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Sick Horse

Jayden had one very sick horse. She went to a barrel race on Jan 17th in Chickashaw a 3 hour drive. She had a girl haul with her and left early in the morning. I think all these long trips and all day barrel races are a bit much. She ran Joker on Jan 5th in Iowa Falls, and left for Alva on the 10th. She mentioned to me she thought Joker was a little sluggish and had heard him cough this week. I asked if she could check his temp and was sure he was ok. She had no way to check and brushed it off as just dust and said her most famous words, "he'll be fine". Later after a 12 hour barrel race she called to tell me about her run. Joker ran, but didnt seem to have the speed, he slowed up, knocked a barrel and by the time she ran him home he could barely breathe. She told me he was gasping for air almost roaring. We were all worried about him as she searched for a vet. By God's timing, she stumbled upon someone who knew a vet that was staying in his trailer. By the time he woke up and came to help Jayden, it was 1:00AM still at the barrel race. The vet worried about colic, scoped Joker only to find a lot of junk in his lungs. He had a lung infection. The vet gave him lots of meds and sent Jayden home. She got her horse loaded along with her passenger. The girl that went with her had a bad run, cried, whined, and complained the whole ride home. She had not been barrel racing very long at all and was all upset and ready to give up. She was no help to Jayden and more of a problem. Jayden drove the whole 5 hour drive back arriving in Alva at 5AM. The vet showed Jayden how to give Joker his meds. and she would have to give them daily. I was shocked when she told me she was going to be giving him three medications in the vein! She had a couple college friends help her, but I did not like the idea one bit. By Monday morning Jayden called to tell me Joker had not been drinking much at all and eating little. I told her to haul him to a vet and get some fluids in him ASAP, I guarantee he was dehydrated. She got him to the nearest vet, an hour and 20 minutes away. He was one very sick horse when she got him there. The vet doesn't like to keep horses on site, but he knew Joker was too sick to go home.
Each day, Jayden would call the vet to get an update. I was really worried as we all were that this could be fatal. This was bad. The more research I did on the internet, the scarier it was.
After a few days in good hands of the vet it seemed Joker was perking up starting to eat and drink. Then out of nowhere, he would spike a temp of 105. This happened again the following Monday the 20th. He would make progress, then regress. He seemed to have a combination of Strangles, along with a rare condition called Hemorrhagic Purpura. Joker was full of abcess's and some were internal. Finding out where and how to treat them was the battle. He was swelling up, all his limbs were extremely swollen.
Jayden was stressed over her horse and I was praying for him to recover, yet wondering if he could pull through.

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