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We hauled Lilly, and her buddy, Petunia, down to the clinic west of Woodland, CA. 

After significant ultrasound searching, the same black area was seen that was noticed by our vet a few days earlier, and a needle aspiration was attempted. Nothing. Got absolutely nothing. Two excellent veterinarians were involved with this search, too. Fluid was injected, and it was immediately absorbed, and nothing again was able to be extracted. Before giving up, genticin was injected in the site. We are talking a significant amount of education and experience were involved with this whole deal. 

The two vets there were perplexed at the whole out of alignment issues that Lilly is having with her top line to shoulders, neck, etc., and that she is really not reacting to any sort of probing. Her left shoulder shows significant edema with no reason... so far. Then it was decided to go ahead and shave Lilly's wither area, and down a bit on her right side, because there seemed to be edema, now, on that side. More ultrasound was done. We looked at scapula bone... way cool experience for me I might add... muscles, we could even see one big vein's blood flow. I it was soooo interesting, but still perplexing.

Finally, the ultra sound camera was placed on Lilly's withers, and there is was! The tippy tops of her wither bones were all jagged - broken with some floating bone fragments! Yowza! How on EARTH did THAT happen?! That's what I want to know, and that's exactly what the vets want to all know, too! She had to have been, initially, minimally injured back at the first part of July, or even earlier, but it wasn't noticed because she's got an exceptionally wooly coat unless shaved, and I didn't notice the problem when I did shave her on July 15 and took photos. Then, at the first of August, she had to have been reinjured big time! But, on the top of her withers? 

Lilly is on continued rest/care, and is now going to be a long term rescue until she is healed up from this crazy odd accident. I want to thank everyone that has donated towards Lilly's condition/care/aftercare and now, long term residence here at our rescue. Her healing journey has just begun. We are all very relieved that it was NOT an abscess, nor a mass, nor cancerous mass. So many things could have been far worse than this!

Again, thank you!

Ginny

LILLY NEEDS HELP!

 

Simply put, our rescue need donations in order to go much farther with

"Diamond Lil" AKA Lilly, because I think we're just at the beginning of a long road...

Lilly is one of the first Sheldon burros that came into our rescue.  She was

delivered here by Shirley Allen and Sherry O'Mahoney over a decade ago.  

Lilly is now back here, and up until her recent medical mystery, she was looking

for a new, forever home.


Several days ago, while I was doing the evening chores, Lilly stood up and

walked over to eat dinner with the rest of the donkeys in her pen.  Lilly

was all bent and walking sideways.  I hadn't noticed this before.  I

contacted our vet and she had a look at Lilly.  She thought possible Pigeon

Fever, but there were other thoughts that lead us to putting Lilly on

antibiotics.  A couple of days later, it was decided to draw blood to do a

Pigeon Fever titer, simply because there are so many equine out in our area

that I wanted to be able to notify anyone close by.


A few days later, and still on antibiotics, the titer came back - negative.

This was good news for the rest of the animals, but it didn't explain

Lilly's predicament.  I had also gone back and looked at some pictures I'd

taken on July 15, after I had body clipped Lilly, and there was her left

shoulder, already beginning to become enlarged.


I've been in contact with the vet involved at putting on the Donkey Welfare

Symposium this coming November, Dr. Eric Davis.  He is also a teaching vet

at U.C. Davis.  Dr. Davis has suggested an ultrasound and biopsy to see what

the mass is.  His forte is donkeys and one of the things he knows well is

Pigeon Fever, and before the titer came back, he knew she didn't have it.

He has never seen a donkey with Pigeon Fever, and he travels around the

world to educate people about donkeys.


So, whatever the issue is, abscess or tumor, the mass is located under

Lilly's left scapula.  We have received a few donations this past week, but

they will only cover tests and some meds.  Much past that, we won't have

funds for any surgery if that's needed to save Lilly.

 

Thank you all for your consideration.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ginny Freeman

Pauliann, Dusty and Theresa are ready for new homes. Pauliann is around 9 years old. All are standard sized donkeys. Pauliann is VERY friendly. Dusty and Theresa are getting there. Drop in and say hi! http://hithger.org/ 

Our names are Petunia and Lilly. We are now both UTD with WNV and 4 way vaccinations. We'll be getting our rabies vaccinations in 2 weeks from now, so we'll also be ready for adoption by the end of February. We would like to go together, or at least become buddies with other donkeys. We're ages 9 and 10. :) If you are interested in adopting us, please go to: http://hithger.org/ 

"squeeze" pictures per Wendy Sanford's request. :) Wendy, and anyone else interested, the panels can be pulled in closer, to make a smaller area so that the donkey can't move away from you while you're working with it. We've used this type of squeese to get to know wild BLM donks, and tamed a number of them for the BLM by using this squeese techique. We occasionally use it now for the rescue's donks. :)

Pauliann is now here, after being on a diet at her foster family's home and successfully losing a bunch of fat. Dave trimmed her today, and now she's hanging out with Theresa, Dusty, Lilly (with two L's) and Petunia. Pauliann is ready for adoption. She is super sweet, around 9 years old, and ready for a family to love her.

James and Lily got their "pedicures" done yesterday, and are now ready to be picked up by their new adopters. They are two more lucky donkeys to pass through our rescue, and will be headed to new digs in about 24 hours. :D

This is Dusty. He is the son of Theresa the donkey that I sent a photo of earlier. Dusty is a little shy. He is around 10 hands tall, and looking for a forever home. He would be good in with larger livestock, and/or with someone willing to put him in a small pen to work with him daily. Once in a squeeze, he can be brushed, haltered and handled okay. $125. covers the processing fee plus adoption fee.