I have had people asking me about what happened with my horse. So as hard as it is to talk about I have decided to write a post about him to explain what we know. I apologize for any errors I am bawling as I write this and I can't read it well enough through my tears to correct it. Plus I relive it every time I read it so I can't proofread it.
Sunday October 18, morning feedings went normally and Teddy ate normal, Sunday night he seemed to be eating normally.
Monday October 19 morning he didn't finish his hay so we thought maybe we over fed him. So we just fed him a little bit Monday morning and decided we would feed less Monday night. I went out Monday night to feed and he hadn't touch his food at all. He was starting to look a little sad and droopy (obviously right? He wasn't eating).
Tuesday October 20 I went out to feed and he was laying down, not really a big deal horses lay down. The weird part for him is he usually plays catch me if you can for a few minutes before he lets you pet him. He didn't get up when I went up to him he just laid there and he looked bad. He only stood up after I lost my balance and scared him on accident. I called a vet to get him an appointment that afternoon. We took him to the vet at 2pm the vet said he had a slight fever and some congestion in his lungs. He figured it was just a cold, he gave him a long lasting antibiotic shot. He should start feeling better and get the second shot on Saturday to finish it off. He seemed to be perking up some and we got him home he was nibbling on the grass so we figured he got his appetite back. I went out to feed that night and he still hadn't eaten but he was up and walking around so I asked Curtis, to please check on him when he got off shift in the morning just to make sure he was doing ok.
Wednesday October 21 Curtis got home and checked on Teddy, he was laying down and didn't get up to move away from Curtis which he usually does. Curtis was always picking on him ;) so he was temperamental when Curtis came around. Curtis had to use grain to coax him enough to stand. I went out to feed in the morning and Teddy was still standing so I thought it was a good sign. Except he still hadn't eaten anything and seemed even more sad. So I was going to walk him over to my neighbors property where we had the round pen set up so that he would have grass readily available and not have to walk to food. He would take a couple of steps and stop huffing and puffing like I had just run him at a full gallop for an hour. It took us 15 minutes to walk about 15-20 feet over to the round pen. I called the vet to see if he was supposed to get worse before he got better, they said he should have made great improvements. We got an appointment to be seen again that afternoon, Curtis was in town doing some errands so I was getting the horse trailer ready to take Teddy to the vet. Later when the girls were napping I went out to scrub animals water tanks, Teddy hadn't really eaten much and was just standing there, head droopy. I was scrubbing when I heard a thud and groaning... I looked over and Teddy was laying on his side breathing terribly. I literally dropped what I was doing and ran over to him. I was stroking his neck while he struggled to breathe, he would try to get up but would fall back over because he didn't have enough strength to actually stand. I called Curtis crying because I was sure Teddy was dying. I told him what was happening and I put him on speaker so he could hear Teddy. I then called the vet and told them what was happening and they asked if we could bring him in sooner than our appointment time. I told them that I couldn't get him to stand up; they had one vet in surgery and the other was already out on a farm call. They said they could get the vet over as soon as possible. I called Curtis and told him he said he was leaving everything and coming home. The vet called him about 15 minutes later saying he was coming from Lewiston which is about 15 minutes from Clarkston. I text my neighbor while I was waiting for Curtis and the vet to arrive to ask if she was home and could help me. I told her Teddy was dying and McKenna was going to be up from her nap soon to eat and could she please feed her for me. She said anything that I needed, she asked what was wrong and I told her I didn;t know but he sounded terrible and couldn't stand. She said maybe I should leave and she would stay with him for me. I told her I couldn't, I felt like he needed me. She said she understood, he's my baby and she was right there with her horse when she died too. Curtis arrived home about 10 minutes before the vet which were the longest 10 minutes of my life. I had gotten Teddy to stand shortly before Curtis got there and I was petting his nose and just hugging his neck. His nose went cold.... the vet arrived and got the thermometer to take his temp to see what had changed from yesterday. He said his lungs sounded the same but now he was colicky and he wasn't sure how that happened since he wasn't eating anything. There was no movement on the left side of his intestines but the right side sounded ok. His eyes were bloodshot and his gums were grey. He said that his temperature was subnormal which is really bad news for a horse, which explained his cold nose. The vet needed to get an IV with fluids into him asap he was also going to give him pain medication to help relax him a little. He laid back down while the vet was working on finding a vein in his neck to get the IV into. He couldn't find one... Teddy's blood pressure was so low that he couldn't find a vein... He tried 5x, he tried both sides of his neck, he finally thought he had a spot but blood wasn't filling the port like it should. Teddy decided he had strength again and stood up. (He tried to crush the vet more than once the little sass.) The port filled with blood and the vet gave him pain meds, took some blood for sample work and started the IV fluids. Teddy was shaking and so unsteady on his feet he was swaying. He fell over and of course fell on the side with the IV just like the vet didn't want him to do. But thankfully the port stayed in and he didn't lay on the cord badly enough that the vet could reach the other port in the cord to give him anti-shock medication. The vet gave me a bucket with somethings he asked me to fill the bucket with as hot of water as I could get. I went inside updated my neighbor and checked on my girls. I headed back out and Curt and the Vet were standing over Teddy. I asked where they needed the bucket and the vet said it didn't matter. Curt turned to me and said Honey we're too late. I walked over and Teddy was lifeless. I had lost my baby boy. After I went inside he tried to stand up but couldn't, fell again rolled over and pulled the IV out of his neck. The vet said that was it he was leaving us... and Teddy stopped breathing... The vet was strongly recommending getting a necropsy done so we could figure out what happened because he was perplexed. It was $150 to do this but I wanted to know what was happening... this was the 4 animal I had lost in about 2 years. I needed to know if we were doing something or if there was something on our property that was killing them. So we agreed to have it done and took Teddy to the University to have the testing done. The vet said he would call us that night to let us know what the general findings were but it would take over a week to get the full results. It was so sad and hard to try explaining to Lizzi about Teddy she loved him. We told her that Teddy had been sick so he needed to go to the doctor but the doctor was going to keep Teddy....He wouldn't come back home with us. She saw him loaded up when were leaving and laughed and said Teddy! Thankfully she is too young that she didn't process anything about it. But it still broke my heart a little.
The vet called that night and said that there was fluid in Teddy's thorax and abdomen, the pathologist said this usually happens as a result of heart or liver failure but Teddy's were in great condition. He was perplexed as well. They said there was a chance it was Salmonella and would do further testing to rule that out or not. We got a call Monday from the vet saying they had the results about Teddy. This was sooner than expected but I was glad to know. He said that he had a migrating parasite in his intestine that he had had from birth and the wormers were only keeping it in submission but it was leaving blood clots on the intestinal wall. When they broke off they killed a 6 inch section of his intestine and that was what caused the fluid back up. There was nothing we could have done for him it was only a matter of time. He was 3 1/2.... too young to be taken so soon from me, from us. It was a hard night for Curtis and me both. He stayed home from work that night so we could comfort each other. We are going to wait a few years before we get another horse... my heart needs time to heal before I can let another horse in.... We immediately wormed all of our goats and our dogs. I refuse to let a parasite take any more of my babies from me.
Farming is not for the faint of heart, and it is hard on the heart of an avid animal lover. I love my lifestyle and I wouldn't give it up for anything but I also wish animals stuck around longer.
