Post by SandyG on Jan 28, 2016 20:34:21 GMT -5
I'll give you the highlights but the ending is the same - we saved Gracie's life today.
Horrendous night last night! Horrendous!!! Anemas, walking, her pushing and me helping her empty a bit, then more anemas, walking, her pushing and me helping her. She hated it and was very, very weary. I hated it, too, and was likewise dead on my feet. By 8am, we had no success and so I started making calls. Spoke with some of my favorite veterinarians across the country and they all said the same thing - empty her out and rehydrate her. In a hospital where it is warm.
So, the trailer was dropped and Gracie and I went to Stillwater by 11am. The first two anemas were productive but what resulted was minimal and very firm and dry. Gracie seemed even more exhausted and ready to collapse. Conversations centered around her very rigid, extended belly, her severe dehydration, a possible hole in the intestines thus poisoning her guts, the rectal muscles damaged in the prolapse so she could not expel the manure on her own, and just the simple fact that rectal prolapses are rarely, rarely recoverable. I was a tad stubborn and stayed with her until after 3 more anemas and kept asking about hanging fluids and when is the next anema??? After the 4th anema of the day, a 5 gallon mixture of fluids, electrolites, proteins, etc, was hung and a catheter installed in our little girl The first gallon showed a difference in her skin tone and gum color. After the 5th anema, Gracie was liquid in bowel and pushing her own bowel out of her own rectum. THAT was the victory! So the rectal muscles were NOT damaged, there was no hole in the intestines, and yes, it looked like this Miracle Horse just might - not for sure yet - recover from a rectal prolapse!
Gracie is the little blind rescue horse standing in a barn with 4 large, powerful, sweat-necked, heavily shod show geldings. Throughout the day, I often thought of the work that Gracie was doing in this "professional horse world". She won everyone over even though she isn't registered, can't see, and insisted on smelling everyone and everything before moving one single step. We'll take that little miracle any way and any time.
I left her tonight and saw an entirely different horse than I brought this morning - her sides were side and pliable where this morning, her sides were tight and bulging like a tire on the truck - hard, rigid, and hollow sounding. The personality was returning and that only means she feels better where this morning she was standing next to me but did not care about anything, including the insertion of the catheter. Tonight, that wouldn't be so easy to do!
I am about to head out to the barn to unhook and then fall into bed. If Gracie feels anything like me, it is time to collapse. Truly, we saved that horse's life today. Truly, we would have put her down this afternoon had we not traveled into Minnesota. One more day without relief and she would have burst and gone septic in minutes - painfully so, too. We cannot afford it but we did it. THAT, my friends, is faith.
Horrendous night last night! Horrendous!!! Anemas, walking, her pushing and me helping her empty a bit, then more anemas, walking, her pushing and me helping her. She hated it and was very, very weary. I hated it, too, and was likewise dead on my feet. By 8am, we had no success and so I started making calls. Spoke with some of my favorite veterinarians across the country and they all said the same thing - empty her out and rehydrate her. In a hospital where it is warm.
So, the trailer was dropped and Gracie and I went to Stillwater by 11am. The first two anemas were productive but what resulted was minimal and very firm and dry. Gracie seemed even more exhausted and ready to collapse. Conversations centered around her very rigid, extended belly, her severe dehydration, a possible hole in the intestines thus poisoning her guts, the rectal muscles damaged in the prolapse so she could not expel the manure on her own, and just the simple fact that rectal prolapses are rarely, rarely recoverable. I was a tad stubborn and stayed with her until after 3 more anemas and kept asking about hanging fluids and when is the next anema??? After the 4th anema of the day, a 5 gallon mixture of fluids, electrolites, proteins, etc, was hung and a catheter installed in our little girl The first gallon showed a difference in her skin tone and gum color. After the 5th anema, Gracie was liquid in bowel and pushing her own bowel out of her own rectum. THAT was the victory! So the rectal muscles were NOT damaged, there was no hole in the intestines, and yes, it looked like this Miracle Horse just might - not for sure yet - recover from a rectal prolapse!
Gracie is the little blind rescue horse standing in a barn with 4 large, powerful, sweat-necked, heavily shod show geldings. Throughout the day, I often thought of the work that Gracie was doing in this "professional horse world". She won everyone over even though she isn't registered, can't see, and insisted on smelling everyone and everything before moving one single step. We'll take that little miracle any way and any time.
I left her tonight and saw an entirely different horse than I brought this morning - her sides were side and pliable where this morning, her sides were tight and bulging like a tire on the truck - hard, rigid, and hollow sounding. The personality was returning and that only means she feels better where this morning she was standing next to me but did not care about anything, including the insertion of the catheter. Tonight, that wouldn't be so easy to do!
I am about to head out to the barn to unhook and then fall into bed. If Gracie feels anything like me, it is time to collapse. Truly, we saved that horse's life today. Truly, we would have put her down this afternoon had we not traveled into Minnesota. One more day without relief and she would have burst and gone septic in minutes - painfully so, too. We cannot afford it but we did it. THAT, my friends, is faith.
