General Chat

Hi Julia,
Nice to hear your weather is improving, we are having a bit of a cool spell, into the thirties now instead of the forties but March can still be a very hot month.
Has your pony had a kick from one of the others or done something up in its shoulder. We have had a couple of bouts of lameness and resorted to putting an epsom salts bandage on the lower leg, changing it every day and in a couple of days the lameness seems to have gone. My brother-in-law was an apprentice jockey in his youth and has a trainer's licence and he swears by epsom salts bandages. Don't know whether it did any good but it didn't do any harm.
A bit of warmth in the front foot sounds ominous. I have been told you get a farrier for anything below the knee and a vet for anything above the knee. That might be a cheaper option for you.
The last bout of founder we had in 2004 (touch wood) was cured by a farrier in about ten minutes when he came to do the donkeys hoofs.
He took a few slices off the hoof with his hoof knife until you could see a thin line of blood around the inside of the hoof wall, packed it up with a hoof dressing and strapped it with elastoplast. We had to change the hoof dressing every day for a couple of days but it was cured in no time . Before that we had had two vet visits poking about and making holes in the bottom of the hoof and not being able to find anything, not to mention costing us a fortune. All they could recommend was to give bute powders night and morning.
What sort of injections did you give. We buy the stuff from the vet and my OH gives the tetanus injection when it is due . I can't do anything like that, I could never be a nurse.
It's a pity I can't email you some hay if you are running out. I am sure your horses would like some oaten hay with no weeds in it.

Hi All,
Went to turn the horses out and I find that I have a lame pony :(
I cant see anything obvious, i picked out her feet and nothing stuck in there although one of her fronts does seem to be a bit warmer than the others.
Have given her som Danilon which I had left over from when my mare was lame and will see what she is like when I get home tonight. I hope its not going to warrant a vet call out! I have just had the bill for having Molly and Bernies annual vaccinations and it was £110!!!

Hope you are all OK, its gone a bit quiet!!
Julia

HI Everyone!!
Hope you are all OK
Another dry day, if this keeps up our fields will be back to normal in no time but I don't hold out much hope!!
we are going to run out of hay before too long so I am praying that the grass starts to grow soon, although not too much, we don't want any Laminitas!!!
Julia

You can feel the change in the season can't you Julia.......especially when summer turns to autumn, it all seems to go very quiet suddenly.....

.....as for lethal injections......I took this route for my boy as I had seent the results from others on the yard.....I have no problems with the gun, it is a short sharp method, but I wanted to stay with Louis.......he was allowed to graze which he had not been before because of laminitis, and carrotts too, so he was content........just an injection into a canula and he gradually went to sleep.......went down as though resting and just closed his eyes.......I sat with him for 1/2 hr, just stroking him and saying thank you for all the good times he had given me....... I too had him cremated but still have to deal with the ashes......will do in time..... but this was such a peaceful time, and not at all like some of the scare stories I had heard......

you are right Yvonne, another lovely day, mine are out naked again, I must be glutton for punishment!! its been such a long winter they need a bit of air to their skin though, Molly is getting a bit scurfy!! I will only really regret it when I want to tack them up next and it takes me longer to groom them than it does to ride!!!

lighter evenings are so great, actually being able to do the mucking out and bringing them in while it is still light makes it so much easier, cant wait for the clocks to change as I should be able to ride after work then and feel as though I am getting some return on the money I spend on them!!!!
Our Crocuses are in flower and the Daffs are coming up now!! a sure sign that we are over the worst of it!!

Julia

Hullo Julia and Yvonne.
I'm glad you are noticeing a change in the seasons Yvonne. The second day of Autumn was hotter than the last day of summer. If it doesn't rain soon we will lose a lot of shrubs and a few trees. I have given up worrying about geraniums and what few perennials are left..

Shooting is the kindest way Julia to put an animal down. They are dead before they hear the shot and horses don't know what a gun is. A vet told me that she always had her horses put down like that.

I lost an old donkey last November because her teeth were so worn down she was virtually starving to death in spite of having regular dental treatment.
I wanted to get someone to shoot her but our vet said that if a heavy sedative was given first then when the lethal dose was slipped in they just died in their sleep. That is what we did. as soon as she had the sedative her legs just buckled under her and she lay down gently on her side then she slipped away peacefully just after she had the lethal dose.

I buried her at the bottom of my garden where there is an outcrop of rock and we were able to scoop out a decent sized hole with the aid of our bull dozer. I didn't want to put her anywhere where a house might be built in the distant future or where anyone could plant a crop.
It is important to allow companions time to grieve .I brought our other two donkeys over to the garden after she had been arranged on the bed of straw I put in the hole.
Her best friend only looked at her for a minute or two and then turned right around and stared at the pile of dirt that came out of the hole and I could see what she was thinking. Then she walked around to the other side of the hole, had another long look and walked off to feed.
Our other donkey took it the hardest, she looked from every angle and stood there for ages, even trying to get down into the hole at one time but at last she moved off to feed and at five o'clock they both wanted to go back to their pen to have their hay and go to bed. That's when we buried her with the aid of our front end loader and now I have got some nice native shrubs planted on her that I am nursing through the hot weather.
G.R. were doing maintenance this afternoon and deleted my reply so this is the second one I have done.

