We
recently got a call from Rocky's owner asking if we could take him back, after 3
years.Residents of
Forever Home Donkey Rescue
As rescues, we know all of our animals have stories. Here is some of the information we have on them. There is much more they could tell us, if only we could understand.
New Arrivals
We
recently got a call from Rocky's owner asking if we could take him back, after 3
years.
Rocket
Man, i.e. Rocky came to us in 2005 with his Mom. They had been on a dude
ranch for the tourists to play with, but had become very spoiled & were
going to auction.
We
found him a good home, but the recent downturn in the economy, combined with
higher prices for almost everything, including hay is taking it's toll on equine
ownership nationwide. Rocky's owner lost her job due to downsizing &
doesn't know if or when she will find another one. She wanted to make sure
Rocky was taken care of & signed him over to us.
He
has a wonderful personality, very people orientated & is looking for a
new Forever Home.......!!!!!!!
Regulars
Pepsi:
We
were told about Pepsi at the vet clinic. The woman needed to find a home for him
fairly quickly. Pepsi has a
reoccurrence of a sarcoid right
under his eye. He had one in 2007& his owner treated it
successfully at that time with xxTerra .
Since he had health problems, besides being overweight, he fit
into our goal of taking in the ones that are unadoptable. We’ll work on getting his feet in shape, &
also his little body. In the future with some feet trimming, dieting &
hopefully getting rid of the sarcoid, he should be very
adoptable. In the meantime we will enjoy having him here.
Gus & Chili: 1995 - 1997 ?
In
November 2007 we hauled Gus from a ranch over by Arivaca where he had
become a nuisance. He was the only donkey & had developed a taste for
gardens, both flower & vegetable. I had a gotten a call from a woman
that lost a jenny to colic & her remaining gelding Chili was very lonely. We
delivered Gus to Chili's home & they instantly became friends.
Fast forward a few months & situations change. The woman had to move to town to take care of her elderly Mother & had no place for the boys to go. She didn't want them adopted out & wants to be able to reclaim them in the future. They were both spoiled & use to being fed a vast assortment of "treats" to the point they were pushy if the treat isn't forthcoming. It took 2 days for them to come down off their sugar high & a few more days to find out that being pushy doesn't work around here. They are both very smart & like to be around people. But they both need to learn patience. Gus has been trained & has good ground manners. Chili needs ground training. He's very social & wants to please, & really is easy to work with. Hopefully they will be able to go back to their home someday.
We bought BlackJack in 1997, as a 10 year old intact jack. He was going
to slaughter if we didn’t buy him for $50. His feet had not been trimmed
& were slippered. He almost bled to death when he was gelded, because
of our lack of knowledge about the differences between horses & donkeys.
Unfortunately many veterinarians have not worked with donkeys & aren’t
aware, that donkeys are heavier bleeders than horses, & this needs to
be taken into consideration when performing surgery. He is the alpha equine
on the property, & has the responsibility of checking all trailers that
come on the property to see if it’s a new friend, or even better has
something to eat in it. He is insulin resistant, so his diet is low sugar
& starch. He is doing very well, without medication.
Buddy is not a true rescue, we bought him as a companion for BlackJack,
before we ever thought of doing rescue. He came from a good home, &
came with no bad habits, except a great love of food & a very sharp
mind that loves to get into trouble. He thinks fly masks are toys &
we spend a lot of time in the fly season looking for masks that have been
used as toys & discarded somewhere on the property. Buddy came to us
with a weight problem & over the years has also developed insulin resistance.
He is still overweight & is on an ongoing diet.
Buster
was given to us after we advertised for free donkeys. A man had gotten Buster
for his grandkids & they were afraid of him. He had been in a BLM herd
in the Kingman area, captured December 19, 1990 as a 6 month old & put
up for adoption. Over the years, he had passed thru many hands & had
become suspicious of people. The day we hauled him home in a horse trailer,
he was so traumatized by the time we got home, he had rubbed his tail raw
& the floor of the trailer was wet from him sweating. He has become
more trusting, but still is suspicious of change in his daily routine.
We
brought Cisco home the same day with Buster. He had been used as a roping
donkey, & probably would no longer run to be roped. He had no interest
in his surroundings or what was going on around him. This shutting down
is a way of trying to control their lives in the only way left to them,
by not getting involved. He also had summer sores, which are caused by habromena
larvae under his eyes & on other areas of his body. These areas itch
intensely, to the point where he self mutilated, by biting, scratching,
or rubbing. Over a period of 3 years for about 7 months each year, he had
to be treated daily, sometimes hourly. He still has to be watched during
fly season, for new outbreaks.
