Three Pines Farm

These wonderful ladies and gents are going to have a long road ahead of them in getting these boys' feet back in shape, so if you appreciate what they do and have a couple dollars to send their way, please do!  Their website is www.crossroadsdonkeyrescue.com and they have donation information listed there.  They're also 501(c)3 non-profit, so your donations are tax-deductible.  Please help them help Pancho and Lefty!  Thanks so much!

The boys left for their new home yesterday morning.  Fran, the wonderful lady who picked them up, called with an update yesterday evening; she took them straight to the veterinary hospital at MSU and the docs there have faith that Pancho can be helped.  That's great news!  Another peice of good news is that finally, the evening before they left, Lefty finally started eating from our hands.  That was absolutely amazing!  So now these wonderful boys are in the most capable hands they could possibly be in and I'm positive they're going to lead happy, eventually-pain-free lives.  I will update when I can and hopefully we'll get to take a mini-vacation next summer to go visit them; it's only been a day, and I already miss them like crazy.  Here are a few shots from their last day here:

The boys are doing very well.  They've started engaging in a game of "You peed there, so I'm going to pee right on top of it, then we can do the Flehmen-face thing!".  Panch is picking up some weight and they're both looking better.  When it's nice out, they get to stroll into the corral for a few minutes to get some grass, although they usually spend most of their time smelling where Tyla's been.  Here are some shots from the weekend:

The boys are doing well.  Pancho let out his first full bray this past weekend!  They also got to spend a little time in the grass, although they were both way too busy realizing Tyla is a GIRL!!! :)  Lefty's round of antibiotics is over and his chin is mostly healed; the molasses in his feed to hide the antibiotics really helped and his appetite is back to normal.  Here they are, eagerly awaiting their breakfast:

Lefty seems to be doing better!  He was a bit perkier last evening and this morning; didn't shy away when I gave him his breakfast, although he's not yet greeting me with those endearing snuffling whoofs like Pancho does when he knows it's chowtime.  Stopped at Doc's yesterday and picked up some antibiotics to start him on today; we'll have to grind them up and mix them in his feed with a bit of molasses but if his appetite stays up, that should be no problem.  Yay, Lefty!!!

Okay, so it's officially been a week since the boys were brought out and it still breaks my heart every time I look at them.  They have their good days and their bad days.  We had to take their halters back off; since they both lay with their front legs stretched forward and rest their heads on their legs, the metal buckle of the halter had rubbed their chins.  The halters were not too tight; they both just seem to have very thin skin and have patches on their shoulders and legs that, while healed now, look like pressure sores from laying down so much in the past.  So poor Nathan gets the chore of capturing and holding the halter-less Lefty each evening so I can doctor his chin (Pancho just had some hair rubbed off, Lefty actually tore the skin).  It just takes a little finesse; Lefty is rather quick with those rear feet, lol. 

I have to say, I'm still on the fence about these boys.  I know it's only been a week and they have shown a little improvement, but it still hurts every time I look at them.  Pancho, for one, has shown more improvement; he's got more life in his face, moves a little easier, has a huge appetite, shows a lot of natural curiosity.  When I'm out scooping poops, he's right there with his nose on the shovel and watching every move I make.  Tonight Lefty walked off before finishing his portion so I walked past Pancho to get Lefty's bowl and then I stood there gazing at Lefty for a few seconds; next thing I know, Pancho has the back of my shirt in his teeth, tugging on it, and then peeked around me at the bowl like "Hey, anything left in that? Can I have it?".  I had to laugh at the audacity of the scrawny little guy.  Lefty, on the other hand, is not showing as much improvement.  He has a lot of soreness in his left front and doesn't have as marked improvement in walking as Pancho.  I don't think it's from hitting nerves when we were cutting the overgrowth off; Steve checked with his hoof knife before taking them back that far, and that growth was obviously dead anyway.  I really think it's from his leg being able to move just a tad more normally now (his legs were so crooked from walking 'around' the overgrowth that he was basically walking on the side of his foot and he's a few degrees straighter now) but still, he's not happy.  He perks his ears when you come into sight and will let you get within 5 feet or so from him, but then he's spinning and off.  His chin isn't healing near as fast as it should; I think that he must be rubbing it on the fence somewhere or something and keeping it open.  I will be talking with Doc tomorrow and seeing what he thinks.  I would really love to have had time to get x-rays when they came to see how far their coffin bones had rotated.  So anyway, I just don't know what to say yet.  Their Coggins paperwork is in so they're *legally* ready to go, but there's no way I would make them take the trip just yet.  I did hear from one of the wonderful ladies at Crossroads who mentioned they might be able to transport around the 8th of October; I think that's great, that way we have a little more time to try and get Lefty a bit calmer and get them both a little steadier on their feet.  So anyway, stay tuned and I'll report back in a couple days.  Fingers crossed for these boys!