Hi

Lovely day today, I've put a rug on mine just to keep her clean, I'll probably start leaving her rug off when she starts to lose her winter coat

It's very sad having to have an animal put down. I went through that a few years ago with my old girl but I couldn't stay with her, was too upset. My friend who owned the yard stayed with her. I sat in the tack room crying my eyes out. I had her cremated and buryed her ashes under one of the big oak trees in the paddock.

Marjery we are coming into Spring here, the morning and evenings are getting lighter Yipee!!!!

x

Hi,

You are right Yvonne, yesterday was awful! I left all of mine in but today is a glorius day and they have all gone out naked!!! I will regret it when i get home and find they have all been wallowing in the mud like Hippos!!!!

re the shooting of the Donkeys, to be honest its probably the most humane way, herding them up and putting them on lorries would have been much more distressing for them. so long as you have a trained marksman who gets it right first time then it probably not too awful although for the ones watching it would have been pretty grim.
when I have my mare put down last year I opted to have her shot as I had heard some pretty horrific tales about those who had lethal injection. I must say that although its not something i would want to repeat any time soon it was very quick and I stayed with her, she had her head in a bucket and knew nothing, as soon as the shot was fired I knew he had got it right and she dropped like a stone, she thrashed a bit but not much, I think the worst bit was her being winched onto the trailer as it seemed so undignified but its not as though you can pick them up!!

What a gory subject! sorry!! but at least another time i know what to expect and that it really isnt that bad, to be honest I cried more in the days leading up to it than I did afterwards, i guess its because I was imagining what would happen if they missed and just injured her or something.
The worst bit was the others calling for her for the rest of the day :(


Julia

Yvonne it is cruel to think of shooting donkeys but it is better than sending donkey meat to China as they are going to do in Queensland. They say that they will be shot by "marksman" and then butchered in wildlife abbottoirs. Not heard much about it in the news lately.
Station owners have a lot of competition from kangaroos, donkeys,camels, goats,rabbits it is a wonder there is anything left for cattle or sheep.
If it is raining our donkeys wont put a foot outside of their shed. They dont like the rain. Horses seem impervious to it. My grandaughter's appaloosa always had a rug on when he lived near Perth but after he went down South four hundred miles away where it is quite chilly they hardly ever had his rug on and he got very fat and glossy with only being lightly ridden at the weekends. It is the first day of Autumn to-day. Haven't noticed it yet it is almost identical to the last day of summer yesterday.

Hi

What a horrible day, rain all morning, I had a lake in my back garden!!!! Seems to have eased off a bit now, was in two muinds whether to put the horse out this morning some of the other owners didn't but mine doesn't like staying in and it's only a bit of rain lol

Marjary that sounds cruel but ncessary I s'pose.

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Hi Yvonne ,Julia and Moonchild.
Have you started to thaw out yet. It is 36.2C at the moment.
Our farrier used to be a stockman up North and he grew up on a cattle property where all the stockmen had to ride donkeys. Horses were too expensive then and there were so many wild donkeys left over from the days before motor transport that they could catch as many as they wanted.
He told me once that they fenced around a water hole and caught about five hundred donkeys. Then they just shot them all one by one until their rifles were red hot and the donkeys just stood and looked at them without moving and dropped one by one. Donkeys freeze when they are frightened whereas a horse would bolt and that is where they get the reputation for stubborness. Once you win their confidence they will work their hearts out for you and when you teach them something they will remember it forever. People who have worked with donkeys are full of admiration for them. Having said that, my donkeys are just honoured guests, I don't ask them to do anything onerous.

Hi
We have fly masks that cover the ears and nose aswell, citronella is quite good for keeping the flies away. We can also get fly sheets that cover the whole horse, made of thin cotton/nylon mesh.

I love donkeys, if i had my own small holding i would have a couple of donkeys and goats and chickens.

x

I am very hot Yvonne. Was 42C to-day and no end in sight of the heatwave until about Wednesday. I enjoy hearing about the snow, looking forward to the Autumn when the temp might drop then winter sets in about June. Luckily we don't have mud only because we never get enough rain for that.
About three years ago we had a very hot wet November and the skin on one of our donkey's legs started peeling off. We had a job to cure it. Had to lather her legs with a sort of iodine based wash, leave it on for 10 minutes then hose it off and dry them well then put on some green ointment, prednosolene I think it was and after about ten days she was cured.

We use wraparound fly veils every day in summer although we didn't have a lot of flies this spring on account of our unusually long cold (we thought it was cold) winter. Our vet told us that they were seeing a lot of big eyed animals with cancerous eyes caused by the high Ultra violet rays in sunlight. Over here you can get fly veils with a long nose guard, and also some that fit right over the head with ear coverings a bit like a balaclava and in all sorts of colours.
We get about twelve hours a day of blazing sunlight .
Our donkeys have white cotton summer rugs on whenever the temp. gets near the old 100F. They like them too and it keeps their coats lovely and shiny and the insects off as well as keeping them reasonably cool..

