Shade is still with us.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved,

Shade is still with us. 

Don't get me wrong; it's still not good, and we still have no idea whether she's going make it. And by "make it," I'm talking about surviving this displacement colic, not about all the other stuff waiting for her if she makes it through this. But she spent a significant amount of time on her feet today, up and nibbling for long extended periods at the trough. She was willing to drink water; she got all her meds; after refusing her grain this morning she took it late in the afternoon. Miskwaki is a good barometer: If he feels secure enough to go out and graze and turn his back on her, that's a good sign; when she's not doing well, he's standing over her, urging her up again. 

If she makes it through the night okay again, then we have to hope that she starts passing some of the mineral oil tomorrow. This is a long, slow process, and we have to walk a very fine line between keeping her as free of as much pain as possible and not bringing her gut motility to a halt, because the lack of motility is what created this in the first place. So her Banamine doses are low to try to keep everything moving while also keeping her as comfortable as possible. Nothing can be rushed; patience is not merely a virtue now, it's a literal matter of life and death.

I have no idea what lies ahead. For now, we just want to bring her out of this so we can see what can be addressed (assuming any of it can; it could be very, very bad, or it could be relatively benign and mostly just moderately inconvenient). But we can't even get to that hurdle without saving her life now, from this. No, I don't know what the expense is going to be. This is likely the least costly end of things, just getting her through it; if she doesn't make it, there will be high expenses taking care of that, as we know all too well from losing both Cree and Ice last year. 

But she's a fighter. She's stubborn as hell. And so are we. So we're fighting for her every minute right now. And as I said last night, we'll take all the prayers and good vibes for this girl that we can get, because it's not her time yet. Whatever ya got, please, please, send it her way. Wings has said that all he wants for his birthday is for her to be okay. I hope the spirits see fit to give him that.

Thanks.



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