This morning I made the decision to get the mare outside.  One of my many mantras in life is “fresh air is good for you”.

So OH kindly dashed over to the vets and was given some heparin to keep the intravenous line open and a bung to go on the end.

Once I had these items in my possession, I undid the drip and plugged the cannula.  The mare had been kicking at her belly again, so I also gave her a painkiller injection and left her for it to work.

Meanwhile, Daisy arrived, having ridden, mucked out and fed everybody at home.  We put a rug on the mare as it was raining and we set off to see The Great Outdoors.

Poor love has pitting oedema on her front legs and found it hard to walk.  There were a few trips while she found her  legs and off we went.  She was interested in her surroundings and I could almost hear her relief at seeing other ponies and smelling the fresh air.

We tried her on the grass by the roadside but it was evident she wanted green grass.  This is at a premium this time of year so, having phoned my wonderful neighbours, we took her up to a field they have that I hoped would solve all our problems.

And so we slowly plodded up the road and Daisy took the mare into their field.

The minute she saw green grass, it was head down and eat.

No, spitting anything out, just constant grazing.

Happy, happy, happy.  This is a big corner turned.

After about an hour of standing in the rain while the mare ate, I could see she was tired so we plodded slowly home.

We left her for the afternoon, while I had a sleep and at teatime I flushed her cannula and re-attached the drip.

We are now down to 3,000 calorie feeds and setting them to meal times which results in sleep all round.

Is that light I see at the end of the tunnel?  A very small pin-prick, perhaps?

And we are still at it.

Last night, the mare was doing well.  We really pushed food down her and she was beginning to look much better so, after this massive food drive, we left her at 04:00 to get some sleep.

Stupidly I thought we were out of the woods.  Idiot me.

I got a message later in the morning saying she was depressed again and had stopped eating and really this was it.  The End.

So Daisy and I dashed over, took one look and decided she needed quick energy and now. We had been given a recipe (thank you thank you thank you – you know who you are xxxx) that apparently helped so I begged and borrowed the ingredients, reckoned we had nothing to lose and we put the gunk down her.

Miracles of miracles, it worked and very well.

Kind folk were sent to the furthest ends of Shetland for more ingredients and Lerwick now has no Complan, honey, glucose or porridge oats.

Recipe:

100g Complan
50g Glucose
3 tablespoons of runny honey
400ml of water
plus a couple of handfuls porridge oats

The idea is to get in 4,000 calories each day so that works out at 3 hourly feeds with unlimited anything else the mare wants.  Every time she gets depressed, I squirt Rescue Remedy in her mouth and that does wonders too.

She likes food that is fresh, little and often and I duly oblige by holding an old washing up bowl for her to pick at.  Freshly picked grass or mare and foal mix is the chosen food today.

The vet came (as he was in the area) and agreed that whatever we were doing was obviously working.  He left us with this haemotology report and it is not pretty reading.  The mare’s temperature and heart rate are normal now but she is in some discomfort so he gave her an anti-inflammatory analgesic injection.

This is my pile of iv fluids.

And so we head back into the night and we will keep going.  We give her time to rest and sleep between bottles.  She needs that and then rallies and asks for food.

More vibes, peoples, please, more vibes.  This fat lady (me) ain’t singing yet.

I spent last night looking at another iv drip.  The vet came at midnight to site it as the mare was going downhill before our eyes.

We all agreed on the insulin route.  Not one particularly used in the UK but we decided there was nothing to lose now.

Left with an intravenous drip of Hartmann’s solution and some instructions on when to test her blood glucose, I spent the night as a nurse, making observations, taking blood samples and generally writing everything down to tell the vet at 07:30.

I had a bed but it was taken.  It was a long night for us all.

The mare made it through the night and I left to get some sleep in the morning with the promise that the vet would visit later and we would re-group and work out our next plan of attack.

I left my daughter, Daisy, with the mare and the owner.