I also want to give a big shout out to Shannon and Keristen, and to Michelle and family; they help keep the boys' poops scooped and give the boys some pleasant human contact during the day and it is SO appreciated.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

The boys seem to be moving better this evening.  They're also starting to show more of their personality; Pancho is VERY crabby about his supper and wants to scarf his own so he can get some of Lefty's.  Since they're getting around well enough to get to water when they want and get into the barn easily, we lengthened their enclosure to give them more room.  Hoping to let them out for a few minutes of grazing this weekend.

...a few of them, anyway.  There are 300+ on my camera and 100+ on another, so it's taking me a day or two longer to upload them.  Not to mention my camera batteries are dead again :) and my geek sticks are all full :).  Click HERE for the story in pictures...WARNING...SOME ARE GRAPHIC...

Wow, what a long day!  Thanks to Angie, we had a great crew show up this morning to help with the retrieval.  Many thanks go out to Donna, Chrystale, Angie, Steve, Scott, April, and Danny; I appreciate your help so much!  They showed up early this morning and we headed to the donk's farm.  The donks were napping out in their field; while the guys got the trailer in place and set up the gates, us girls headed out to round 'em up.  We 'pushed' them towards the barn and they went pretty willingly; I had to wade through eye-high weeds at one point and ended up with about 20lbs of stick-tites clinging to me :).  They went in the barn with no fuss and we closed the trap; while we had them corralled, we went ahead and put their halters on with a minimum of effort.  The light one didn't want to load but the brown one pretty much hopped right in; the light one still didn't want to go, but he didn't object when the guys each took a rear leg and just lifted him right in.  Then we packed up our gates and headed the 1/4 mile back to the house.  I let the rescue crew pick out names...they settled on Lefty for the dark one and Pancho for the light one.

Once we got them to where we could get a better look at them, we noticed something rather horrifying: Pancho's front feet, where they curled up and touched his legs at the top, had worn through his skin and muscle.  This was not something that happened during the rescue; this had been gradually happening over the years and has probably been an open wound for years.  Once we saw that, Angie got on the phone to our farrier (also named Steve, lol) and luckily Steve was able to make arrangements to come out this afternoon.  We got ahold of the always-awesome Doc Johnson and he too was able to come out.  I am so grateful to the both of them for disrupting all their plans to help these poor boys; there was no way we could leave poor Pancho for a whole week with that pain.  He kept laying his poor head on the fence in an effort to relieve some of the weight off those sore front feet.  So Doc, Steve, and our wonderful volunteer crew (we added several volunteers for the afternoon portion but I can't remember all your names at the moment :) ) moved back in to tackle this giant job.  We started with Pancho; after the sedative took effect and he went down, the whole crew jumped in and went to work.  It was worse than we originally thought; the other foot had also rubbed a wound, and the worst wound actually had a bunch of maggots in it.  The smell was sickening.  After testing a spot for nerves, they went to work with hacksaws and took the biggest part of the curves off, then filed a surface for him to walk on.  Doc also pulled the Coggins while he was down.  We cleaned and dressed the wounds on his legs and while they look much better, it's still extremely hard to look at without crying over the amount of pain he's obviously been in for so long.  I spent the whole afternoon fighting back tears, and I know I wasn't the only one.  Once he regained enough strength to stand back up, we caught Lefty and went to work (although he was quite a bit rowdier and took more effort and drugs, ha ha!).  We were able to saw off almost all of his overgrowth.  Doc pulled a Coggins on him as well, and while we were waiting for him to come out of his tranquilization, a couple of us went to work on Tyla since we had both Steve and Doc already there.  It took Lefty quite a while longer to awaken from his drug-induced slumber but was eventually back on his feet.  Here are some shots from during the process:

