the vet came today to see ziggy pop newton
Carol · Aug. 16, 2010
he had a chest xray, an ultrasound and his gelding. he is doing very well post-operatively no sign of bleeding and he is perky and fiesty.
the results on his chest are...long term chronic inflammation of the pleural cavity membrane and multiple lung abcesses.... probably originating from an untreated pneumonia. the abcesses are an issue because they wall off and antibiotics can't reach them...at some point they will probably burst leading to septicemia or massive bleeding into the lungs. the vet said we may just find a dead little donkey one day without warning...or he may develop a raging and life threatening pneumonia that he can't fight off and do the downwards slide... both options suck.
so we will try long term antibiotics and anti-inflammatories...we are talking several months at least and then repeat the chest scans to see what we see.
the good news is...despite how sick he is...and he really is a very sick little donkey...he looks healthy, his body condition is really good. so who knows, maybe ziggy will have the reserves to fight this thing off eventually...
hope floats til it sinks.
laura told me a cute ziggy story today...apparently on the weekend he came trotting up to KO with a soccor ball in his mouth...he dropped it so KO could toss it for him and then he chased after it....who knew zig newtons played soccor??!!
ah Ziggy, I hope you can ward off any serious illnesses for a few years. Pepper our goat also had lung abcesses and she fought long and hard for 8 years. She would get occasional bouts of pneumonia that were helped with an antibiotic called draxen ( long acting ) She had ups and downs but always seemed to bounce back. One day it just would not work anymore. We miss her terribly but Merridith certainly helps fill the void...She is such a little stinker.
So we are hoping for a great life for Ziggy. We will have to come and meet the little guy one day....A soccer playing donkey what a talented little fellow