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I was thinking last night about happy endings. They're bullshit. There are no happy endings.
( Aren't YOU just a ray of sunshine!! )
( Aren't YOU just a ray of sunshine!! )
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Oct. 24th, 2018 06:59 amSummary of baby horse woes for my memories.
Friday when baby horse turned three months old, I sent off the registration papers. When I got home after work, baby horse nose was swollen to where it did not really fit in the halter. I left Trys a note suggesting nose was swollen and maybe bees?
Saturday nose was still swollen. Trys got antibiotics (vet was concerned about cellulitis) and antihistamines for baby horse and we started to give them on Sunday.
On Monday, the swelling moved to baby horse eyeball. It looked horrible enough that Trys called the vet. Vet added a different antibiotic (injectable Excede or whatever) which we started on Tuesday.
Wednesday, vet came out to look at the eyeball to see if there was still an eyeball. There was. Might or might not be blind, but at least it wasn’t exploded. Eyeball started to look a little better with the new drugs.
By Thursday, baby horse was dull and lethargic and not eating. We stopped the banamine and the pill antibiotic.
Friday she looked worse. Trys pulled blood and took it into work. Diagnosis: kidney failure. Elevated BUN and Creatinine. Plan was to flush the toxins via IV therapy.
Saturday morning Trys ran IV fluids into the baby. Same for Saturday evening. Baby horse was peeing and pooping and eating and drinking after the IV fluids. Perked up a lot with the IV fluids.
Sunday morning, she got IV fluids but Sunday night we blew a vein so no fluids then or Monday morning. We put a baby horse blanket on her for the shivering.
Monday daytime we ran bloodwork again. Creatinine had dropped from 11 to 8, but BUN still over 140 (it only goes to 140) and baby was dehydrated. Monday evening she was quite dehydrated and we had the vet come and sew in a catheter. 4 L of fluid. Baby shivering in not especially cold weather. We warmed up the IV fluids first but that didn’t help. Put the foal coat on the baby following doctoring.
Tuesday morning, foal coat not on baby. We ran 4 L of fluid, put foal coat back on baby. No shivering.
Tuesday evening foal coat not on baby when we arrived for evening fluids. Baby not a fan of the foal coat. Noted. Her face and lower lip were swollen on right side only. Pitting edema, but not hot or sore like cellulitis. Horse eating well. Not shivering. Alert and oriented. Whinnied to see us. We put in 1.5 L of fluid in the evening and stopped there because she looked really swollen up, like getting bigger while you looked at it. We tried to call vet but his phone was dead. Did not put foal coat back on horse baby because if she wants to die cold, that’s her right.
Wednesday AM Trys got a hold of the vet. He said the swollen face was indicative of congestive heart failure and that we should reduce IV fluids but not stop them. 1 L of fluids in the AM on Wednesday, as per vet. Trys says swollen face looked slightly better in the AM but blew back up again when she ran the AM fluids. Ugh. She says it’s soft and squishy now, like a bag of water. Ew.
Trys put baby horse outside some for the afternoon, about three hours, and baby horse seemed to enjoy that, grazed, hung out with her aunties. She also took a urine sample in to the vet. Urine sample specific gravity is 1.0013 which is to be expected with pushing fluids into baby. It’s low, just barely in the “normal” range. (Normal is 1.012 to 1.035.)
We still feel this is a dead baby, but she’s not currently in any pain, so…
Also, we opted out of PM fluids this evening because (a) face still swollen and it blows up every time we run a liter of fluid into the filly and (b) filly coughs weirdly when we run more fluid into her, has for both last night and this morning’s efforts. We are worried about lung infiltration and possible pneumonia and she is eating and drinking pretty well. Vet is still calling for fluids for baby horse but we are not doing it. If she dies, I will feel guilty.
Tomorrow we draw blood and look at the creatinine value. She started out with a creatinine of 11. It dropped to 8 after Saturday/Sunday fluid efforts, blood draw on Monday morning. But, we need to see real progress. If it’s 3 or lower, tomorrow, baby can live another day, assuming she’s up to it.
If it’s still 7 or 8… no. There is no kidney function. There is no other way to make the kidneys work again and horses don’t get dialysis. (Dialysis is brutal for humans and they understand what’s going on. It’s just cruel for horses.) If we have a 7 or an 8, we will put her down.
If it’s a 4? We will stick with discontinued fluids, wait a week, and check her again. Creatinine may continue to fall. It may go back up. But, it’s not an automatic death sentence at 4.
