Day #52

Saturday. Cool and sunny. We had planned on taking a nice ride today. Blaze was willing and ready, but Pearl changed our minds.
Our 8-hour drive here affected her negatively and she started showing signs of colic pain again. On Thursday Dan had said she wasn’t acting right, she was “twitchy” when he was riding her. We thought she may have been reacting to the flies, but today she refused her grain. She was once again licking metal, kicking and touching her abdomen and pacing in the corral. We could tell she had been rolling and she continued to roll.

We got out our instructions from Dr. Susan and gave her 50cc of Aloe Vera and a dose of Banamine for the pain. We left her dish of Outlast and bran in her pen. She had eaten the alfalfa cubes. By 1:00 she had finished eating the rest. We took her on a couple walks, groomed her and then let her have 15 minutes of hay at 2:00. I used the stethoscope several times during the day and I can hear gut sounds on both sides of her abdomen. Now, we wait to see if she will poop some more. She had gone several times during the night and a small amount twice during the morning.

Dan went up to the Visitor’s Center with the camper while I waited back at camp with Jax and the horses. He bought a good map of the area with the hopes of riding soon.

Our campsite is so nice. We are under some cedar trees and there is a nice cool breeze. This horse camp has a main trail running from

the west and one from the east. There is a truck with a horse trailer, a van camper and a couple other vehicles parked here. We have seen a woman go to the outhouse, but the rest must be packing up in the mountains. It is very quiet here.

One of the things that is very different since we were here three years ago, is that they have reintroduced Mexican wolves. They are under a special Federal “Non-essential Experimental Rule”, whatever that is. Here are the rules:
• You may not kill or injure a wolf because it is near you or your property.
• Kill or injure a wolf that attacks your pet, unless it is also a threat to

a human.
• Kill or injure a wolf that is attacking livestock on public lands
• Kill or injure a wolf that is feeding on dead livestock
• Kill or injure a wolf because you thought it was a coyote or
another animal.
You can harass a wolf away from you or your property in any manner that does not cause injury to it, by throwing objects, yelling, banging pans together, etc.

If wolves are near your camp, you should contain your dog in a tent or vehicle. And frighten them if necessary. They always went on about how dogs had to be under control and leashed. It came across that the dog would be the problem. Come to find out, wolves often attack coyotes and dogs without any provocation. No way am I going to shout and not shoot if one is attacking our Jax!

The chances are probably slim that we would ever see a wolf. Just like we never saw Javalinas or Big horn sheep in all our riding.
So, another non-riding day. Hopefully, Pearl improves, and we can continue our vacation. One of our questions is, “How do we get her home, if we can’t trailer her?”.

Until tomorrow,
Blessings on everyone. Pam