Presto might hate his muzzle, and he might look a little bit like the baby horse version of Hannibal Lector in it, but *knocking on every wood surface within reach* so far it’s working.

Yesterday morning they took the muzzle off briefly, and he readily went over and nursed (that is victory #1, because when he truly feels bad he has no interest in nursing). They watched him for a while to see if he would get colicky (pre-muzzle he would nurse and then within 15 or so minutes he’d be colicky) and he never did! So the plan is to slowly and steadily increase his nursing time to ease his intestines back into a normal routine.

In the meantime Presto will still be getting his plasma and extra fluids to make sure he’s getting what his body needs. His electrolytes still kind of fluctuate a lot day by day or even hour by hour, so they’re constantly checking that and adjusting the content and quantity of his fluids as needed.

A lot of you have asked how Sadie is handling all this, and the answer is: like Sadie does. She’s a beast but she’s very intelligent when it matters, and she’s been pretty great. Well… once they moved her to the outside pen, because she was SadieSmashing the stall inside (she legit left gouges in the metal from her teeth). But she allows the vets to do whatever they need to do with Presto, and she stands dutifully over him while he sleeps, which is a lot. She knows that something is up with him, because when he lays down for what she deems to be too long, she tries to get him up. I don’t think she quite understands why he doesn’t act like a “normal” baby (ie a terrorist in a tiny horse suit) but she’s pretty patient about it.

We’re to the point where the updates from the vets are becoming less frequent, which… is generally a good thing. “No news is good news” and all that. Not that it lowers my anxiety level even a smidge, but it’s nice to know that he’s probably not in their top 3 most critical patients anymore. I’ll take that any day, even if it means less communication. I’m just really really (really really really) hoping the the positive trajectory continues and things get better for the little nugget from here.

While Presto’s foal fort experiment was a failure, the muzzle was a success. He was really angry about it, but yesterday he wasn’t colicky at all. He got extra fluids and more plasma via his IV, and this morning they’re going to re-ultrasound to see how his small intestine looks. Fingers majorly crossed for a less angry, more normal looking intestine so that he can try having some milk again.

Amidst all of this going on with Presto, Henry has been a bit of the forgotten child. Luckily he doesn’t seem to mind, and everyone was more than willing to make sure he was taken care of while I was gone. The barn worker kept him fly sprayed, and Karen even went over once last week to give him cookies. Apparently he was not derpy around her, which makes me think it really must be me.

I came home to a fat, sassy Henry who seemed happy to see me (it’s probably just because I equal more cookies, but whatever) and seems to have not missed a beat. And, honestly, being around him has really helped to raise my spirits in general. My thoughts are still always with Presto, but Henry provides some much needed levity to the current situation. It’s funny, before Presto was born I was stressing out about which shows I was going to get to and how badly I needed a dressage lesson, blah blah blah. All of that is on hold now, and none of it really feels like it matters that much. I’m just really thankful to have Henry.

Really hoping that we get some good news for Presto with today’s ultrasound… little dude has been fighting so hard for so long, he deserves to have things start getting a little easier for him.

They ultrasounded Presto’s belly yesterday, and the good news is that they didn’t find any intussussceptions. They couldn’t really make a definitive assessment on strictures though, partly because his small intestine was enlarged and inflamed. Obviously it’s very irritated, which we knew already from his colicky behavior, but seeing how enlarged it was made them decide that his gut needs a bit of a break from trying to digest things. They want to give him 12-24 hours off of milk and with limited water so that his intestines have some time to “rest”.

But how to do that?

They built him a foal fort. Basically they just blocked him into a section of the pen with hay bales, shavings bags, and a round pen panel so that he and Sadie could still see each other, but he couldn’t get to her to nurse. They were quite proud of their fort and sent me pictures of it, and of how mad it made Presto.

He started pawing at it almost immediately (he has Sadie’s attitude, thank goodness, because it’s probably the only reason he’s still alive). I was joking with the vet about how long it would last, because we’ve all seen SadieSmash, and I’ve seen Presto back up and SadieSmash a water trough already. It’s genetic apparently.

Yeah. Maaaaaybe 15 minutes til the fort breach occurred. It was worth a try.

So she was going to try a muzzle last I heard… I’m not sure how to keep that on an angry baby either, short of duct tape and superglue. But hopefully they can accomplish it so that his tummy gets a break, and hopefully the break is what his intestines need to help heal and “reboot” themselves.

While I’m super thankful that I was able to take off work to stay up in Midland last week, it was really hard to drive my car out of the parking lot at the vet clinic yesterday. I didn’t want to leave Presto, not when he’s still feeling crappy. It took all the strength I had in me to push the gas pedal and drive away, and it was an extra shitty drive home. It sucks feeling so utterly helpless.

His weekend was okay, still pretty up and down. He has periods where he feels really good, but then periods where his stomach still hurts a lot and he looks colicky. He feels good enough to want to nurse a lot, but then all that fluid gets in his stomach and it hurts. He goes from fairly happy baby to fairly miserable baby within minutes.

His bloodwork actually looked better yesterday than it has pretty much the whole time. But with the way he acts so colicky after he nurses, the vets are afraid that he’s got a stricture  or intussusception somewhere. Considering his bloodwork and how long it’s been, he should be digesting things more easily than he is. They’re ultrasounding him today to check, and I really really hope that he doesn’t have either. A stricture is basically a narrowing of some area, in his case it would be somewhere in his intestine, usually caused by scar tissue. An intussusception is when the intestines start folding into themselves. There are not a lot of treatment options if he does have these, especially if it’s severe.

So, please keep your fingers crossed today for good results from the ultrasound. He’s fought too long and too hard to be brought down by a complication like this.

Not gonna lie, Presto being sick is hard. Really hard. I’m not much of an emotional person but this week has managed to hit a pretty wide range. When Presto is feeling good, I feel good. When Presto is feeling bad, it’s like my heart is stuck in a vise. Yesterday was one of the latter.

He had a couple of very brief good moments, but for most of the day he obviously felt pretty crappy. His protein had dipped and his electrolytes were out of whack again. We live in a constant cycle of up-down-up-down. By the end of the day his bloodwork was looking better but it was obvious that his tummy was hurting. 

After 7 hours of sitting out there with him, I was drained of positivity and had to leave. If horses really can sense our moods, I didn’t want that around him. I gave the vet my number and she said she’d keep me updated overnight if anything changed. Bless her, I think she’s about to hook me up to a Valium drip and put me on Ulcergard.

He looked pretty bad by that point, and had all of us worried. I talked to her a little before I left and asked her if I was torturing him and she emphatically said no, he’s a fighter and still has a chance, and we should keep giving him one. No one is ready to give up on him yet. They ran him another liter of plasma (he’s full to the gills with plasma by now, he’s had so much) and he perked up a bit. I slept with my phone 6″ from my ear so it would wake me up if she texted again. Everything is just so touch and go with him right now, and he goes up and down so fast. There is constant fear of a bad text or phone call.

Thankfully the vet texted this morning and said he’s feeling good again. Up and nursing and playing a bit. At this point I really just want him to feel better. When he has his good moments he looks so normal and so happy, bucking and playing like any other foal. I want him to feel like that all the time. 

We’ll keep plugging away at it, and keep giving him every opportunity to make it through this. I’ll keep buying as many donuts, sparkling waters, and beers as it takes to keep his vet team going. They’re angels, and of course, big fans of Presto.