Thursday, November 04, 2010

Without his mustang mother


HoneyBandit defying the odds


Dear Readers,
Everyone I know who's raised a wild foal talks of the heart-stopping downs that can follow the ups.
HoneyBandit and Palomino are fighting another side effect of his early neglect, his survival without his mustang mother.
Please hold Palomino and HoneyBandit in your thoughts and prayers as they fight on.
I will,
Terri

FROM PALOMINO:


Did you ever need to cry so badly that it hurt? I kind of feel like that right now. I am probably just too tired and emotionally drained, but today was just too hard.

I have mentioned that Honey Bandit's energy level is not where it should be, and that he keeps getting cast and I have to go turn him so he can get up. Well, today I took him to the vet. I wanted him to get a blood test as I am worried about him. Don't get me wrong. On the outside he is looking perfect. He eats all the time, his bodily functions seem to be working just fine and there is no real visible sign of any issues. But he is off. There is just something not quite right. He has been making this weird moaning?? Chesty sounding??? Noise when he eats or has his head down. I think I mentioned it before. It was scaring me and he didn't do that before. Now I understand that he has been through so much, and that his poor little body is very tired. But this is different......

We did the blood test and got very good news. His blood work all looks good. Yeah PTL for that one. But the thing that is making me so sad and a little scared is the fact that his lungs sound worse than they did two weeks ago. Both vets described his lungs as sounding "Harsh". They do not sound like he has pneumonia, but they definitely got worse over the last two weeks. He has been on this last antibiotic for a month now, and he was on a different before that.

Now one of the reasons that this is particularly worrisome for me is this. Apparently a grown horse from the same place that HB came from died of a disease called Rhodococous. Apparently this is very rare for an adult horse to contract, but when this sick horse died and a neocropsy was performed, they found out that it died of Rhodococous.

From what I was told, this adult horse would have had to have an immune deficiency to get sick from this and die, as it is normally a foal disease.

The last time I was at the vet we had discussed the possibility that Honey Bandit actually had contracted this. Due to the fact that we put him on antibiotics immediately when I noticed him cough, it may have stunted the severity of his case. We are not sure, but we took x rays after he was already on an antibiotic, and it showed a light cloudiness. We had discussed the possibility that his lungs weren't worse because he had been on the meds and because of this we continued the antibiotics for this last month. But to find out today that his lungs are worse than two weeks ago in spite of being on the medicine was simply heartbreaking.

I know that this is not a reason to panic, but I have known something was off and I guess I was really hoping to be proved wrong. It doesn't make sense for him to be worse. After talking to one of the foal rescues, she said that maybe he is just getting over it and this is the worst it will get. It is so hard not to know and so very scary.

The vet told me to make sure I stay on top of taking his temp at least twice a day to monitor him, especially since he is no longer on antibiotics. This is critical as we don't know for sure what is happening.

I am sorry this is not a happy note, but more like getting kicked in the chest. I also have to remember the fact that sometimes when a foal has been so damaged, things can go wrong unexpectedly. Please keep Honey Bandit in your prayers. As I said, he looks fabulous, and just seems to be a little bit under the weather on the surface.

The best case scenario is that he will just start getting more energy and his lungs will clear up on their own. It's almost funny, after everything we have been through, this setback seemed almost over whelming. But I know he will continue to fight. He obviously will continue to need vet care and we will make sure that he gets it, but we can't do it without your prayers.

Take care and God bless. Hugs and kisses from Honey Bandit.

Labels: Honeybandit

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Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:46 AM

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Comments: As ive heard from many a tale.. in fiction and reality.. "Things are gonna get a lot worse before they get a lot better". I pray 'the lot worse' doesn't last long.

best
Rach
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