Our Miracle Horse–Contest Story

I said a few days ago that I would share the story of what happened to our beautiful, beloved palomino… here’s that story…

I will never know where my daughter got her passion for horses but for me, horses had always been beautiful, graceful creatures… from a distance.  Samantha spoke of them when she was little, they were her favourite animal.  There were four horses where my brother lived with his wife.  Rockette and Keewee were offspring of the two they’d originally had, Naomi and Dennee.  Maybe that’s where she fell in love with the animal.

Sam wanted to learn to ride and when she was eight she started in lessons with her aunt.  That was twelve years ago.  For her fourteenth birthday Sam received the best gift ever from her aunt and uncle.  Keewee.  Sam was ecstatic!  Most little girls only dream about getting a pony as a gift, this one came true.  Over the years we both became extremely attached to that beautiful palomino mare.  She developed such a personality and my love of horses became hands-on.

On November 5, 2016, Sam called me out to the barn.  Kee seemed to be colicky… an upset stomach of sorts in horses that can be deadly.

Unfortunately, it turned to diarrhea very quickly, which is the opposite of colic, and she was put in a stall.  We had barely made it home when Sam was called back out and the vet was called.  Kee needed to be transported to Ontario Veterinary College at University of Guelph, 45 minutes away.

“It doesn’t look good,” the lead vet on the case told me when I finally arrived later.  “Her lactate level is so elevated that it’s a wonder she’s still with us.  The list of differential diagnoses (all the things it could be) is as long as my arm but I think it’s colitis and the majority of horses don’t recover from colitis.”

Being an RN I understood what he was saying.  Chances were slim at that moment, on that  Saturday night, that she was going to make it.

They managed to get her stabilized with fluids before they decided to put her in isolation in case it was a bug of some kind, though we had no idea what she would have come in contact with.

We waited ALL night, barely sleeping.  Sam crawled into my bed and all I did every time I woke up from dozing was pray Keewee would be okay until I dozed off again.

Dr. Baird said he’d call sometime between nine and ten o’clock Sunday morning and he waited until the last minute.  She had made it through the night and her lactate level had normalized!  He called her our early Christmas Miracle.  We cried tears of joy and relief and went to visit her later in the day.  She was doing okay; most importantly she was alive.  They were giving her small amounts of hay but she still had diarrhea.  We weren’t allowed to go into her stall because she was in isolation.

Monday she was holding her own and they started to increase the amount of food they were giving her.

Then Tuesday morning I got a call at work.  She had taken a severe turn for the worse and started to colic in the early hours.  It had been so bad at one point they thought they were going to have to call us to come around 3 a.m. to put her down.  Dr. Baird recommended that we start to seriously consider putting her down.

I left work, raced home, shared the news and plenty of tears with Sam and we got in the car for what felt like the longest drive ever.  Kee was flat out.  She looked horrible.  Because of the situation we were allowed to put on gowns and gloves and go in to her.  We didn’t hesitate.

She perked up a bit at seeing us; having us with her.  We hugged her and talked to her and I laid my hand gently on her face like I had so many times over the years and whispered that I was praying for her but that she had to fight too.  “This is your battle our precious pony and we’re going to be here when you win.”  I ran my fingers to her “forehead” and closed my eyes and said a short prayer.  God give her strength and please don’t take her away from us.

We stayed as long as we could and Sam didn’t want to leave but it was November.  Despite it being a heated stall the bars to the outside were open and the cold air was coming in and getting to us.

We were told before we left that only a single treatment option remained and how much it would cost.  We gave them the go-ahead to try it and we said bye to Keewee hoping it wasn’t for the last time.  We told staff we’d be back in the morning.

I spent hours praying.

We never heard anything before we left and hoped that no news was good news when we went over Wednesday morning as planned.  We were met by the senior resident who told us they purposely hadn’t called because they knew we were coming.  She chatted with us on the walk from the main building to isolation and when we finally neared Keewee’s stall she said she had a surprise.

Kee was up and looked so much better.  From the inside of the building a vet student carried a dish of grain that was soaked with water, called mash.  Kee’s eyes grew wide and she gobbled it up!  She was eating!  Apparently she’d started to recover from the colic the previous evening and they had given her a mash.

They never had to use that last resort treatment either.  They’d given her morphine for the pain and she’d fought through it!  I knew where her strength and treatment had come from.

From that point she continued to improve and the diarrhea stopped by Thursday night.

Her IV was discontinued on Friday and she started drinking again.  We were overjoyed when they told us she could go home the following day.

When we arrived Saturday morning, Dr. Baird had her out of the stall and had told her we were coming to take her home.  Kee stood dancing beside her lead vet who was supposed to have the day off!  He said she was special to him, clearly feisty and a stubborn fighter.  We barely got her travel blanket on her and she almost jumped onto the trailer.

Dr. Baird asked if he could call and check on her.

“Of course,” I told him.  “Anytime.”

I thanked God over and over as we followed the trailer home.  For a few days we didn’t think we’d be following that trailer with Keewee in it anywhere ever again.

Keewee has to keep fighting but she would be getting the best care from the Ultimate caregiver.

Long time… HI!

Well much has happened since the last time I wrote… YIKES!!!

The last time I wrote we had gone to the show and were up before the birds… on the hottest day of the summer and spending the day outdoors.

Three months later probably the worst thing to happen to any pet owner happened… our beloved palomino got sick.  Not just cough/cold sick, but we thought she was colicking except that a few hours later it turned to diarrhea…

She was seen by the vet who referred her to OVC (Ontario Veterinary College) in Guelph, Ontario.  She’d lost tons of fluids and was severely dehydrated just from half a day.  The lead vet, Dr. Baird–the most amazing vet I have ever met to this day–pulled me aside when I finally arrived and said that it was all pointing to colitis and that more than 90% of horses who present with colitis never go home.

Prayers and no sleep that night found us exhausted in the morning and waiting for the phone to ring.  Finally, it did.  Our beautiful palomino had made it through the night and her blood had normalized.  She was doing much better.

After actually colicking a few days later, she was on the mend and on the way home.

That was almost two years ago.  She has since been back jumping and doing all the things she used to do, except show.  We figure the stress of taking her to a show isn’t worth it.  After all, she’s one of less than 10% that made it.

Last November I had to have surgery which greatly reduced my visits to the barn.  I was out for six weeks and I haven’t been going back as regularly partly because I haven’t had time and partly because my daughter is capable of going out there on her own and being out there on her own.  She’s become more independent out there because mom’s not going out there and holding her hand.

This past spring, after shopping for a bit, my daughter has found another horse to train and, with lots of hope, get her into the jumper ring!  She is 3 years old and quite a handful though, despite running away the first night on the farm and putting her face through a mirror at the end of May, she has really calmed down and learned a lot.  I think she’s going to do just fine!

So that’s where we’re at!  Every time I see our pretty palomino I tell her she has to keep fighting.

Actually, you know what, I wrote the story of her for a contest that I didn’t win… in the next few days I’m going to post it here and you can read it for yourself.