Pick me

This is what the donkey says when I have a tube of wormer in my hand. She loves the stuff, no matter what kind. Funnily, if I have soap or lotion on my hand, she won't eat the tainted carrot I'm holding out.

Today I gave both animals an entire tube of Pyrantel (pamoate) each. With Pyrantel it's safe to go over the weight mark and giving slightly too much is better than too little.

Mara couldn't stand wormer because she couldn't stand people touching her mouth. The tip of the syringe poked her and she hated that. I have no idea how she felt about the taste of wormer, I am positive the syringe was the rough part for her, so I learned to be very gentle and align the thing parallel to her lips and not jam it straight in.

Anyway, I had no idea what to expect with Mag, so after dosing the donkey I just gave him his too and he had this shocked look on his face. I asked him if it felt like being stung by a hundred bees in his mouth. I rubbed his neck a while and was very grateful that he stood there tied.

Now I'm looking at my records and see that it's been 12 months since Bellis last had Ivermectin and that's overdue, especially since donkeys can transmit lung worms to horses and Ivermectin/Moxidectin is the only thing that kills them. I'll have to dose them with Ivermectin next.

***

I've become concerned with feeding time aggression because they both look forward to their beet pulp so much. Mag has started giving Bellis dirty looks. The other day I thought for one moment his dirty look was aimed at me (although it was probably the donkey) so I backed him up as far as I could in that small area and waited for him to stand looking at me with pricked ears before letting him have his bucket.

I realize now that this situation could get worse, simply because the paddock area is too small for me to get them fully away from me when I put down the buckets.

So this morning I shooed them out of the paddock, hoping they'd stay there while I got the buckets, but Mag thought I was asking them to go to pasture, so he went. OK then. A few hours later they were back, and I tried my new idea. I got a lunge whip out and got them out of the paddock completely and kept them there while placing their buckets down. When Bellis tried to come before I was done, I flicked the whip at her and she went back out. Then I carefully left the area, exiting with the whip in case they rushed after me.

It seems to be the simplest solution. When I asked J about it he said, "Just put them in their stalls to give them their buckets." But that is so much more work for me - catching them both and locking them in, and then returning an hour later to let them out again, twice daily....I'd rather not.

But I trust myself that I can find a solution that is both simple for me, and safe for everyone.

Funnily, Baasha used to glare and glare at Bellis at feedtime.....as they shared the same hay bag. "IT'S MINE!" and her answer was, "You may think so but you won't really act on that."

It's another way our little farm is far from ideal - our paddock area is so small it's difficult to even work on hooves (it's not level), much less move a horse out of your way. If it were a little bigger, and flatter, I'd be able to do ground work there, but it's nearly impossible. The geotiles are also slippery and I've fallen down a couple times, my feet just sliding out from under me. The donkey really doesn't like it when I fall down suddenly! And of course everywhere else is squishy deep mud, so I have to get creative when I want to train my horse.

Although Mag stood still while tied today, letting me treat his feet and wash his tail, he has some anxiety about haltering for some reason and often will turn and walk away when I approach with it. I just follow him because there's nowhere to go, until he stops and I halter him and walk away from him. Today after worming, I let him go and waited a bit, and then came back to him with a halter and he was fine.

It snowed all day today non-stop, but the tiniest of flakes that melted on pavement, putting only a layer of powdered sugar on our garden and trees. The snowflakes were gorgeous, that's my kind of snow. I sprinkled salt in the paddock but it wasn't needed.

It should stop by tomorrow and then maybe I'll take Mag out again.