From:  Vicki/ladywife <ladywife@b...........>
Date:  Mon Jan 29, 2001 5:19am
Subject: t-shirt doll
 

A t-shirt doll is two t-shirts, one that has been worn by daddy and one by mommy, tied together in the middle to make an X.  The t-shirt doll carries the familiar scent of his family so the child away from home doesn't feel lonesome or abandoned. 

 Vicki/ladywife

From:  Vicki/ladywife <ladywife@b...>
Date:  Fri May 11, 2001  6:15 am
Subject:  cheap fly protection

Joni,

There are a number of things you can do that are low cost.

#1 hang tarps at your barn or shelter doors to darken the interior.  Flies like sunshine and avoid darkness.

#2 Springtime garlic does help make the donkeys distasteful to most flies including no-see-ums, but doesn't repell horseflies.

#3 smear a coating of vegetable shortening (not lard) on the ears, around the eyes, and on the legs.  Flies avoid the landing on the icky coating.

#4 place a fan to blow above their heads or just above ground level in areas of the barn that you can't darken.  Flies avoid briskly stirring air currents.

#5 hang gallon sized sealed zip-lock bags of plain water from the rafters of your barn above your donkeys' heads.  I don't know why this works but it does. 

#6 keep manure picked up and removed from in and around the barn and in areas where your donkeys congregate.

#7 rake their dustbowls to keep the soil loosened for better coating of their skin.

#8 a lawn sprinkler where the donkeys can stand under it.

#9 a water-based fly spray is less irritating to their skin.  Coat their hair but do not saturate.

#10  recipes for homemade fly sprays:

1 cup of fabric softner
the juice of one lemon (or 2 tablespoons of Real Lemon concentrate)
4 tablespoons of Listerine
5 cups of water
Spray or wipe on.

1 cup of fabric softner
1/4 cup of lemon-scented dish detergent
1/4 cup of white vinegar
5 cups of water
Spray or wipe on.

Electric Fly Bugaroos ATTRACT insects.  Putting one in or near your barn draws mosquitos to your animals. 

Vicki/ladywife

top

From:  Vicki/ladywife <ladywife@b...> 
Date:  Tue May 23, 2000
Subject:  About Garlic

I thought I should explain a couple things about the garlic.  Feeding garlic does not kill the flies.  There will still be flies and mosquitos buzzing around.  Some may even land on the animals (and me!), BUT they don't bite. They land, get a good whiff of the garlic and leave.  The sulfur-smell of garlic makes the animals unattractive to the insects.

Fly sprays kill the flies.  If I use fly spray I see less flies but the flies that do land on the animals do bite them.  For effective fly kill the flies must come into contact with the fly spray.  The problem is the flies die after they have already vampired my donkeys.

If I use fly traps all I'm doing is drawing flies to my barn.  It is the same thing with those bug-zapper electric gizmos.  They attract insects to them and if I hang it in the barn it means I am drawing biting insects to where my donkeys are napping in the free stall.

I chose to use the garlic method of protecting my donkeys and dogs because I have allergies to chemical products such as fly sprays, hair sprays, alcohol, and fragrances.  I am also allergic to sulfur yet I don't have an allergic reaction to the garlic even if I get it on my hands and clothes. I've only had one animal that showed a sensitivity to the garlic and that was my mom's poodle.  Fuzzball started digging and chewing on herself.  I discovered the problem was this 14 lb ball of fuzz was stealing the 70 lb lab/pit dog's garlic-snack.  She was overdozing on the garlic and it was causing her to itch.  Mom also has an 18 lb Fox Terrier who has always been prone to grass-itch to the point she would dig and chew herself raw.  Since she's been on the garlic she hasn't had the grass-itch.  She actually has a thick, slick haircoat this year.

Garlic might not be a workable solution for everyone.  It is messy, takes an extra minute or two to prepare the feed and it does require something like corn oil to make it stick so your animal doesn't inhale the powder and irritate their sinus.

Vicki/ladywife

top

Martha,

Nellietoo had an itchy butt.  It wasn't bugs, worms or fungus.  Most likely on the warm sunny days her heavy haircoat was causing her to sweat and that made it itch.  As soon as I noticed her doing the hoochie-coochie against anything she could find to rub on, I immediately began adding Wheat Germ Oil to her oats, 1 oz morning and evening.  It took about 5 days for the Wheat Germ Oil to work it's way through her system and make her skin pliable and less itchy.  In the meantime used scissors to trim the hair in the area and then I opened a can of unspiced pumpkin pie filling, dumped it in a plastic bowl, warmed it slightly in the microwave and then massaged it into her rump where she was rubbing.  I left it on for about 10 minutes, then rinsed it off and patted her rump dry with a fluffy towel.  I gave her the pumpkin massage for three days and it seemed to relieve her itch.  The pumpkin mushy stuff is one of nature's best itch-stoppers.  It also makes your hands soft and silky. :)

Vicki/ladywife

At 03:19 PM 4/17/00 EDT, you wrote: 
"Well,  This spring is no different than any other spring.  Only this year Sneaky has bitten and rubbed all the hair off his chest, while last year it was his belly and the year before that it was his flanks.....  He is busy rubbing hunks of hair off his face.  I have sprayed him with fly spray, rubbed on all kinds of anti-itch creams, fed him garlic for 6 weeks and he is still one big mess. So I gave him that cortisone shot yesterday, I just couldn't take his discomfort anymore.  I'm going to try antihistimines next unless someone has better idea.... My vet is at a complete loss as to what to do with him. "

top

Here are some interesting tidbits of information:

Donkeys are prey animals.  The placement of their eyes allows them to see in an arc of 350 degrees.  Their blind spot is the 10 degrees directly behind them.  They are very far-sighted and can not focus on objects 15 feet or closer to them.  To see the ground directly beneath their nose they must tilt their head down and tuck their nose toward their chest.  Because their vision is motion oriented, they can not see a predator if it is standing still, but they can see an object move 1/2 mile away.