Pepper
had been used as a roping donkey, & fed alfalfa hay for at least 15
years. He was very sway backed, had what is called a hay belly, had been
foundered (laminitis) & his feet were in poor shape. He was also very
lethargic, & had longer hair than normal. It took another episode of
laminitis for us to find out that he was not only insulin resistant, but
also has Cushing's disease, caused by a tumor on his pituitary gland. He
receives daily medication, his hooves are trimmed every 5 weeks & he
is probably in better shape than he’s been in, for many years.
Rusty came from a good home he had for 10 years. For two of those years he took a little boy to school each day. There was a round pen by the school where Rusty & the brother’s horse spent the day.
His owner could no longer keep him due to personal circumstances, but she wanted to make sure he didn’t go into the unknown by being sold to
strangers that might not appreciate his wonderful personality & gentle nature. She came out to visit & approved our place as a new home for Rusty. He slipped into the herd & routine, like he had always been here & really is a “Cadillac Mule” as his owner called him. But, when it’s all said & done, he is a mule & does have his “mule” moments.
Max
was diagnosed with EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis) in 2001. It
is also called possum disease. The protozoa is found in the feces &
urine of possums & can be ingested in hay. It causes motor weakness
& can be extreme enough to cause death. Before diagnosis, he was being
used as a roping horse, & when he couldn’t perform, was probably
abused, especially around the head. He was sold relatively cheap for a
registered overo paint, to our son. EPM treatment is expensive & he
couldn’t afford to treat Max. We brought him out here, pulled his
shoes, treated him with Marquis, & let him do whatever he wanted to.
He is healthy, has some problems backing or turning in small circles,
but can play a tune on his gate, with his mouth, when waiting for his
supper. He’s even been known to do some “air dancing”
if supper isn’t forthcoming as fast as he thinks it should.
UPDATE: In August of 2006 Max was showing signs of neurological
deterioration, & we hauled him to the Arizona Equine Medical &
Surgical Centre in Gilbert Arizona, www.azequine.com for evaluation. This
equine clinic is the largest of it's kind in the southwest, with a large
staff & includes ultrasonography, nuclear scintigraphy, MRI, endoscopy
and computed and digital radiology for diagnoses.
We thought he was having a relapse of the EPM he was diagnosed with 5
years ago. On presentation, Dr. Voss said he didn't think so, & wanted
to take X-rays of Max's neck. Max was never tested for EPM, as the only
test at that time was dangerous (a large needle inserted into where his
neck attaches to his head & into the spinal fluid to be evaluated)
& expensive.
The X-rays showed that Max has an old break at C-7 which is right in front
of his withers. In other words a broken neck. He probably fell at some
time, with his head caught underneath his body. If he had been properly
diagnosed at the time, he possibly could have been treated & continued
to work. But he now has quite a bit of arthritis, & of course long
term nerve damage, that would keep him from ever being ridden again.
Dr. Voss took blood to be evaluated for EPM, if Max didn't improve with a regimen of Adequan & bute. He is moving a lot easier & seems much more comfortable, but we will try to find something other than bute to give him long term.
If any lesson is to be learned from this experience it is: Correct
diagnosis is vital when dealing with the unknown. The information we were
given when Max came to stay with us, had travelled thru 2 owners, 1 well
meaning "expert" that thought he could "cure" Max,
and 2 or 3 Vets that "thought" he had EPM. The one to suffer
with this break down of knowledge and communication, is Max. Although
we enjoy having Max with us, his life could have been much more meaningful,
IF he had been diagnosed properly, when he was first hurt.
Sha’ba (An Arabic word of respect for an old man) is around 40 years
old. He has had a broken fetlock, is blind in one eye, has had a hole thru
his nose that lines up with scars on his mouth. We assume a cord, chain
or something was ran thru the hole to lead him or maybe even tie him up.
He had also shut down mentally, like Cisco. Someone in his life had cut
his ears off. His teeth are worn off to the gums, & he was very thin
when we got him. He had been in with other donkeys, so he probably had a
hard time getting anything to eat. He was part of a 5 donkey package deal,
& we were asked to take him, since he couldn’t be resold or used
for anything. It is surprising how trusting he has become, considering the
stories he could tell.