This afternoon, I woke up after 4 hours sleep, did my chores (fed horses, quickly kissed noseys, changed foot dressing) and returned to the mare.

The drip had been re-sited again.  She was beginning to eat and we were told to really try and get food down her, whatever means.  Her temperature was down to normal, her heart rate too but now her front legs and chest had slight pitting oedema from her decreased liver function.

The nursing staff had increased.

And so I spent the afternoon/evening shoving Polos down (she likes them), apple and a carrot/porridge mixture.

The mare looks slightly better.  She is still reluctant to chew or swallow but there is more opinion in her objection.  The Polos make a very satisfactory crunch and I hope that any peppermint oil in them (if any) will help her tummy.  She can spit a piece of apple at me with surprising accuracy too!

I went back today to help with the mare with hyperlipemia.

Last night she aborted her foal which, though it sounds awful and sad, is the best thing that could’ve happened.  It means she has a chance.  Not a huge chance, but a better chance.

I was greeted by Ken Lee, the croft cat.

This morning, the mare was in her pen looking more alert and aware of her surroundings.

We made the decision to let her out with a friend to see if she would begin to eat.

She was very wobbly on her legs, almost falling over, but we could see she was happy to be outside.  I am a great believer in fresh air, company as well as sleep contributing towards healing.

The mare had a bit of a roll and then a sleep – I think she is exhausted.

The vet came and we discussed whether to re-site the intravenous drip or to continue with the bottles.  He passed a naso-gastric tube and got a good bucket of water, electrolytes and dextrose down her, tested her blood glucose, took her temperature (slightly raised) and gave her some antibiotics.

The mare then had porridge made of fine oatmeal and apple juice plus brown sugar as well as water, every hour.  She passed urine (grapefruit juice colour) twice as well as a stool.  This encourages me.  The important bits, like kidneys and gut, are still working.

This is what a blood sample from an equine with hyperlipemia looks like.   The yellow bit is lipids (fat) in the blood.  Not good. Ugh.

And so we struggle to keep this mare alive.  She puts up with us pushing bottles down her every half an hour during the day.  She has to live.  I want her to live and she is not giving up yet and neither are we.

The only encouraging aspect so far was when I tried to catch her for the vet, she trotted off.  That cheered me up greatly.  Still, we have a very long way to go.

In the dim and distant, I trained and qualified as an Registered General Nurse (Nov ’81 set, if you are interested) at The Middlesex Hospital in London, W1.

I was not a very good nurse but my training has always stood me in good stead, especially today.

Daisy and I spent the day nursing a standard Shetland pony mare with hyperlipemia – a horrid illness that I knew very little about.

Poor love had been visited by the vet numerous times and by now had an intravenous drip of alternating glucose and Hartmans.

Firstly, I was there so the owner could get some rest (up for 40 hours straight and beginning to feel dizzy).

Secondly, I was there to keep the IV monitored (one drop per second) and to talk to the vet, with the owner, when he visited.

I left Daisy and OH to sort out the mess of the Thordale boys – unrug, feed, Haakon’s hoof dressing (thank you Jo), muck out, etc. while I drove over to become obssessed by the IV drip.

The bag had to be changed and I vaguely remembered what to do.  Then the thing stopped dripping with a huge air bubble in the tube bit before the drip chamber thingy.  I looked at it blankly knowing I was supposed to do something when luckily my hands remembered and did all the right things.  Most odd.  The last time I had monitored a drip was 30 years ago.

And so we pushed fluids orally and did our very best.  Every 30 minutes, I would hold the mare’s head up, while Daisy pushed a bottle of glucose water or “gruel” down her.   I hope the mare lives.  Please get all your healing vibes out for this lady.  Daisy and I really want her to live.  We gave her our best all day, while her owner slept.

This evening, the mare is looking perkier and even began to take an interest in her surroundings.

I may have been a lousy nurse for humans but at least I can remember vaguely what to do for animals!