Donkey King S1:E11 No Donkeys Left Behind

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:01]This week on Donkey King. Hello.

[00:00:04]Oscar's Place launches our biggest rescue ever.

[00:00:08]But when the donkeys arrive, many [snorts] are sicker than we realized.

[00:00:13]And one is bearing all of her weight on her toes. Oh, poor dude.

[00:00:19]My name is Ron King. [music] I was a media executive until one viral video about donkeys changed everything.

[00:00:28]Our first donkeys arrived 3 weeks later.

[00:00:30]Oh my goodness.

[00:00:32]>> Now we rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home donkeys.

[00:00:37]They're the best [music] creatures on earth. Hey. And I've dedicated my life to saving them. Oh.

[00:00:44]That's how I became the Donkey King.

[00:00:48]>> [music] >> Are you ready? Are you ready for breakfast?

[00:00:59]Here you go.

[00:01:09]What's up, girlfriend? Hi. Today at Oscar's Place, we're taking photos for our annual calendar. And I will do whatever it takes to get a smile out of Josh. Josh, we need smiles. So >> your lips? I don't understand.

[00:01:21]>> on. Look at that smile.

[00:01:24]Look at that smile.

[00:01:28]Adjustment on her. Uh-huh. I'll do a little adjustment on him.

[00:01:33]>> [laughter] >> The only thing better than a genuine smile from Josh is a new batch of donkeys to get to know and love. And we have a very big batch of donkeys coming to Oscar's Place today. We just rescued 45 donkeys from an auction in Texas, and we've shipped them out in two trailer loads. The first trailer load is here.

[00:01:51]Hello.

[00:01:52]This is the biggest rescue we've ever done. There were 52 donkeys at the auction. A few went to private owners, three went to another rescue, and when our second trailer left, there was no donkey left behind.

[00:02:05]Hi. Hi.

[00:02:15]That's all.

[00:02:17]There you go.

[00:02:19]There you go. Oh my gosh, look at this little one. There you go.

[00:02:25]Is it busy?

[00:02:26]It's a bunch of littles. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

[00:02:29]>> Babies and minis. A little dark mini, like a little show donkey.

[00:02:34]They've been in route for 40 hours. So that produces something called shipping fever, which means that any underlying illnesses that were there is going to surface.

[00:02:43]Welcome to Oscar's Place.

[00:02:49]And one by one, we're going to run each one through the chute, and we're going to do nasal swabs, temperatures, blood draws, SAA test, triglyceride test all at once.

[00:03:02]They're all hopeful for you.

[00:03:04]Good job, here. Good job.

[00:03:07]It's the worst of it, okay? Mom is Matilda. Baby is Aussie. What's up, my man?

[00:03:15]>> [music] >> Oh, no. 100.1. 100.1, Madison.

[00:03:22]Hi, buddy.

[00:03:23]God, thank you. Thank you. 103. Okay.

[00:03:27]Yeah, she has fluid.

[00:03:29]Yeah, I think she's blind on the left.

[00:03:30]>> Quite something to write. Now I'm just going to shine a light. [music] I'm going to see what her pupillary light reflexes Poor girl. Yes.

[00:03:38]Yeah, I don't think she can see anything.

[00:03:40]>> On this side, yeah.

[00:03:42]So she's blind. Let's write that down, Madison. She is blind in her left eye.

[00:03:46]No wonder she's so scared. There is nowhere that will take better care of a blind mom donkey than here.

[00:03:54]All right, we got two holdouts. So this little one is a girl, and her name is going to be Inga. You're a little quiet, Inga. Is it cuz you're nice? Or sick? Oh my goodness.

[00:04:09]Okay, so we're closing down. Yes. Okay.

[00:04:18]Come around, babe. Wow, you're so big.

[00:04:21]Huh?

[00:04:26]Last night we took an intake of 17 donkeys. [music] We did blood work overnight, and one of the minis has hyperlipemia. [music] So she has very high triglycerides. There are measures of triglycerides. If they're over 1,000, the prognosis is poor. Inga is our sick mini donkey, and she's over 2,000.

[00:04:47]With this condition, her body doesn't want external food. The goal is to see her with her mouth consuming external calories.

[00:04:56]I think [music] that might be Inga.

[00:04:59]So Inga is the one with the brown nose.

[00:05:01]Yes.

[00:05:01]>> And she's actively eating.

[00:05:04]Which is excellent. Let's go, Inga.

[00:05:07]Let's go.

[00:05:09]Let's go, Inga. Let's go.

[00:05:12]Even though Inga is eating, Dr. Kate will start an IV to help her appetite and get much-needed fluids in her. With any luck, this should help lower her triglycerides.

