Got very worried about Lizzie when she stopped eating yesterday and we couldn't get her meds into her. So I called LSU this morning and asked them to check with Ann Chapman and see if we could use injections instead of the antibiotic powder since Torri said she could come help us with that after tomorrow.
But then this morning, Mark forced Lizzie to take her pain meds (a paste), then gave her a bit of her feed with absolutely NOTHING in it. She acted like she didn't even want to eat that, so he just left her alone in her stall. But when he checked back, she HAD eaten it, thank goodness. When he told me that I felt a lot better. It scared me to think she wouldn't eat. But I was still wondering what we could do about getting that antibiotic powder into her.
I left work early today then, to go home and take Lizzie out into the front yard with it's thick green grass and see if she would move around and graze instead of trying to lay down immediately like she does in her paddock. Then as soon as I got home, before I even got out to the barn, Ann called to say that after getting my message, she'd be coming over in 20 minutes to check on Lizzie again. So I took Lizzie out of her stall and walked around the yard with her for the 20 minutes until she got here. She did very well and seemed more than willing to walk around and eat that grass.
Then when Ann got here she had one of their surgeons and a senior vet student with her, and they went over Lizzie again with a fine tooth comb, so to speak! There was some question about whether she needs another opening to spread the flush further out, but for now they're not going to do that. Instead, they removed that rubber tube that she had in there and flushed out all the openings with a good half dozen huge syringes full of saline! When the surgeon did it, he would put a lot in there and spread it out, then when he would push on her side the stuff would come out that opening where the tubing was like a regular fountain! Wow!
And then he suggested that we mix her pain meds into MOLASSES! I never would have considered that, given her Cushings. But they both said it wouldn't be a problem for her to have molasses for just the few days while she takes the meds. So we mixed the meds it in for the first time this evening --- NOT a simple thing! The stuff is SO thick that it's not easy to get that antibiotic powder mixed in there. And once it is, getting it back into a syringe (pouring it in from the back) is NOT easy. But once we got it ready, it wasn't all THAT difficult to get it down her throat. Once she tasted it, she didn't even struggle to stand back up, she just let Mark inject it into her mouth so she must have liked it.
It's 9 PM now and I just went out to check on her. She's laying quietly on the floor of her stall, but she is upright, not stretched out with her head on the floor. So she must be feeling at least a BIT better. So I guess we have the system set up at this point.
In the morning I'll just need to clean out the stalls and feed everyone. Then I'll take Lizzie out to graze in the front yard for 20 minutes or half an hour before leaving for work. She needs to move around, but I am NOT going to let out of her stall so she can roll around in the mud.
Mark will probably get back from those classes he has to go to for the rest of the week by 7 each night. So I'm going to wait to feed the horses and medicate Lizzie at night until he comes home so we can work together - much easier with some help!
Okay. Time consuming, but it's good to have a plan in place. So now I'm going to head for bed. I need to go to bed early so I can get up early the rest of the week. There are going to be some loooong days.
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