Rescue Journal

sooo...

Carol  ·  Jul 5, 2010

i did check in with the donkey sanctuary (thx rae for the link)..really nice folks. they said once his homones go down in a few months, maybe or maybe not he will get better if we work with him each day. it all depends on his real personality and what kind of life experience he has in his past.

i also did just call the vet re: the possiblity of prozac which is not one of my most favorite drugs. he said what i already knew, that prozac does have a tendency to act in the opposite way of what you want it to and make things a heck of a lot worse. he also said that pharmacology alone has little effect on strong prey drive behaviors. he would also need intensive behavior modification which is not really as effective on suppressing instinctual behaviors as it is on unlearning learned behaviors.

oh yay.

ellie ate her breakfast ok today...i asked the neuro nurses how long i need to worry about the possibilty of neuro edema following a traumatic injury to the upper spine and base of the skull...they said probably for about a week or so..ratz, i was hoping for three days!

tomorrow starts the rabbit spays and neuters, three days of ferrying the bunnies back and forth to the vets. also this week is amos's castration so at least we can start counting down the weeks to his hormone drop and see where he ends up on the personality chart.

i think i have figured out a way to safely confine bailey when i am not home without actually sticking him in an outside kennel. if i take reggie back into the house (oh dear lord please shoot me now) bailey could have the office and with some poured cement (that he can't dig out of) and fence re-construction on the fences already in place, and end up with a indoor room of his own for during the day with safe access to a small outside run of his own...but of course this will cost quite a few of our non existent pennies.

but..it might be a good plan to meet his needs and not make me feel like shit for keeping him caged for a long portion of each day.

it would be way cheaper and easier to just nuke him.

sorry bailey..i was just saying the truth and yes i do actually love ya you big idiot brute.

Comments

Carol

no helga..i was thinking of sectioning off the side on the office for bailey's use and dusty and lucky would still have the other side.

Rae

Your welcome Carol. The people who own the Donkey Refuge use our large animal vets. I have met them, they are nice and they take good care of their donkeys.

Helga

If Bailey was using the run off the MP room does that mean Dusty and Lucky wouldn't be able to go out there?

Angela

About Bailey -- some time ago I met a woman who had made her dog run "dig proof" by embedding big sheets of heavy-duty plastic under the "fence line". The sheets overlapped the bottom of the chain link fence by a few inches, then continued down into the ground by another couple of feet. This way the dog couldn't dig its way out nor could anything dig its way in (... unless I suppose they dug really, really deep...). Maybe this could be a cheaper solution than pouring a cement floor?

Mauro Salles

A suggestion about the bunnies: do not put males and females together going to the vets, to avoid take four and bring twenty. There would be enough time for them ...

And I'm sorry for Al, unless he decides to become a professional climber.