If it’s 5 or 6? No, I think we’re done. Not enough function recovered for her to do anything but die slowly of kidney failure.
So, tomorrow. Should know by noon.
Friday when baby horse turned three months old, I sent off the registration papers. When I got home after work, baby horse nose was swollen to where it did not really fit in the halter. I left Trys a note suggesting nose was swollen and maybe bees?
Saturday nose was still swollen. Trys got antibiotics (vet was concerned about cellulitis) and antihistamines for baby horse and we started to give them on Sunday.
On Monday, the swelling moved to baby horse eyeball. It looked horrible enough that Trys called the vet. Vet added a different antibiotic (injectable Excede or whatever) which we started on Tuesday.
Wednesday, vet came out to look at the eyeball to see if there was still an eyeball. There was. Might or might not be blind, but at least it wasn’t exploded. Eyeball started to look a little better with the new drugs.
By Thursday, baby horse was dull and lethargic and not eating. We stopped the banamine and the pill antibiotic.
Friday she looked worse. Trys pulled blood and took it into work. Diagnosis: kidney failure. Elevated BUN and Creatinine. Plan was to flush the toxins via IV therapy.
Saturday morning Trys ran IV fluids into the baby. Same for Saturday evening. Baby horse was peeing and pooping and eating and drinking after the IV fluids. Perked up a lot with the IV fluids.
Sunday morning, she got IV fluids but Sunday night we blew a vein so no fluids then or Monday morning. We put a baby horse blanket on her for the shivering.
Monday daytime we ran bloodwork again. Creatinine had dropped from 11 to 8, but BUN still over 140 (it only goes to 140) and baby was dehydrated. Monday evening she was quite dehydrated and we had the vet come and sew in a catheter. 4 L of fluid. Baby shivering in not especially cold weather. We warmed up the IV fluids first but that didn’t help. Put the foal coat on the baby following doctoring.
Tuesday morning, foal coat not on baby. We ran 4 L of fluid, put foal coat back on baby. No shivering.
Tuesday evening foal coat not on baby when we arrived for evening fluids. Baby not a fan of the foal coat. Noted. Her face and lower lip were swollen on right side only. Pitting edema, but not hot or sore like cellulitis. Horse eating well. Not shivering. Alert and oriented. Whinnied to see us. We put in 1.5 L of fluid in the evening and stopped there because she looked really swollen up, like getting bigger while you looked at it. We tried to call vet but his phone was dead. Did not put foal coat back on horse baby because if she wants to die cold, that’s her right.
Wednesday AM Trys got a hold of the vet. He said the swollen face was indicative of congestive heart failure and that we should reduce IV fluids but not stop them. 1 L of fluids in the AM on Wednesday, as per vet. Trys says swollen face looked slightly better in the AM but blew back up again when she ran the AM fluids. Ugh. She says it’s soft and squishy now, like a bag of water. Ew.
Trys put baby horse outside some for the afternoon, about three hours, and baby horse seemed to enjoy that, grazed, hung out with her aunties. She also took a urine sample in to the vet. Urine sample specific gravity is 1.0013 which is to be expected with pushing fluids into baby. It’s low, just barely in the “normal” range. (Normal is 1.012 to 1.035.)
We still feel this is a dead baby, but she’s not currently in any pain, so…
Also, we opted out of PM fluids this evening because (a) face still swollen and it blows up every time we run a liter of fluid into the filly and (b) filly coughs weirdly when we run more fluid into her, has for both last night and this morning’s efforts. We are worried about lung infiltration and possible pneumonia and she is eating and drinking pretty well. Vet is still calling for fluids for baby horse but we are not doing it. If she dies, I will feel guilty.
Tomorrow we draw blood and look at the creatinine value. She started out with a creatinine of 11. It dropped to 8 after Saturday/Sunday fluid efforts, blood draw on Monday morning. But, we need to see real progress. If it’s 3 or lower, tomorrow, baby can live another day, assuming she’s up to it.
If it’s still 7 or 8… no. There is no kidney function. There is no other way to make the kidneys work again and horses don’t get dialysis. (Dialysis is brutal for humans and they understand what’s going on. It’s just cruel for horses.) If we have a 7 or an 8, we will put her down.
If it’s a 4? We will stick with discontinued fluids, wait a week, and check her again. Creatinine may continue to fall. It may go back up. But, it’s not an automatic death sentence at 4.
If it’s 5 or 6? No, I think we’re done. Not enough function recovered for her to do anything but die slowly of kidney failure.
So, tomorrow. Should know by noon.
