Equus Asinus

I didn’t write any Rubí Tuesday blogs in August because it was too hot for the thinking.  The rabit person spent most of the month fussing over Aitana and her bout of laramintis, together with other dramas.  Silly horse!  It’s all attention-seeking with Aitana. Still, we have at least got a new vet at last, … More Today is mostly September

The usual end to the summer last night: a spectacular thunderstorm. Lightning flashes every three seconds and torrential rain all night.  It was like being in a ship in a storm here.  Quite nice to put the gas fire on for the first time since March, and indeed a pullover! The rain continued into this … More Syringing in the Rain

  So. These days it is very fashionable to begin any discourse with “So…”  It is a word inserted to gain a split second of thinking time, and then you know all that follows has not really been thought through properly. And so this hasn’t. So, Aitana has been precribed Biotin and vitamin supplement which … More Secrets of an Equine Master Chef

It has been quite a month.  My summer holiday plan had been to paint the house, reform the fish pond, build raised beds for the kitchen garden, save money by staying at home, and get fit. Thanks to a careless vet innoculating a laminitic donkey with a ‘flu virus, I’ve had a slightly different summer, … More Multi-storey stable music

The Donkey Sanctuary Sidmouth recently posted this photo of a lovely young lady called Amelia, who posed in the sanctuary’s educational display area, the Understanding Donkeys Barn.  Dressed as an equine vet, Amelia summed up the simple image I already had about how the ambition to become a vet begins, with a desire to make … More Finding the right donkey vet

  Aitana flopped in sunshine after a good feed.  The angular shape of her top half still shows the evidence of the weight loss, but her tummy is filling out again.  She is looking much happier and doing her customary regular patrols around the terraces to see what is new; this in contrast to spending … More Aitana: looking good

For most of the month and particularly during the past week, most of my waking moments (and quite a few of my nightmare sleeping moments!) have been focused on worry about Aitana.  Today we have some good news. A few days ago, level 2 was closed to the donkeys because it was obviously too painful … More Aitana: the return

Today we have some signs of hope on various levels, and Aitana seems to be pulling out of the medical crisis she was plunged into six weeks ago. Let’s just look back at what happened this week, as recorded in these blog posts.  My vet took a blood sample on Wednesday, and after a visual … More Aitana: progress and reflection