Foundered laminitis

[RhineStone]

Just did start a new thread, even before I read your responses. I think it is horribly insensitive for all these posters to blame the vet who isn't even on here to defend himself. Being a vet is a business. If he can make his living dealing with people and animals he wants to, good for him. Why should he make it more difficult for himself? Vets are not required to treat your animal unless they work under someone else who takes the case. Individual vets can pick and choose, especially in an established practice. For example, if he works with a client he thinks is going to sue him later, you can bet he is going to avoid that person.

Again, directed at those who blamed the vet without knowing the circumstances.

 

[hobbyhorse23]

At 1pm yesterday Peanut was still doing alright. He was still agitated and messing with his water bucket, but still looked like he was on the up and up. 5pm rolls around I go to give him his medicine and he had died. So so heartbreaking.

Oh no!!

:CryBaby

Angie, I'm so sorry.

I can't imagine how you must be feeling right now. This was NOT YOUR FAULT in any way, you did your absolute best for this guy and sometimes this crap just happens. My heart breaks for you.

To all equine enthusiasts after reading some of these posts slamming the vet: We have a number of veterinarian friends. A lot just don't want to deal with horses. Actually, a lot of them don't want to deal with horse people.

Then they shouldn't become HORSE VETS. It sounds like your vets are livestock vets but that is not the case in other parts of the country. Around here we have primarily horse vets and small animal vets and the horse vets may or may not treat other species of livestock. They got into it because they love these beautiful animals and yes, IMO it is practically criminal for one to do a phone consult and not even mention the risk of founder or tell the owner what to watch for.

It's unfortunate that people make the vets job harder, but *tough luck* it's their job. They went through enough at vet school to know that it's a dirty hard difficult dangerous job. Now that they are established they can pick and choose who they want and that's just not right. I am a dog groomer and I have those same stories. I on the other hand have a different theory. Even though I don't want to do the dog again if it's one of those horror dog owners, I go ahead and 'do my job.' I might be the only one that whole year who gives a rat's butt about that dog and I'm going to clean it up even and give a kind gentle word.

Darn straight and good for you, Angie! The vets have every right to avoid a former bad customer, but a first-time caller with an emergency situation? That's harsh.

Again, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Leia

 

[targetsmom]

I just read about the very tragic end to poor Peanut and my heart goes out to you. I do know how you feel because I lost a much loved mini earlier this year and got no answers. Sometimes you do everything you can and bad things happen. Hugs to you!!!

 

[AnnaC]

Oh I'm so so sorry to read your news. What a gorgeous little fella - thank you for the picture.

As others have said, please try not to beat yourself up over his sad passing, you did everything you could for him, no-one could have done more. Who knows what caused his death? It is a question that will probably remain unanswered, he may well have had something else going on underneath the symptoms he was showing.

Hopefully you will remember the happy memories of the good times you shared and find peace in the days to come.

Sending you ((((HUGS)))) and again I'm so very sorry for your loss.

Anna

 

[Helicopter]

I'm so sorry to read that you lost your little Peanut. He was a very handsome little man.

You must be broken. So sad.

 

[dgrminis]

So sorry that you lost Peanut!

 

[sdust]

I am so VERY sorry for your loss of your Peanut. Let me just tell you this is every horse lover's worse nightmare. Take care. ((((HUGS)))) Debbie

 

[JennyB]

Angie I am so very sorry for your loss of Peanut!

It sounded like you were doing everything you could to make him feel better. As for his death an autopsy will tell that. I can only guess that it was one of two things...Colic or a heart attack! Did his body look like he had been rolling and have dried sweat?

 

We had a lovely mare who had just given birth a few weeks before. She got colic and had to have 2 surgeries. The day the vet called to come and get her the next day, she suddenly without any warning died of a heart attack leaving her foal an orphan. It can happen.

 

As for this talk about vets not coming because the horse is not clean enough or the owners are hard to deal with..this is rubish!!

A vet goes to school to learn to treat horses and other animals, not people! Yes learning to have tact in many situations is important, but never, ever should a vet not go to a owners home because they have personal issues! If they do, then they need to re-access why they are a vet in the first place! End of story!

 

Angie I hope that it is possible for your vet to come out and help decide what Peanut died from or have an autopsy preformed. That will help rest your feelings of what he died from, but please know that we know you did everything you could for Peanut and that you loved him very much...RIP Peanut!