[00:05:22]She's like being way too good about this. Oh, she's not sedated? No.

[00:05:26]>> Oh, fantastic.

[00:05:28]Can you throw it? Can you put it over that? Oh, I got it. Great.

[00:05:32]>> [laughter] >> I'm butchered than I look, y'all.

[00:05:47]So we have fluids running on her. Yep.

[00:05:50]Um and she's eating. Yep. And then run triglycerides. Probably a little bit later, yeah.

[00:05:56]Hi, girl.

[00:05:58]Keep it up, girl.

[00:06:00]Coming up.

[00:06:03]This is the sick trailer.

[00:06:05]I know, poor dude. Look, he always standing up on his toes like that.

[00:06:08]That's not how it's supposed to be.

[00:06:24]>> You're amazing. I knew you were special.

[00:06:28]Ooh, I got tongue.

[00:06:32]Here at Oscar's Place, we're in the middle of our biggest rescue ever. 45 donkeys. Our remaining rescues are on the way, but unfortunately, we're expecting some sick donkeys to arrive in this group. We have two known patients.

[00:06:45]We have a really messed up eye Okay. and some bad feet. Okay. This is the sick trailer.

[00:06:51]Oof.

[00:06:52]Oh boy, here we go.

[00:06:58]Hi, guys.

[00:07:01]>> [music] >> Hi, welcome. Good girl.

[00:07:07]Come on.

[00:07:11]As the donkeys unload, our attention immediately goes [music] to Casanova, who is basically walking on her tiptoes.

[00:07:18]Poor Casanova. I didn't quite realize the extent that her hooves were malformed until she got off the trailer here. She was up on her toes, not even bearing any weight on her heel or the back of her hoof at all, which is not a natural weight-bearing for them.

[00:07:40]Little by little, okay?

[00:07:40]>> Dr. Kate leads Casanova to a special stall where she'll be able to stand more comfortably. And it's clear even just walking is painful for her.

[00:07:50]Little by little.

[00:07:54]Okay, right here.

[00:07:56]I don't want to hurt my mom. Yeah, you made it.

[00:08:00]>> As donkey intakes continue, it's clear Casanova isn't our only donkey with serious concerns.

[00:08:10]Okay, so 8202 is going to be Clark.

[00:08:14]Something tells me this one's going to come back positive, this nasal swab.

[00:08:18]Oh, we had a little bit of a limp there, didn't we?

[00:08:21]Her name's going to be Hope. Are we naming you Hope cuz that's what we have for your eye? Yeah.

[00:08:26]>> [music] >> It's funny, this process difficult for me, and I'm not doing the work. Partially cuz I'm [music] just super sensitive. So to be honest, >> [clears throat] >> a cough every 30 seconds makes me crazy cuz I get really worried.

[00:08:40]>> All right, Clark.

[00:08:42]Hit the road, buddy.

[00:08:51]One of our biggest rescues ever is underway at Oscar's Place. Now that our 45 new donkeys have had some time to settle in, Kenneth and I will make the rounds to check on those with health concerns.

[00:09:02]Our girl, Casanova.

[00:09:04]>> Poor Casanova.

[00:09:08]Casanova is holding steady. She seems to be exactly the same. She's old and tired and pain.

[00:09:15]Wait.

[00:09:16]Am I talking about Ron King or Casanova?

[00:09:20]>> [music] >> Of the 45 donkeys that we rescued, this girl has my heart more than any of them.

[00:09:27]And sadly, [music] I'm preparing for her to break it.

[00:09:35]She's struggling with pain just standing here. If there is no hope for her feet returning normal, and her pain subsiding, then we consider that a poor quality of life and likely an endpoint.

[00:09:49]But Dr. Kate has a plan to provide her some pain relief and try to stretch those tendons [music] and see if we can keep her around for a little bit longer.

[00:10:02]Yeah.

[00:10:03]Well, plan. We're going to try and help you out, girl.

[00:10:07]While Casanova is stable, Clark, the donkey with a harsh cough, >> [music] >> has taken a turn for the worse.

[00:10:15]Hey, brother.

[00:10:20]Buddy.

[00:10:30]That is a terrible noise to come from an animal's lungs. I had told myself Clark's not going to make it.

[00:10:43]Out of the 45 donkeys we rescued from auction, Casanova, Inga, >> [music] >> and Clark have had me worried from day one. But now, Clark's condition is audibly worse.

[00:10:58]I've never heard a donkey make the sound that Clark is making. It's the rumble, the gasp, and the whimper.

[00:11:03]I've never heard it, and I don't like it at all.

[00:11:06]Uh he is struggling to breathe. Yeah.

