Monday, March 12, 2018

A BUMP IN THE ROAD FOR JASPER............!!!

When Jasper came in yesterday afternoon, he followed Linda into his pen like he had been doing it for a long time.  But I noticed he had been sweating, and it wasn't that warm.  Since his mom said he hadn't been eating very good for a few days, my antenna went up and I came in to e-mail Dr. Jeremy.  He is extremely overweight, and hyperlipidemia can be caused by stress in overweight equine. And the reason we have him is because his momma died 2-3 weeks ago from hyperlipidemia and he's been by himself since.

The emergency treatment is 35cc of Karo syrup every 8-12 hours, to make the liver stop releasing fat into the bloodstream and try to figure out something they will eat.  Lynn and Linda got up at 2am to give him his syrup...........!!!  He's stayed alert, but wasn't interested in eating anything, including the alfalfa he's use to eating.  I e-mailed Dr. Jeremy and he said he'd come by today when he got a chance, which was after evening chores.  His glucose actually wasn't as high as I thought it would be.  Dr. Jeremy made up some molasses water for him to drink, with the idea that if he will drink it, Lynn and Linda won't have to get up in the middle of the night.  LOL

Dr. Jeremy wasn't too impressed with the Cheerios, although that seemed to be one of the things Jasper would at least pick at.  Jasper got a shot and actually ate some of the pellets and some oats.  So we gave him some more and hopefully when Linda and John let everyone out except him, at bedtime he will have eaten  that.  If so,  they'll give him more, we have to make his system think he's getting plenty to eat and the liver doesn't need to over react. 

Hopefully he will start eating on his own without all the "junk" food soon.  Right now he will have to stay in the pen, so we can see how much he is drinking, etc.  But as soon as he starts eating we'll let him out so he can run around and get use to the property.  Hyperlipidemia doesn't always have a good outcome, but we'll do all we can to get him thru this. 

Here are some pictures Linda took of him yesterday when he was out of the pen.  



You can see where he has been sweating on his chest




I guess Quilla is going to be his "burro" buddy.  That dark spot on his nose is cactus, he got into.  There wasn't in cactus in his pasture, so he'll have to get use to it. 

Today Mindy came to visit with the donkeys.  She comes once or twice a year to play with the donkeys, do some grooming and feed animal crackers....!!! LOL  She brought crackers and carrots today, so of course the donkeys were really happy to see her.  She usually stays 2 or 3 days to get her "donkey fix" until next time.  She'll be back tomorrow and probably spend the whole day.  

John and I went to Tucson today, and when we came home Lynn and Linda were out by the mailboxes, with Cheyenne and Buddy Brat on leads.  They are both going to the parade in Tombstone this Saturday.  Neither of them have been in a parade before, although Cheyenne was down to Tombstone a few years ago in a pen with BlackJack on the main street with a banner asking the people, "if they had kissed an ass today".  If they hadn't BJ and Cheyenne were ready to oblige.  

Neither of them had even been walked on a lead for years, so Lynn and Linda thought it might be a good idea to take them out to see what they would do.  They said Buddy was looking all around and more than willing to move move out briskly.  I'm going to be leading him, hope he doesn't too "brisk", or we might get to the head of the parade.....!!!  LOL  Little Cheyenne did good too, all the others have been in a parade before, so hopefully we won't have any surprises. 



2 comments:

Steph said...

He sure is a handsome man! Hope he can get through this bump.

Tish said...

Me too, he hadn't eaten anymore "junk" food when John went out at bedtime, we haven't been out yet this morning.