I have several checks at my house as well I need to post (tomorrow, too exhausted tonight).
Brief update: Whisper was down at about 8pm (?) yesterday, just before I got to Lisa’s for my night duty so Lisa and Kier could get some much-needed sleep. Her temp was going up and down but her heart rate was up, she was gassy and looking at her stomach, sweating and seemed much more uncomfortable, so we called Hannah and Brad and Valerie out and got her up at 11:30pm. Dr. Hannah gave her some Banamine, did a rectal and cleared her out, and gave her some Miracle Clay as the manure she has been passing has been very soft. I checked her at 2:00am, 4:00am, and 6:00am and she was up but at the 8:00am check she was down again. She seemed fairly calm at first and her temp was good but she quickly became distressed and was trying to get herself up and flailing quite a bit, and still very gassy and uncomfortable. Her eyes continue to do the weird flickering back and forth thing at times when she is down, usually when she is getting stressed, and she will shake all over. On a positive note, her efforts to get up were stronger than she has shown before, but she is really only getting her front feet out and then lunging forward, her hind end just does not have enough strength to do the job. We got her up again and her gut sounds were good but we gave her some more Banamine, and Hannah took some blood which showed that her white blood cell count is improving but her hemocrats were low so she is going to put her on Red Cell now.
We are doing 12 hours on/12 hours off with the leg wraps to give them air — she is pretty much covered with scabs and does not tolerate the removal well, especially on her legs. Right now it hasn’t been the primary focus with everything else going on and needing to keep her warm and dry being very important.
Today Bonnie brought the other sling from Hobby Horse Haven and we also had someone out that has experience in animal and human rescue and might have some suggestions on how we can improve our current situation. We need to get the beam raised as well. I had to leave after we got her up the second time to care for all the horses at my place so I haven’t heard how she did the rest of the day. I know Dr. Hannah was staying over at Lisa’s tonight for night duty. One current concern is Dr. Hannah is going out of town on Tuesday, and at this point we still need her on a daily basis. Will post another update tomorrow.
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Whisper update: She was down at 3am last night and again at 8am. The new sling from Hobby Horse isn’t going to work, it is designed for a horse that is going to be kept in the sling for long periods of time, and we need something that we only use when we need to get her up, and preferably can be unhooked from the hoist and stay on her. We do have something that was rigged up by a friend of Hannah and Daphne’s that does professional rigging…it is made out of fire hose and very strong, and she can wear it all the time as it is not too heavy or cumbersome. However, we cannot get her up high enough with it, so we have to use it to lift her enough to get the other sling on her, set her back down and attached the other sling to the hoist, then lift her again. Today they are working on getting the beam itself higher off the ground — if that can be accomplished then getting her up may get much easier and may only take one or two people. One concern we have now is Whisper’s heart rate is staying up around 50–60 even when she is up and calm and we aren’t quite sure why yet. Today Hannah was able to put sweat wraps on her legs to help soften the scabs to see if we can get them off easier.
One day at a time…
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From Geri:
As I type this Doug and Scott are in Whisper’s stall elevating the beam four feet. Hopefully this with the latest sling will be the answer to elevating her readily.
From Lisa:
Miss Whisper is down again.….She went down at about 7pm and I am waiting for Dr Hannah now.…. Will post again later.