[00:11:10]>> [snorts] >> He was looking pretty rambunctious at the auction, but by the time he got to us, he had pretty bad cough. The respiratory issues can be really hard for the donkeys to get over sometimes, but we've got him on meds. He gets an inhaler to help him breathe. Um we're really trying to help him out as much as we can, and he sure wants it.

[00:11:31]This sweet guy is begging for help.

[00:11:37]Though Clark is not feeling well, Inga's hyperlipidemia has made an amazing turnaround thanks to IV treatment.

[00:11:44]Hi, guys.

[00:11:47]So, Inga is no longer in quarantine. She is out and about. Turns out she has two boyfriends. Here we've got Inga, John Brown, and Picasso.

[00:11:55]Inga, when she got here, she didn't actually show us any symptoms, but her triglycerides were off the reader.

[00:12:01]Dr. Kate did some pretty quick interventions, and her triglycerides went down, and I think they're out of the woods. Inga's life was saved because of some proactive protocol from Dr. Kate. Within 24 hours of IV treatment and well gel, she was back out running the hood.

[00:12:19]I had a sticker on me that said stud. It must have fallen off when I was hugging Picasso.

[00:12:24]>> [laughter] >> Cuz now the stud sticker is on Picasso.

[00:12:27]Buddy, that was my sticker.

[00:12:37]>> [music] >> With 2 months to heal at Oscar's Place, Inga, Clark, and Casanova are now on the road to recovery.

[00:12:50]Today, Inga is even ready for her first hoof trim with Megan, who's going to be showing Edgar the ropes as well.

[00:12:57]This is Inga. She's a love bug. Aw, cool. I suspect Hi, John Brown. she's not such a love bug when you're trying to do something to her. Let's see how she does. We'll see. It's really nice to be able to work on Inga, especially the last time I was here and Edgar was there with her while she was getting the IV, so she turned a corner, and now she's getting her hoof trim, so it feels good for her to be progressing that way.

[00:13:22]Inga.

[00:13:23]Hey, look at this. We have to prime prime the pump first. You have to get them with the treats.

[00:13:29]This is what I call the wizard's hat.

[00:13:30]See how the frog is going whoop? Yeah, sideways, huh? Right.

[00:13:34]So, we take that right off.

[00:13:38]And then we're going to come through and just exfoliate the sole a little bit here.

[00:13:44]See how it's going from chalky to waxy?

[00:13:48]Yeah. So, then I'm just going to follow that all the way around. Good girl. Just trying to level it out, huh, with the other side. Notice my rasp is moving before it touches the foot. Nice.

[00:14:01]>> it Yeah, more and more. Yeah, I can do the back one then. When you're holding her foot, just you're barely holding it cuz [music] the tighter your hand See how she wants to pull away? You're gripping tighter again.

[00:14:11]Hold her real loosely.

[00:14:14]>> [laughter] >> Imagine being really loose.

[00:14:19]>> [laughter] >> Hold on, darling. Hold on. Good girl.

[00:14:23]Edgar is a super fast learner. Some of the hardest part is learning to use the tools and the muscle memory and getting creative with how you're going to hold your body if you've got a donkey jumping around. Yes, perfect. See how it's easier with that other hand? Yeah.

[00:14:37]It's hard to believe that she was on a IV not long ago, huh?

[00:14:40]>> I know, and now she's Oh, now she's so spunky. Oh my goodness, and she's getting a trim. She's Edgar's teacher.

[00:14:47]Yeah, that's real pretty. Thank you for showing me here. Yeah, you're welcome. I will keep practicing. Yeah, you're going to be really good really fast. And it's going to be so valuable for particular donkeys who have hoof issues. I think about Casanova, had someone taken the correct care of her, she would have been trimmed very frequently and had her heels managed. Casanova has the worst case of ballerina syndrome that I've ever seen in my whole career. So, I spoke with Dr. Kate, >> [music] >> and we're kind of limited on our options on what we can do for her to provide her comfort. One of the things that we [music] came up with was uh the idea of putting some deep sand in her stall. So, it would be neat to see how she's doing.

[00:15:29]Hi, Megan. Hello.

[00:15:31]>> Come on in. All right. [music] Come on in and see this girl, Casanova.

[00:15:36]Casanova, look at you. Oh my gosh. Wow.

[00:15:42]Since arriving at Oscar's Place, [music] Casanova's malformed hooves have presented a challenge in keeping her comfortable.

[00:15:49]But today, we may have found a solution.

[00:15:52]Hello.

[00:15:53]>> Come on in. All right.

[00:15:56]Come on in and see this girl, Casanova.

