Farm Sitting

This past week my parents took my sister to the Dominican Republic for a little vacation. Lucky, I know. They asked Jimmy and I to watch the house and animals and as jealous as I was for not joining in on the fun, I said yes. We stayed at my parents while taking care of the property. Its been....quite an adventure.

First of all, we had a windy storm over here that took the power out. I watched some shelters and stalls blow over, leaving a herd of chickens to run around all free like while fire trucks and ambulances sped to my neighbors down the road. I was home alone when the power went out and called Jimmy immediately, his reply: "Well, call me if anything weird happens." Hmmmm.... (Even though I was a teensy bit concerned about that phone call, I still love ya, babe.)

Then the next day, we noticed one of our horses (who I liked a lot because she was so good to ride, sweet mare too) wasn't looking too great. She was drenched in sweat, shaking, couldn't walk a straight line, bloated, and her head was all banged up. After calling a friend, we found out she had a pretty bad case of colic. We went out to her stall to find her on her back, stuck in the corner. Not good. You see, when horses colic, they will roll around on the ground to try to take care of it, but some of them will end up twisting their intestines, which kills them. Luckily, Jimmy was a good sport and tied ropes around her legs and pulled her out of the corner and stood her up. The vet came over, tried a few procedures on her, and told us to keep her walking and watch her that night. The next day, she still wasn't looking great, at times even a bit worse. The only thing she wanted to do was to lay down. We put her in a trailer and took her to the vet's (knowing that we'd probably have to put her down) where they found that she was in bad condition. Her heart rate was over double what it should have been, and her gums were purple. Poor girlie was in so much pain. She had about 30 pounds of sand stuck in her system. Sometimes horses over time will pick up bits of dirt and sand when they eat off the ground and they wont be able to pass it all through. It'll all build up giving them a bad case of colic.
 Then the moment I was dreading: I had to decide if we were going to put her down right then or not. Our only other option was to do more procedures (the procedures are very costly and in the end hardly give the horse a chance of surviving) or to stop her pain. I knew my mom's general rule of no surgery on a horse, but the girl I was with and I couldn't give up on her yet. Luckily, my mom got a hold of me and said to do everything we were able to do besides surgery. Whew! We were shocked. The vet hooked her up to an IV and told us to come back the next morning and see how she was doing then. Well this morning, we found that she had passed away last night. :( Sad day.  Though I'm grateful she is not in pain anymore. I am also grateful that nature made the decision and not me.

Sorry for the long post! Besides the power going out, shelters blowing over, and a horse dying, it was an enjoyable week. But next time, I think I'll find a way to tag along. :)