Donkeys have keen hearing.  They can hear the screen door close no matter how quietly you close it.  They actually do have very keen hearing, and can hear several octaves higher and lower than a human. It has been documented that donkeys "rumble" to each other in tones too low for the human ear to detect.

Donkeys also have a very keen sense of smell.  They can smell odors on your hands and clothes so it is not recommended to pet the dog on your way to the barn.  They can also detect the scent of treats if you carry them in your jacket pocket.  They smell their food before they eat it and if it has a peculiar odor they won't eat it.  That's why tricking them into eating pelleted wormer is so difficult.

Because nature didn't design a donkey for speed, his survival depended on trusting the other herd members to be alert and wary of innocent-looking object which could conceal a predator.  It is this instinct to be co-dependent that allows donkeys to adjust so quickly to captivity and to training.

Vicki/ladywife

top

Here's the recipe:

1 three inch or larger Red Delicious Apple, chopped and mushed, skin and all, including the core (naturally high in selenium).

1 five inch x one inch carrot, chopped and mushed, carrot tops too if you have them (naturally high in betacarotene).

1 cup of plain oats (naturally high in Vit A, D, and E).

1 ounce (about 4 tablespoons) of wheat germ oil is best but you can substitute plain corn oil from Walmart (not vegetable oil or canola or any of those others, but plain corn oil).

3 tablespoons of Karo dark syrup.

3 tablespoons of powdered, non-bovine, non-medicated milk replacer such as Unimilk or Grade A (a easily digested source of the protein keratin needed for hoof growth).

1/4 teaspoon of iodized table salt (the same stuff you use in cooking)

Mix together the apple, carrot, oats, oil and Karo syrup until the oats are coated with the oil and syrup.  Then add the powdered milk replacer and salt and mix.  Feed once or twice a day.

You will usually begin to see a different in hair coat and hoof growth within 2 weeks.  The combination of naturally occurring nutrients are easily digested and quickly absorbed so they provide a fast result.  Most commerical products are high in one or two nutrients and lack the related compounds needed to make them work.  The biotin supplements usually cause more harm than good.  Biotin is a B vitamin.  It can only be absorbed through the tissues in the mouth.  Most biotin supplements have flavored added so the animal will wolf it down.  It goes in their mouth and is too quickly swallowed before the nutrients can be absorbed by the mucus membranes in the cheeks and under the tongue.

The homemade recipe contains nature's healing foods in a balanced combination.  The Karo syrup and corn oil coat the inside of the mouth allowing the vitamins needed to be absorbed before they are rushed down the throat.  Plain oats require the animal to chew and salivate.  Most animals can not wolf down plain oats.  Costwise the homemade recipe costs about 2 cents a day plus the cost of the apple.  Apples are expensive but crucial to get the full benefits of the mix.

Try it for a couple of weeks and see if you see a difference in the feet.
 

Vicki/ladywife

top

From: "Vicki/ladywife" <ladywife@bpsinet.com>
To: <Donkeys@egroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 
Subject: tips for foot soaking
 
 

Here's some tips from my own experiences with foot soaking that I've found make it easier:

#1 Make sure the water is not hot.  Start out with water that is only slightly above her body temperature and each soaking increase the temperature just slightly until it reaches a temperature you find comfortably warm on the fragile skin inside your wrist.

#2 Use a rubber bucket, pail or feed bowl.  The thick wall rubber pail holds the temperature longer than plastic or metal.

#3 The height of the soaking pail should allow the water to cover the fetlock.

#4 Put a folded towel in the bottom of the pail to cushion the foot.

#5 Pick up the foot that you are going to soak and slip the pail under it as you put the foot down.  Then go around to the other side of the animal and pick the other foot up and hold it 3 or 4 inches off the ground to discourage the animal from taking her soaking foot out of the pail.

#6  Hang a haybag or feed pan at chest height right in front of the animal and feed her everytime she gets her foot soaked.  If they wolf their treats add it one piece at a time to make it last longer.

 #7 On the foot you are holding that isn't being soaked rub a circle with your thumb just above the coronet band in the front center of the pastern. This is a relax-reflex spot and magically mesmerizes them.

 #8 After the foot has soaked for the alloted time, remove it from the pail and wrap a warm-from-the-clothes-dryer fluffy towel around it until the towel cools.

 #9 Epsom salts can be irritating to the skin so use a warm drippy-wet washcloth to rinse the salts off of the foot afterwards and towel dry it.

 #10 Choose an area for your soak that is as flat as you can find to avoid her thinking she needs to scramble to keep from falling over when she's standing on 3 legs.

 Vicki/ladywife
 

top