Now, just a couple hours after everything calmed back down, the relief on both of their faces is evident.  I'm sure Pancho still hurts like crazy, but his ears are up now and his back isn't quite as hunched with pain.  They both ate a handful of Strategy with their pelleted wormer mixed in and have started munching on hay.  I will update tomorrow and should be able to upload pics on Monday.  All in all, this has been a trying day, and an amazing event.  I am so thankful for everyone who pitched in to help, and to Steve and Doc for coming out on such short notice to help these poor boys.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Okay, everything's coming together.  We have a tentative appointment with the vet and farrier for a week from today at 10AM.  I have the electric fencing in place and picked up supplies today; a feed-thru wormer, new halters, and lice dust ($88 for just those 4 items!!!! Sheesh, stuff is outrageous sometimes! lol).  I don't suspect they have lice but it's better safe than sorry.  We will be picking up the gate panels from Terry later tonight.  Our good friend Angie has secured a trailer and some good volunteers and we will be attempting to bring the donkeys home in the morning.  If something happens and we don't get them then, I have more volunteers that will be able to try again in the afternoon. 

On a good note, I went back to the donkey's home this evening to re-check the layout and I got to touch one!  They were in their barn and I stood close and talked to them for awhile; they were both very curious and kept inching closer.  The lighter one with the curly front feet seems calmest and came closest; he sniffed my hand a few times and let me touch his nose with one finger.  We are still going to have to be very careful; these guys are essentially wild animals and could be dangerous if they get to kicking/etc., but I'm hoping they will come around quickly.  I will update tomorrow afternoon.  Wish us luck!

We have received confirmation that we will be assisted by the wonderful, caring people at Crossroads Donkey Rescue in Michigan.  They are a 501(c)3 rescue so donations are tax-deductible; these good folks are going to be shelling out some serious dough to get these guys the help they need, so if you could send a few bucks their way, I know it would be appreciated.  Even just a couple dollars would be helpful; their website has a page with donation information at www.crossroadsdonkeyrescue.com. 

In the meantime, I've cropped and lightened a few of the photos so you can get a better glimpse of these feet.  This situation is very hard to make plans for, so we're taking a lot of it as it comes.  I am waiting for Doc to return my call so we can see about having a Coggins pulled for them as well as tranq'ing to have some of the overgrowth taken off to make their trip to the rescue easier.  I will be seeing about a trailer this evening; we will also have to put up some extra hot-tape in order to keep everyone separated and safe during their stay on our farm.  We will also need gates or corral panels when we go to get them, as we will have to wall off part of their barn, round them in, and then get them into the trailer.  They've never been handled so it could be a bit of a chore; I will see that it's done safely and with a minimum of stress for these poor guys.  I would like to get them to our farm Saturday afternoon as I may have to work Sunday, but if it works out that Sunday is when we'll get them, well, that's just how it is :).  Anyway, more details this evening when I have more of the plan worked out.  Stay tuned!  And if you'd like to come out and help, email me at firebird96ta@peoplepc.com.  Thanks!

These boys are somewhere between 5 and 10 years old and have (obviously) never seen a farrier, a vet, or a tube of wormer.  Details will be added when these boys are in good hands. 

Click on the photos below to view a larger image.