The verdict is in

on Turbo. I just talked to the pathologist.

What actually killed baby Turbo was a bacterial pneumonia, and sepsis. that came on in the last 12 hours, which is consistent with what we saw ourselves.

What made him sick was salmonella. He had severe ulcerative colitis, and a bad intestinal infection.

Poor baby.

I am to be on the lookout for problems in other babies, which I have been already. We seem good. He said I did right by bleaching the bejesus out of the two stalls he was in, but stay on top of everyone.

So far the only poopy butts I have seen are the expected ones--foal scours on Disco, and she got Biosponge, but I think she had already quit by then, etc. Nothing else so far.

RIP Turbo

Baby boy finally gave up. Barry just called and said he found him in the stall, just where he had been the night before, and he was done.

I knew that would happen. I told people last nite that he would not make it through the nite, but mostly I was trying to jinx him into pulling through it.

Xan is fine, Barry turned her out since she has clearly had several hours with him, and she has obviously known for a while that he was not right. She did not say the first word about it until he was pulling out of the driveway to go to work, then she had one holler. Hopefully that will be all it takes for her to move on, if not, I will put her back in with him to spend the day until we take him to the facility that does the after work. I want to know what actually did it.

I have some cute pics I have never posted of him, maybe I will put them up later, if I feel like it.

RIP Turbo.

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.

Xan is worried about her son

And so am I. This poopy butt of his below has gotten out of hand. He came in Friday afternoon after I saw that he had a peculiar color of mess on his hiney and I gave him Biosponge to line him out. That stuff usually takes care of business straight away.

Not so much this time. This morning, we caught him pooping as he rested. Now that ain't right. More Biosponge, a call to the vet, treatment started and now we are watching for signs that he needs IV fluids. I do not think he does so far, but I am watching it closely. The wierd poop has not stopped, and his temp is 101.4, without having had any painkillers or anything that would bring it down.


Cross your fingers that we can whip whatever this is fast and easy without having to put him through the fluids, or being so sick that he needs them. I know there are worse things, but to me, requiring fluids is always a sign that the situation is dire.

Babies this week- and a name change

Triton just could not stick for me, so now baby boy is named Turbo--that goes well with his nonstop hollering so that he sounds like a jet engine and his running like his butt is on fire.


The sun has come out so I have managed to get a few shots of the babies--nothing earth shattering because I cannot walk around on the rough ground without hurting too bad, so I am limited to what I can get from outside the pasture, and then can only do it at certain times of the day so that the sun is in the right place.


They are such cute babies though, even the not so great shots are still worth having. They are growing up so fast, it makes me sad.