Lucy was going to be put down because her feet were very bad & she was
wild. She had a nasal discharge when we picked her up, & after treating
it, we found a home for her & her daughter. After a few months the discharge
was only getting worse & she had lost a lot of weight. We brought her
back to the sanctuary & hauled her to the Equine Clinic at Gilbert for
evaluation. She was diagnosed with guttural pouch disease, which is treated
with surgery. Her owner couldn’t afford the expense, so we took her
back permanently & had the surgery done. Her feet are still a work in
progress, the farrier says it will probably take a couple of years of trimming
for them to be as good as they will ever be. Buster loves her & wherever
she goes he is right at her side. I don’t know if he ever had anyone
he loved before, but they will never be separated.
About a month after we got Shiloh the same man called & said he had
an old mule he wanted to give us, otherwise he was going to shoot him. Jack
had recently gone blind in one eye, was very spooky, & couldn’t
be trusted on trails, so he had no value. He has finally decided we aren’t so bad after all. His teeth
were really bad, & he couldn’t chew hay. We had an equine dentist
work on his teeth, & it took a few months for the calcium deposits that
were keeping his jaw from free movement to dissolve, but he now chews with
great enthusiasm. He has gained weight & is a special boy, even if he
isn’t really a donkey.
Tula
is a Spanish word for Willow. She came off one of the Indian
Reservations a few years ago, & was sold to a woman that was very
surprised when Tula gifted her with a little baby girl, who was named Paloma.
In late 2005 we were contacted to haul them to a new home down by Tubac
& a few months later were contacted when Paloma developed a untreatable
bout of colic & had to be euthanized at the age of two. Situations
change, & we were notified in the summer of 2006 that Tula could no
longer stay where she was at, so we brought her to the sanctuary. She
has never been worked with, & although she isn't really afraid of
people, she sees no reason to have them in her space. Tula will
probably never be adoptable, her distrust of humans goes so deep, she isn't
willing to give up her independence.
CHEYENNE, LYNN, & JUSTIN:
These
miniatures came to visit, in Dec 2006 to hopefully lose some weight.
They had been in with a lot of horses, & obviously been eating more
than their fair share of the hay being thrown in the pen. I'm not
sure this is a good place to lose weight, most of ours are a little pudgy,
but at least we have some control over what they eat. Their
"Mom" has seen them & thinks they look much better, although
they have a ways to go. We've all decided they are better off
staying here than going back into a situation where their food intake
might not be closely monitored. Everyone that comes to visit the
donkeys love to see them, especially small children. They've learned
to "work the people" for treats, so we're in no hurry for them
to leave.
CHESTER: 2001
Chester
was a roping donkey in with a herd of horses & probably got kicked in
the elbow causing lameness. He was not diagnosed or treated at the time.
After about 6 months his owner figured out he wasn't getting any better &
called us. We picked him up, brought him to the sanctuary &
although he had swelling & limped rather badly at times, he settled in
& interacted with the herd. A couple of months after he got here he
developed an open abscess on his leg. We took him to the Equine Centre in
Gilbert for surgery to remove infection & bony growth to the elbow
joint. He has been on antibiotics since November 2007, to get rid of any
infection & although he is doing well, these types of joint infections are
almost impossible to get rid of. We will do whatever we can to have a good
outcome for him, long term.
We named him Chester after Dennis Weaver's role in the TV Western, Gunsmoke. Chester in the show was Marshall Dillon's sidekick, & walked with a limp.
JENNY: 1999
Jenny
is the first mammoth donkey we've had here. A woman north of Phoenix
called, & she was at the end of her rope with trying to help Jenny.
She had been working on Jenny's feet for a year & said she had treated over
50 abscesses in that time. She was to the point of thinking about
euthanasia. We took Jenny sight unseen, & her feet were really bad,
lots of open cracks & bleeding from the coronary band above the hoof.
But she hadn't given up, although when she came here in May 2007, she was laying
down over 23 hours a day. Her egg bar shoes were pulled & we started soaking
her feet, & having her trimmed on a regular basis. X-rays showed
damage to the coffin bone on both front feet, from chronic founder. As
soon as she could stand for a little while, we started letting her out of her
pen to roam as much as she could to improve circulation in her feet.
She's made a lot of progress in the last year. She doesn't lay down anymore, & has even trotted a few times, although she really prefers the slow & easy meandering lifestyle. Her feet have almost grown out completely, but are still deformed, both internally & externally, & will need regular trimming. Unfortunately she probably will never be sound enough to be ridden or pull a cart, so she will stay in sanctuary for the rest of her life
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