BELLE UPDATE

When we went to pick Belle up last night, we were told there was good news & bad news. The good news was............. they had drained a copious amount of saliva from behind the sialolith cyst. The bad news was......... after 3 Vets working for 2 hours, they could not remove the cyst. The Vet said it was up against & in among nerves & arteries, & they could not get it out without doing cutting they weren't comfortable doing. I went to pay the bill & one of the techs came thru & said they were tubing her. I went back to the stalls & there were 3 people working on her. I asked what happened & they said her heart rate was elevated & she had no gut sounds. News like that isn't what you want to hear. They were tubing her to put about a gallon of water into her stomach directly. About 15 minutes later her heart rate had fallen & she had gut sounds, so we could take her home. Times like that, is why my hair is all grey...............!!!!!

We brought her home, & John had to set up a temporary corral for her, as we have a full house right now. She is suppose to be fed a pellet gruel for the next 5 days................hmmmmmm! She has a very low opinion of "gruel". I've tried different types of gruel, some are better accepted than others, but none of them are a hit............!!!!!

Hindsight being what it is, if we had known then what we know now, we wouldn't have put her thru the surgery. The thought never occurred to any of us, that it couldn't be removed.

She's alert & complaining about her diet, so she should be fine after the next few days.