Monday, May 5, 2008

The journey of Turbo





This poor monkey has been through the wringer. We seem to get his E. coli under control, and next thing you know, he has ulcers. Through it all, he has remained hydrated and eating at least some, and still nursing occasionally. He has stayed on his feet.

Looking at the pics from today--I see his legs are getting a little wonky and he is bloated some.

Saturday I noticed he was cool, but his temp was 99 so I was not horrified. That is also when I noticed the teeth grinding so he started ulcer meds.

This morning, his temp was down to 98.1, but my vet visit to Dr M reassured me that was ok, and he would be fine if we just kept up the doctoring. Since he was not nursing evidently as Xan was streaming milk, he had me buy buckeye Mares Match to try to lure him into eating. Boy howdy, one bag cost 129, but whatever it takes.

At 10 am, his temp was down to 94.1. Dr M's suggestion was intensive care---I am not up for that, and I know he is not either. After hearing that he collapsed when moving toward the feed dish, I called Jo to come put him down.

When she arrived, she thought he looked pretty good, although obviously miserable, and suggested one other possible treatment to heal the ulcers. His temp was up to 96.4. She suggested the sun might help, so we turned him out with his mother. I went to work.


I got home at 6 after buying licorice to help heal his ulcers and Barry said he had had his head in the water trough the whole time he had been there. Kind of wierd behavior, but I had noticed he had been doing that in his stall as well--Barry thinks his little mouth hurts from all the meds and the cold water makes it feel better.



We gave him some licorice and some probios, and mixed him up some mares match, and we got him to eat it! He took in quite a bit, I thought--maybe pushing a gallon or so. This is what a little dude with mares milk plus all over his snoot looks like--I did not care, I figured he would lick it off if he got it on his face, and that is more nutrition in him.




And the best news was that his temp was 100 degrees flat!

I was flying high, I felt so happy for him.


Tell me this is not precious--I cannot tell you how long Madison stood here holding the bucket to his baby face so he would drink--even when he was playing in it, she stood there and hollered at me every time she would see his cheeks sink in suggesting he was actually swallowing. We both laughed through the whole thing, it was such a relief to see him showing some interest in it.

We did the rest of the chores, and then went to bring him in for the nite and more different meds. He was down in the pasture and it took a while to get him up, which scared me. He took a hair more Mares Match, but once he was in the stall, he was down next to the wall. He looked content though.

When I checked again an hour later, he was laid out flat in the back of the stall and clearly in distress--heavy breathing, some grunting. I syringed about 120 ccs of Mares Match in him, thinking surely I could at least keep him fed so that weakness would not bring him down---

This is heartbreaking. He gets one more hit of licorice tonight, and some other stuff, and I convinced Barry to go do it, because I am terrified I will find him dead. The shock of that--even though it would not be a huge shock- is worse than the actuality of it--I just do not want him to suffer getting there if that is how it is going to go down.

What a roller coaster of a day.

Pray for him that he turns around quickly or goes quickly--he does not deserve this. If he would just go one way or the other, I would know what to do.

4 comments:

Kaycie said...

Oh man I am so sorry Paige. I hope the little guy pulls through. It is so hard to see animals suffer, even if he is not really showing it, but you know he is not right. I will be praying he is just fine tomorrow.

Unknown said...

Oh Paige- I'm so sorry your having to go through this with him!! It's so heartbreaking to be helpless :(

Sending prayers and good vibes your way that he'll pull out of this very soon.

Jamik said...

Oh gosh Paige. Will be praying for Turbo.

Holly said...

it is now May 6th and we know how it turned out.

I am glad you bought the camera so you have pictures of him.

Hugs

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