I'm at my wit's end

so sorry to hear about Ruby, I have looked for Newmarket Equine Hospital it is the largest most sophisticated equine hospital in Europe,the director and senior surgeon is Ian Wright TELEPHONE 01638 782000. I am sure they would try and help you. My thoughts are as always with you and Ruby .
 
We need a miracle:(:(:(
I feel that my girl is on death row and there is sod all I can do to stop it.
Went up today to see her and speak to vet. Got there and she wasn't in the stable. The vet was treating her as she wasn't well at all.:(:(:(
Spoke to the vet at length today and he went through everything that they done and what the options are. Basically the infection is so bad that the normal peristalsis (movement) of the bowel is not working. The wall is so thickened by the infection that the nerves are unable to work properly. She is fine when her system is empty but after 4 days there is enough food in her system to cause everything to block up and she ends up with impaction and gas colic again.
The vet is really disappointed at how things have turned out. He expected some improvement once the results of the biopsies were know and they could target it with specific medicine.
She has chronic active eosinophile colitis/typhlitis. Apart from gastrogard for her stomach ulcers, she is on metacam,rapidexon, gentamycine, bedozane, procapen, fragmin, carbasalaat calcium and equivitamin E.
They were going to administer a parafin treatment to empty her out tonight and hope that in next 7 days the medicine kicks in and the infection starts to subside so that the bowel can start working properly again.
The vet has agreed to ring Rossdales but who is the best person to speak to there. He is more than willing to try everything to help her and perhaps Rossdales can offer other options. Who can he speak to?
I'm in a neverending nightmare :eek: I've cried all the way home and have driven in a daze most of the way.
What more can I do to help her? She is now losing weight rapidly and I know that if the situation doesn't improve over the next 7 days, then the best thing I can do for her is to let her go. :(:(:(:(

Reading through your latest update I almost wonder if the best thing to do would be to not feed anything other than very thin/almost liquid gruel so that her gut doesn't have to do anything other than recover. If necessary they could use total parenteral nutrition ie feeding through the IV, to keep her weight up while she heals. This would give her gut a complete rest while it heals and give the nerves a chance to recover, the biggest problem would be the ulcers hence giving a thin gruel to keep the salavia going and feed the gastro guard in to protect her stomach.

Thinking of you both and really hoping you can pull her through {{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}
 
We need a miracle:(:(:(
I feel that my girl is on death row and there is sod all I can do to stop it.
Went up today to see her and speak to vet. Got there and she wasn't in the stable. The vet was treating her as she wasn't well at all.:(:(:(
Spoke to the vet at length today and he went through everything that they done and what the options are. Basically the infection is so bad that the normal peristalsis (movement) of the bowel is not working. The wall is so thickened by the infection that the nerves are unable to work properly. She is fine when her system is empty but after 4 days there is enough food in her system to cause everything to block up and she ends up with impaction and gas colic again.
The vet is really disappointed at how things have turned out. He expected some improvement once the results of the biopsies were know and they could target it with specific medicine.
She has chronic active eosinophile colitis/typhlitis. Apart from gastrogard for her stomach ulcers, she is on metacam,rapidexon, gentamycine, bedozane, procapen, fragmin, carbasalaat calcium and equivitamin E.
They were going to administer a parafin treatment to empty her out tonight and hope that in next 7 days the medicine kicks in and the infection starts to subside so that the bowel can start working properly again.
The vet has agreed to ring Rossdales but who is the best person to speak to there. He is more than willing to try everything to help her and perhaps Rossdales can offer other options. Who can he speak to?
I'm in a neverending nightmare :eek: I've cried all the way home and have driven in a daze most of the way.
What more can I do to help her? She is now losing weight rapidly and I know that if the situation doesn't improve over the next 7 days, then the best thing I can do for her is to let her go. :(:(:(:(

I don't want to direct you to the thread about my girl, because it is pretty graphic and not what you need to be reading at the moment, but right now I would be dosing her up with a blood tonic, I don't know if you can get haemavite b plus over there but if not look it up and find something similar... Feed at the max dosage, I swear that that gave me an extra couple of weeks with my girl. And a gut balancer probiotic - protexin if you can get it. Both will help keep the weight on. Food wise, I would be feeding fibre pellets... Soaked to a slop with added oil and a balancer. Whatever you do, do not worm her (I know you aren't thinking about it) it will do untold damage. If you can get something like fast fibre over there, feed that as a hay replacement so that everything she eats is already a mush when it goes into her system. Check her glands under her face, when my girl was ill they were puffy and she wouldn't eat if she had to put her head down. Feed from a raised manger to make eating more 'comfortable'. Other than what you are currently doing and the above, that is all I can really say, although I feel for you, I know exactly what you are going through and I'm keeping everything crossed xxx
 
Just spoken to the vet. He has spoken to Claire at Rossdales and unfortunately the prognosis is not good. There is another antibiotic we can use but it KILLS all the bacteria, good and bad and can lead to the horse going into massive shock and dying. Because its not used regularly as these cases are rare there are no real statistics to say if it works or not. This medication only treats the symptoms not the root cause of the problem which is the massive infection.
We have decided, for the moment, not to do this and to hope that the current medicine will kick in. It may be the very last resort to use this in the hope that the good bacteria will flourish again not the bad bacteria but do I really want her to suffer in the case that it doesn't help.
24/7 on grass is not an option because gas would build up very quickly in her bowel and the problem is her bowel is not moving quick enough to dispel it. The medication she is currently on is supposed to be helping this by targeting the infection so the bowel can start working properly again.
We just have to keep hoping that the medication will start to have an effect on the infection but she has already been on this medication now for 3 weeks with no signs of any improvement. They started this medication before we decided to do the surgery. I just wish they had found something else during the surgery. I could be posting now that she was almost ready to come home. As it is, it is highly unlikely that she will come home. :(:(
I am trying to remain positive but when all efforts seem to bring no positive outcome it is very hard. I have to prepare myself for the worst and that is killing me. I am a wreck at the moment. Devastated comes nowhere near how I feel and if (when :(:(:() I have to make the PTS decision, I dread to think how terrible it is going to be.
 
