After 5 days she was allowed to go home for a few days. She wasn’t allowed anything by mouth and had to be fed and medicated through a stomach tube. I was able to take some leave to look after her but was also able to keep working from home (which was great as it gave me something else to think about). Brina seemed amazing well at this time and was very pleased to be home. On the Friday after her operation she had to go back into the hospital for 24 hours while they tested her oesophagus to see if it would hold. This was a very, very difficult 24 hours for me and I was a bit of a wreck.
On that Friday night I had to go into town with Kristina to meet a ‘friend of her neighbour’s’ who wanted to buy Spyke. I thought it was kinda odd but I NEEDED to sell Spyke so in we went. It turned out that the ‘friend’ was a group of friends who ‘bought’ Spyke for me to ride. I was somewhat completely overwhelmed and cried and cried and cried in a very busy pub on a Friday night. Their generosity was AMAZING and I am soo grateful.
The other amazing thing was a group of people, most of whom I have never met, that frequent a horse forum that I have been a member of for approximately 10 years, got together and donated money towards Brina’s vet bill. AMAZING!!!!!! I have been completely stunned and overwhelmed by people’s generosity and support.
Anyway, back to Brina. Her oesophagus held!!!!! She was able to eat and drink!!! So she was able to come home. The next few weeks were both fabulous and difficult. I had some trouble with getting the consistency of the food right which resulted in her regurging a few times. A couple of these occasions were just awful to watch as she struggled to get something out of her throat. There were two occasions where it took her nearly half an hour to get the offending article out and she was extremely distressed. Both of those meant a trip in to the vet for painkillers. She also had terrible diarrhoea for a few days that made life very difficult.
She is now very much on the mend and getting her bounce back. I will have to change our lifestyle as there is no way she can be allowed off leash where there is any possibility of her picking up something that won’t go all the way down. I am pretty sure that she has a stricture L and this will need to be addressed but I will need to save some money before I can afford to fix it but the vet feels there is no big hurry on this if she is managing to eat (everything she gets is liquidised at the moment).
Spyke and Tai have moved house. They have moved up to Kristina’s place as she has offered me some cheaper grazing and I think there is a lot of stuff we will be able to do from there. We will be able to road ride more etc. Once again life will be different.
I’m feeling quite lost at the moment, life has changed suddenly and I’m not sure where it is heading. I feel like I am going in the wrong direction and I am getting trapped into a life that is not what I want or need. I dream of living on a piece of land where I can have my dogs and my horses all together, with fruit trees that blossom in the spring and a vegetable garden but I feel now that can never be. :-(
Overall, I am so grateful to still have my dog, she is an important part of me.