 

HUGS and Blessings

Jenny

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

I'm so, SO sorry!

Godspeed, Peanut.

 

[shorthorsemom]

Hey Angie, just checking to see how you are doing. Thinking of you this morning and your recent loss of your little horse and hoping you are ok. Thank you so much for opening up your story to the forum. You have people thinking about gates, closure latches, the sadness of founder, fragile nature of life and making us all think about being more sensitive to others and appreciating life every day. Thanks for that. Take care and best wishes. Adair

 

[kaykay]

So sorry for your loss.

Kay

 

[Eagle]

Angie I am so sorry for your loss of your beautiful Peanut. I am afraid I can't help you as to why he passed but I can say that you did everything possible to help him. I too would like to thank you for sharing this with us and maybe you have prevented this happening again. I spent over an hour yesterday cleaning out my yard and moving all my food and hay into an empty stall well out of reach of any possible escapees. None of my horses can open gates or stall doors but it made me think that maybe a yearling could learn.

Only time will help you heal and remember Peanut for the super little guy that he was.

RIP Peanut and run free

Hugs Renee

 

[Michelle@wescofarms]

So sorry your guy died. It happens unfortunately and not always for an apparent reason.

We've found perfectly healthy (or at least looked/acted that way) dead for no reason. We call those the GoK (God only knows) deaths. It's the one down side to working with animals, they cannot always communicate to our understanding what's wrong or how serious it is. I know here as horses being a 'prey' type animal they will mask health issues, so anyone acts off even slightly we pull them in for monitoring.

Again sorry for your loss.

 

[lucky seven]

Oh I am so sorry that you lost your little peanut.

 

[angiestan]

Thanks for all your replies. I'm a little better this week. Still is weird walking out there not seeing his sweet little face. This is probably weird, but he had the cutest lil butt....lol. The alpaca is still humming I think he's taking it harder than me.

The other horses don't act any different I thought things might get weird since he was the boss of the pasture. I've had two stallions out there and things were getting pretty tense, I'm glad I had held off on getting the other gelded. So that problem was saddly solved, although Dozer is such a dodo head I'm not sure I want a baby from him.

Anyway, I really appreciate everyone's concern. On a side note, the vet never called me back, I called a couple of times, so that was sorta irritating.

I guess I learned a valuable lesson about those gates and latches. Little stinker baby Nina is still working on this new lock but it's key locked so she can try all she wants, but it's not gonna happen. I'm pretty sure if I put one of those baby toys out there where you put the square block in the square hole and the circle block in the circle hole that she would figure it out. She's already fetching a large dog rope toy, I've never encountered a horse like her.

Keep those grain bags hidden and big hugs from Indiana,

Ang

 

[rubyviewminis]

Angie we all just do our best. So glad to hear from you. I feel its safer now to discuss some of the critical points of this story we can all learn from. My husband to this day 11 years later does not believe me when I tell him my big ole' Quarter Horse figured out our key lock on the gate. We caught him out I don't know how many times, and I would get kind of yelled at. I would argue with my DH and tell him,"I DID lock his gate." And I DID, but he started me to thinking I was losing my mind. It was the lock you push down the curved bar and it had numbers to turn. I made sure I had it latched down tight, turned the numbers, jerked it down a few times to make sure, then I drove my truck behind a huge shrub and drank my coffee and watched. As soon as he finished his breakfast he went over to the gate and started picking up the heavy chain that was around the gate and post, locked together, mainly to keep other people out of our horse pens. He pulled it around until the lock was on his side and with nimble little lips started fooling with it. Then he pulled the chain way up and let it drop and hit repeatedly. About the 14th time that lock sprang open and he fiddled with it until the chain popped off, pushed the gate open and went on his merry way to visit the other horses! I didn't have a camera or camcorder at the time, so I am still trying to convince DH. Shortly after that this same horse bucked me off and I was hurt pretty bad, DH sold him while I was still in the hospital, so no pictures of the incident of the lock. We do our best.

By the way, I have personal friends that are veterinarians. They feel they have a duty to their clients and their horses. I fully understand outlandish horrible people and trying to avoid them. But they do have a duty to anyone calling for help to give their best.