Trail Training Newsletter #111 - Mingo in March

More on Mingo


Things are not looking good for Mingo. He went through a spell of not wanting to eat. First he quit eating his hay cubes and then he stopped eating his grain. He hasn’t been eating much hay all along. We switched him back to the Bute, and that helped a little bit, but we were still having problems.

And then there was the day he was frantically pawing, looking at his sides and trying to lay down. (Of course, he couldn’t lay down, and hasn’t been able to in months.) My sister called me at work, and I immediately called the vet. We thought he might be colicking. Ellen talked to him and calmed him down. She then gave Mingo his morning Bute, and by the time the vet got there, he was back to normal.

The vet examined him and took his temperature, which was high. She felt he wasn’t colicking. She decided to do blood work on him to compare with the blood work from last fall. We put him back on antibiotics because the fever.

In the evening, I was checking on him, and I saw what my sister saw. He was frantically trying to lie down. He did that sporadically for a few more days, but each day was less than the day before. That has since disappeared.

The blood work was essentially the same as before. It was good that things hadn’t gotten worse, but they didn’t get better. After all this time, he still wasn’t absorbing his protein (hence the weight loss,) and he still showed a lot of inflammation. This wasn’t good news.

We went through another week or so with off and on eating problems, but he is doing better, now. He still isn’t all that enthusiastic with his hay, but at least he is eating his hay cubes, beet pulp and grain.

He has so many odd symptoms that don’t make any sense and even odder behavior. The worst part is I can’t touch his sides. (So much for petting, and brushing and such.) He will let me pet his head and neck, at least. I can’t lead him from the left at all. I can lead him from the right or the front, though. He doesn’t like being approached and will sometime trot away, but that is the only time he trots. He is very tired, breathes heavy, has swellings come and go and is so thin. Sometimes his whole body twinges for no good reason. Sometimes he stands really odd or leans on the wall.

He loves treats! He begs all the time, and we can’t resist giving them to him.

In April, the vet is coming out twice to give shots. I know what she is going to say…it isn’t a happy time around here.