Just spoken to the vet. He has spoken to Claire at Rossdales and unfortunately the prognosis is not good. There is another antibiotic we can use but it KILLS all the bacteria, good and bad and can lead to the horse going into massive shock and dying. Because its not used regularly as these cases are rare there are no real statistics to say if it works or not. This medication only treats the symptoms not the root cause of the problem which is the massive infection.
We have decided, for the moment, not to do this and to hope that the current medicine will kick in. It may be the very last resort to use this in the hope that the good bacteria will flourish again not the bad bacteria but do I really want her to suffer in the case that it doesn't help.
24/7 on grass is not an option because gas would build up very quickly in her bowel and the problem is her bowel is not moving quick enough to dispel it. The medication she is currently on is supposed to be helping this by targeting the infection so the bowel can start working properly again.
We just have to keep hoping that the medication will start to have an effect on the infection but she has already been on this medication now for 3 weeks with no signs of any improvement. They started this medication before we decided to do the surgery. I just wish they had found something else during the surgery. I could be posting now that she was almost ready to come home. As it is, it is highly unlikely that she will come home. :(:(
I am trying to remain positive but when all efforts seem to bring no positive outcome it is very hard. I have to prepare myself for the worst and that is killing me. I am a wreck at the moment. Devastated comes nowhere near how I feel and if (when :(:(:() I have to make the PTS decision, I dread to think how terrible it is going to be.

MM I am so sorry to read this :( xxx I don't know if you have already done this, but if not may I suggest you sit down and make a worst case scenario PTS plan - how you want it to happen and what you want to happen after. It isn't nice, but once its done you don't have to deal with it when the time does come. One minute I was planning for a new treatment on monday (this was friday morning) friday evening, she was so weak I came home determined to call the vets to PTS on the saturday.... which they did. Believe me, just making the decision of PTS is bad enough and I was so glad that I had my plan so I didn't have to worry about the details when the time came, I already knew who I needed there, what method I wanted, and what was going to happen to her afterwards. xx My thoughts are with you and I come on here everyday at the moment, praying for a miracle for you and your beautiful girl.
 
MM I am so sorry to read this :( xxx I don't know if you have already done this, but if not may I suggest you sit down and make a worst case scenario PTS plan - how you want it to happen and what you want to happen after. It isn't nice, but once its done you don't have to deal with it when the time does come. One minute I was planning for a new treatment on monday (this was friday morning) friday evening, she was so weak I came home determined to call the vets to PTS on the saturday.... which they did. Believe me, just making the decision of PTS is bad enough and I was so glad that I had my plan so I didn't have to worry about the details when the time came, I already knew who I needed there, what method I wanted, and what was going to happen to her afterwards. xx My thoughts are with you and I come on here everyday at the moment, praying for a miracle for you and your beautiful girl.

^^This, you won't want to have to think about it and organise it should it come to the worst (still hoping she can pull through + lots of hugs)
 
Yes, I'm still hoping she'll pull through but it is now very unlikely and I am having to face the fact that this time next week she'll no longer be here.
We have discussed this as a family what we will do and have decided that we will be with her when she breathes her last. That will be hard but we don't want her to be alone with strangers as she leaves to cross the rainbow bridge. :(:(
We have also decided to have her cremated. I don't want them cutting her up and using her for research. We will save her tail hair and her shoes. The tail hair will be made into jewellery for me and my daughter. Eventually her ashes will be spread on the beach that she loves. :)
We spent some more quality time with her tonight and she spent most of the time frisking us for carrots and treats. :rolleyes: This is what is making the decision so hard. If she was seriously ill all the time, it wouldn't be such a hard decision to make but she has 2-3 good days then 2 bad days. It's not fair on her as this is not quality of life and she is also now losing weight as a result. We have discussed IV feeding but the vets said this is not an option. They did explain the reasons why but I was too upset at the time to remember exactly what they said.
We really could do with a miracle but that is highly unlikely.:(:(
I'll keep you all updated over the next few days in case that miracle happens but thanks everyone for your support. We'll need it more than ever over the next week.:(:(:(
 
We may have found our miracle thanks to cjhmm! Can't say much yet as it is ongoing but it has given me hope!
Cjhmm I am so so grateful for your help. If you where here you'd get the biggest hug from me anyone could ever give just for giving me this hope. :D
Will let you know what happens.
Come on HHO send us the vibes to boost this possible cure.
 
We may have found our miracle thanks to cjhmm! Can't say much yet as it is ongoing but it has given me hope!
Cjhmm I am so so grateful for your help. If you where here you'd get the biggest hug from me anyone could ever give just for giving me this hope. :D
Will let you know what happens.
Come on HHO send us the vibes to boost this possible cure.

Very best wishes, I so hope your lovely girl can be saved.
 
We may have found our miracle thanks to cjhmm! Can't say much yet as it is ongoing but it has given me hope!
Cjhmm I am so so grateful for your help. If you where here you'd get the biggest hug from me anyone could ever give just for giving me this hope. :D
Will let you know what happens.
Come on HHO send us the vibes to boost this possible cure.

I'll keep crossing everything, c'mon Ruby girl!
 
Everything crossed for you. I went through the same wringer when Catembi was seriously ill with a bowel problem. It's the ups & downs that are so cruel. Just when you've mentally prepared for one outcome, the seesaw tips the other way.

Hope it all works out for you.

T x
 
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