I have a very good book on Natural Horse Care written by Pat Colby an English woman who spent about seventy years working with vets, racing stables and other horsey establishments and she believess that sugar in the blood attracts flies and mosquitoes. I knocked off feeding molasses and no more flies all over legs in spring.
We used to spray citronella based insecticide all over their legs and on their ears every day, now no flies at all. The dressage horses next door have summer coats on so we thought we'd get some for the girls as well. Our vet used to say they were the most pampered donkeys in the West. They aren't little donkeys one of them is almost twelve hands and the other just over eleven hands and they appreciate all the comforts we provide for them. We rescued them from less than desirable situations .

Hi JUlia
I had a mare with a white blaze, her nose was pink and would get scabby round her nostrils, I put factor 50 on her

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HI,

The rain and snow is starting to drive me mad!! our fields are muddy for the first time I can remember, we are on very chalky soil which usually drains really well but there is just too much this year for it to cope with. we are trying to keep them all contained on a small area so that the grass isnt ruined for the spring and summer, I think that judging by some of the fields round this way some people are going to have no grazing at all.

My old mare used to get sunburned in the summer, she had a white face and her nose used to burn badly, we used to have to apply suncream and make sure she had plenty of shade in her field!

Thanks for the info Marjery, how are you?

We've had a lot of snow and rain in the UK, my horse's field is getting very muddy so I'm keeping a look out for mud fever and cracked heels.

We don't have such a problem with the heat in the Summer except the flies, drives some horses mad, I put a fly mask on her to stop the flies getting on her face. Sometimes if it's really hot I put her in her stable during the day and she goes out at night when it is cooler.

x

For anyone who is interested I have found the blurb about Founderguard.
A granular feed additive for horses. Active constituent: virginiamycin 10g/kg. That sounds like a good name for a film star.
Can be fed alone or mixed with other feed ingredients to provide 5g. Founderguard/100kg bodyweight per day (e.g 25g/day for a horse weighing 500kg).
Founderguard is effective in reducing D- and L- lactic acid produced in the gut during digestion. It has no effect on L-lactic acid produced by the muscles during prolonged and strenuous exercise.
Founderguard will only give protection against laminitus resulting from the rapid fermentation of carbohydrates such as starch and sugars in the gastrointestinal tract. It gives no protection against laminitus or lameness resulting from any other cause.
The special granular formular of Founderguard is targeted to control the activity of bacteria in the hindgut that ferments starches and sugars producing excessive acidity.
Without Founderguard uncontrolled rapid fermentation results in build-up of lactic acid in the gut which can increase the risk of founder (laminitus).
Regular daily use therefore minimises the harmful side effects of grain feeding.
Founderguard is a regd. trademark. Product patented.
website: www.vetsearch.com.au
Vetsearch International Pty Ltd. 6 Lenton Place, North Rocks.N.S.W. 2151

Thanks Julia and Yvonne......price for shoeing hasn't risen much in the 4 years then........and the hay and straw seem about the same.......we were lucky having the farmer sew the hayfields specially with horse grasses and the straw bales were mostly very good, unless there had been a bad harvest and the straw had been baled a bit damp......but if we found any spores or mould in a straw wedge he would always replace it.......

I went from a straw bed to shavings and bought the hunter bales which cost about £7.50, ...... it seemed to be more expensive around our way......... I used to open a big square wood shavings, take off the plastic and start it off.......then leave it for my horse........he used to love pawing at it and breaking bits off, and then throwing it in the air so it came down like snow over him.......funny old thing.....

Hi,

I pay £25 for a trim for Molly as she is barefoot, Tuppy has just fronts and that costs me £50 and when I was having a full set it cost £75.

We grow our own hay so it costs us around £1 per bale to have it baled. this year we had very little though so had to buy some in, they only had the huge square bales which they said were the equivilant of 20 small bales and they cost £35 each, I find them difficult to handle though and its much harder to judge how much you are feeding.

I use shavings for bedding as well as I find it much quicker and easier to much out, however as my brother works at the sawmill I get them for free which is great, they are sometimes a bit dusty but so long as I put them in in the morning so they have time to settle it doesnt seem to be a problem, on the occasions I have had to buy some they were £6.50 per bale.

we usually get our straw straight off the field from the farmer so i think we pay around £1.50 per bale usually but that includes them delivering them to us.

Julia

Hi again

I pay £36 for a half set of shoes, I just have the fronts done and the backs are trimmed
I pay £4 a bale for hay, it's grown on the farm and he cuts and bales it. A yard I used to keep my horse at bought in large bales of haylage but it sent my girl loopy, too rich for her!!!
I use shavings for bedding cos she eats the straw, she's very greedy lol

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