Hank and George and Alan and Denise's Big Adventure

At least the weather was cooperative for our big trip to the vet...because George and Alan sure weren't. Bad burros. They forgot how to load themselves into the horse trailer. We ended up having to chase them in. I hated having to do that but they left me no option. Thank goodness Cowgirl Denise was available to assist – I truly don't know how I would have gotten through the day without her.

Alan and George decided to ride backwards in the trailer, facing Hank. I'm not sure what they talked about on the way there, but I'm quite certain their conversation on the way home included many bad words and lots of complaining about the horrible things I put them through.

Our favorite vet took new x-rays of Hank's knee and was pleasantly surprised to see it had improved since March. The bone fragments that had been floating around the bad corner in the joint organized themselves and settled into a better spot. Even though his knee is knobbier and he has less range of motion now, it's a little more stable, which is a very good thing.

While Hank was sedated for his teeth floating (see this post for an explanation of that procedure), I had the vet check out a cut/sore on Hank's tongue I had noticed awhile back - it was a cactus thorn. Good grief. The vet tweezed that out, floated Hank's teeth, cleaned his sheath, gave him his fall shots, and then it was Alan's turn.

We sedated him first to get a good look into those itchy ears. Ticks. Lots of them. Yuck. The vet and his tech treated them, and I took detailed notes for future reference, since I will have to do this myself next spring and summer. Basically, it involves squirting medicine in one ear, holding it closed and massaging it in for a minute, then doing the same to the other ear while still holding the first ear closed - definitely a two-person job. Once both ears are treated, both people let go and stand back, because the patient then shakes the medicine out. It was a hot day and the shower felt pretty good...and I'll be tick free for at least a few months. The rest of Alan's check-up went just fine. I learned that burros' sheaths don't get dirty and gross as do horses, but they do develop a bean which should be removed. (That last tidbit was for the benefit of the donkey owners who read this blog...the rest of you don't want to know what it all means.)

Next up, George. His drippy eyes are an allergic reaction to flies. All I can do is make him wear his fly fringe and wait for fly season to end. While floating George's teeth, the vet found a wolf tooth that was loose and needed to be removed. He pulled it, I saved it, and George is waiting to see what the tooth fairy will bring. We checked George's ears and he had only one tick in one ear, but we still treated him.

I was a little concerned that both burros were getting a little chunky, but the vet said their weights were good. Their diets are officially over.

Given the tick-tick-tick going on in the burros' ears, we went back to Hank and checked his. He had them, too, and got treated accordingly.

It was finally time to go home and George and Alan were being uncooperative, so the tech and I had to chase them into the trailer. Cowgirl Denise somehow ended up in the trailer with them, and I was planning to leave her in there to keep them company on the way home...

...but she took exception to that.