Helpful Chickens

A few days ago it was time to clean out the chicken coop.  Remove soiled shavings and replace with clean, pine scented ones.

Silly me.

Did I scoot the chickens into the outside pen and lock them out of the coop?  No.  They were allowed outside privileges into the donkey yard and pasture.  Ignoring their freedom, they were instead fascinated with my duties and preferred to stay underfoot the entire time.

Each pitchfork full of dirty shavings was examined as was the bare coop floor.
Then came time to replenish the shavings.
Helpful hens again...

I did manage to get the clean shavings in place, in spite of my helpers.
However, the allure of the hay aisle where I also happen to keep the shavings bags was pretty powerful.  It called liked a siren's song to all four.

Such silly clucks.  They are a source of my daily amusement.

Meds, meds and more meds when a girl founders

Over the past 24 years I've never had a horse or donkey founder.  So when Alice arrived at our home, pretty stiff-legged, and I called the vet, wasn't sure what to expect.

His diagnosis was that she had foundered, many times, in the recent past.And so began the meds.

This was our box of goodies on the kitchen counter for over a week.

Banamine, isoxsuprine tablets to be dissolved in a little water and put into one of the syringes, and DMSO in the other syringe.

After about 10 days on this routine I saw a little improvement, but not enough to feel good about her status.  Back out came the vet. He thought she had improved 60-70%.  Really?  But you know how hard it is to measure progress when you see your beasts every day.  We were able to ditch the banamine and the DMSO but she's currently on the isoxsuprine once a day (down from 2x daily).

I have to give the girl a pat on the back.  It seemed we were shoving meds into her every time we saw her and she never balked.  Our other three would not have been quite so accommodating, I dare say.

The donkey rescue had said she was an even tempered sweetie and boy were they right.
Doesn't she have a little of that woe-begone look that everyone loves on Luigi?

Keep your fingers crossed that she keeps a steady improvement.

Alice Joins the Donkey Herd

Rescue donkey, Alice, has been with us for just over a week.  And I'm fascinated with progress in her acclimation and her integration into our little herd.  Just fascinated.

 



When she arrived, the gang carefully checked her out.  Luigi was particularly fascinated with one anatomical area.

Early on, while the girls were either ignoring her or threatening her with alienation, Luigi was chaperoning her out to the pasture.  And over the next couple of days if she didn't immediately come out into the pasture, he would call to her, there'd be a short conversation and she'd wander out.

Now she seems to be buddying up to Fran.  One minute Fran is kicking out at her to cut her out of the carrot action and the next minute they're sharing a hay pile.  Girls, girls, girls.

She's a little bigger than our three.  Look at those giant ears.

But a sweet face indeed.

This afternoon, Alice wasn't posing well for her photo shoot.  On the other hand, Luigi was more than cooperative.