[00:15:58]Casanova, look at you. Oh my gosh.

[00:16:01]Look at that. [music] It's working. This sand.

[00:16:04]>> You can totally tell.

[00:16:06]She loves the Oh man, look at her moving, too. That's awesome.

[00:16:10]She moves so much faster. It's really easy to see, actually, when she stands on sand this deep, how it's conforming around her hoof. Yes, exactly. And Edgar, who takes care of her 5 days a week, said that she is the happiest she's ever been since she got here.

[00:16:26]And she's spicy. I hear that she still gives little Yeah, she's trying to kick sometimes. Oh, I heard. I've heard about that too.

[00:16:33]>> every day, and when she don't have a grain, she will try [music] to kick.

[00:16:36]Yeah.

[00:16:37]>> [laughter] >> Aw, I love it. You stay spicy. [music] You stay spicy.

[00:16:48]>> [laughter] >> Not my glasses.

[00:16:51]Hey, hey, hey, hey. A distinguished gentleman.

[00:16:56]Aw, yes, you.

[00:17:00]I don't get to go down to quarantine very often because we're working so hard on biosecurity, but today Kenneth is going to walk me around and give me an update on all these donkeys we rescued.

[00:17:10]>> [laughter] >> Hey, Clark. Hey, Kenneth. How's it going, Edgar?

[00:17:14]>> Good, and you? Pretty good.

[00:17:15]>> hi to Clark before Edgar. Like, your priorities are so messed up.

[00:17:21]I'm nervous about this checkup because last time we saw him, he was he was really struggling to breathe, and the noise he was making was really uncomfortable. How is he doing? Yeah, I think he was doing that since he had a flu and pneumonia. Yeah. So, he was really bad, but he's improving a lot since then.

[00:17:39]And then, uh the only thing that he might be have asthma after that. Oh, because from being so sick, he did permanent damage to his airways?

[00:17:48]>> Yes. Oh, poor guy.

[00:17:50]Buddy, buddy, he doesn't He's not making that noise anymore?

[00:17:53]>> No, not anymore. Yeah. You sound totally normal.

[00:17:56]You sound totally normal. Yeah, I was about to give his medication right now.

[00:18:00]>> Oh, yeah? Yeah.

[00:18:01]It's unclear to me whether the asthma will get better or whether he'll live with asthma. The idea of like, we're just on an inhaler now, is new for us, but we'll do what we need to.

[00:18:12]Yeah, he's really good about it. Yeah.

[00:18:15]Clark can live a very happy life with asthma.

[00:18:18]Edgar, you should do the honors of shaving his tags off.

[00:18:25]You are no longer known as 8202.

[00:18:28]They're gone now. You are known as Clark with a healthy set of lungs.

[00:18:34]Super happy with Clark. Thank you for taking care of him, Edgar.

[00:18:36]>> [music] >> Clark appreciates it, too. Mhm. Thank you.

[00:18:40]Coming up.

[00:18:42]So, she just continues to improve? The tightness of her face, it seems a little looser than [music] when she first got here. Yes. Oh, yes.

[00:18:52]2 months ago, we rescued 45 donkeys with some serious quality of life concerns.

[00:18:57]Today, all of our hard work to get them healthy is finally paying off.

[00:19:02]Hey, Inga. What's up, girl?

[00:19:04]Hi.

[00:19:06]Yeah, you're feeling a lot better, aren't you?

[00:19:09]Sweet thing. So, she just continues to improve? She does, and I think part of what we were worried about when she first got here was being pretty dull, which is common for hyperlipidemia.

[00:19:19]Although, it seems like she's just a gentle a gentle donkey in general. Inga.

[00:19:25]Hey.

[00:19:26]Welcome to Oscar's Place, you sweet thing. Yeah.

[00:19:31]Go ahead, get him.

[00:19:33]Hey.

[00:19:34]What's up? So, when we go to the auction, we know that we are bringing back sick and traumatized animals, and not every ending is a happy ending. But through diligent, around-the-clock work by our vet team, and the donkeys that we have are healthy.

[00:19:52]Since the sand has come in, she's the most comfortable she's been. Yeah. And I think monitoring pain and comfort is our only job with her right now. Yeah, I mean, I feel like just by like her the tightness of her face, it seems a little looser than certainly when she first got here. Oh, that's very sweet. Hi.

[00:20:10]Mhm.

[00:20:12]You know, our promise to these donkeys when we brought them back from Texas was that we would do everything in our power to keep them safe, healthy, and happy for the rest of their lives. And today was one of the first days where I've actually felt like I could see the health and the happiness. And the sun is shining.

[00:20:27]Feels like a really good day.