When we got home from our trip we noticed that Pete was not himself. As the week progressed he didn't get any better, wouldn't eat, barely drank, threw up once. We knew that the last time he acted this way he had eaten a couple of rocks and had to have them surgically removed. R did say that he had coughed up a big rock the day before we got home. By Friday, we were very concerned. The local vet clinic is run by two vets from Canada so they are not here all the time. M knew that one was in town so he called on Friday to make sure he was going to be there all day so we could bring Pete in.
We woke up to a blizzard which got worse instead of better so on M's first attempt out of the yard he made it as far as our mailbox, couldn't see the road and turned around and came home. It did let up a bit in the afternoon so he made a run for it with Pete. I was afraid he'd get stuck along the way, but he made it. He did have to have his brother bring the plow out to work on one spot so he could get back home.
A rock in the gut was confirmed by x-ray so Pete was in surgery by about 4:30 Friday afternoon and had to spend the weekend at the vet clinic. M thought of breaking him out on Sunday but left him there until Monday. He had to go to town to see the crop insurance agent so he picked up Pete and took him to visit his parents while he finished his business in town.
Pete was so happy to be home! I asked about when we were supposed to take out the stitches and M said the vet didn't say anything about it. The next morning I finally looked at his belly and realized that there weren't any stitches and the incision was glued. I also noticed that he had a small hole in the incision. We thought it was kind of funny that he didn't come home in a cone and decided that he should probably be in one so that he didn't lick at the incision. We found an old one (been through this before) and put it on him, but he was having a hard time with it so by evening M took it off and put on his life jacket to cove the incision and keep him from licking at it. That didn't work well, either. He acted like he couldn't move with it on. I thought he was just so embarrassed at wearing a life jacket in the house. M decided that wasn't working either so took it off and went back to the cone. The incision was looking worse instead of better, more open and weeping a bit, so we made another call to the vet this morning.
M said I could drop him off at the clinic on my way to work because he didn't feel like he could take that much time away since R is gone and M is on cow duty. No problem. The vet's assistant said that if I got there before anyone was there I could find the key to the back door in a magnetic key holder outside and put him in the back room. I did arrive before anyone else so I left Pete in the pickup and found the key holder and dropped it. It popped open and the key flew out but wasn't lost, thank goodness! I opened the door and a cat ran in. I tried to put the key holder back together and dropped it again and the top part of it broke. Great. I went to get Pete who had realized where we were and tried to avoid me getting him out of the pickup. I had to carry him to the door and put him inside and then catch the cat to get it outside while keeping Pete from running back out the door. I felt bad that I didn't have the chance to give him a proper goodbye before I slammed the door in his face.
I went to work and called later to let them know that I had broken their key holder and where I put it. By that time Pete was already under anesthesia for stitches and a drain. They assured me that he could stay until I got off work so that M didn't have to make a trip in. I told them they had better give M a call and let him decide. Of course, he decided to come get him ASAP. I saw the vet assistant later and she was kind of laughing about how M can't be without Pete. I have to say it is a love like no other.
Poor Pete is not feeling too good right now and is very restless. To add insult to injury, we have Trip for the weekend (who he hates), and it's one of Pete's favorite times of the year--calving time--and he's missing out. Hopefully, he'll bounce back quickly. Poor guy. I think I need to go cuddle him.
No comments:
Post a Comment