn out conversation that I had with the inconsiderate person that he was, I will just say that he would NOT help me with my $1.42 dispute.

His only answer was that it "NEEDS JUSTIFICATION!"

I asked him "Customer Service wasn't justification?"

I kept asking him to speak with his supervisor.

He kept putting me on hold.

Each time he said I needed justification!

JP's justification was that the $1.42 consisted of:

$1.10 for two days of long distance service

(keep in mind I already paid $17.00 for the month)

and taxes on top of that!

Because of the billing dates, he was so confused, as well as I.

He just kept arguing with me about the charges:

JP:  "Yes you owe them, and you need justification for any credit!"

Me: "No I do NOT owe them! I already paid it in January!"

JP: "I can't do anything without justification!"

ME:  "I blog, and therefore I will talk bad about Century Link!"

JP:  "You need justification!"

ME:  "No I don't! I have 1500 followers!" 

(Ok I exaggerated a bit)

JP:  "Can you justify that?"

ME:  "May I talk with your supervisor?"

JP: "No she is only the supervisor of me, not customers."

"There was just no way he could credit my account nor would anyone else in the company because it NEEDS JUSTIFICATION!

He put me on hold several times, but would never put me thru to his supervisor!

(He must of been fearful of me speaking to his supervisor.)

So I hung up and called back!

We will see about justification this time!

One thing about a large company like that you never get the same person when you call back!

MIKE from IDAHO FALLS saved the day!

He was very kind and polite!

He asked permission to call me, Jody!

Isn't that sweet?

Immediately he credited my account!

Mike said that I should not of been billed the $1.42

and if any more bills come in, to let them know!

Mr. JP in Boise, ID was rude, and totally not helpful!

He was NOT customer service oriented.

He did not portray the company in a good way!

I am done with Century Link!

Not ever again will I ever have service with them!

Nope!

Nada!

So people's CHECK YOUR BILL!

You might have hidden charges on there too!

Just think,

Even if it is only $1.00 dollar extra!

Just think of the amount of customers they have!

THAT my friend is a butt load of mooolaaaa!

Go VERIZON!

I am saving $45.00 PER MONTH!

and still have my land line

and my phone number I have had since 1977!

TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Oh and tell Hugo, Jody sent ya!

You get to save $25.00 off the already low price,

and YES, I get $25.00 credit too!

Who wouldn't want to save some cash these days?

(I did not get paid to write this blog!)

(I actually do have a life where it is not all Donkeys and Horses!)

Oh, and THANK YOU For following me!

If you are already a follower

re-follow on the LINKY LINK! (right side top)