Visiting Zachary

Few things can make me feel as helpless as dealing with a loved one's illness.  A wise man said to me that it's tough when ones we love are suffering, regardless of how many legs they have.

There will be no hospital pictures of Zachary.
Here his is the middle of a pasture romp just after getting up from a soak in the water tank.
When he's hot he just gets in and lays down, getting completely wet from the neck down.

Zachary is still hospitalized at VRCC.  He's getting IV fluids and antibiotics.  His condition hasn't changed but the treatment was just started today so that's not surprising.  I drove over to visit him late this afternoon.  He was happy to see me, but not distraught when I left.  He appeared to be comfortable and they had a nice set up for him with blankets, plenty of room, and a pillow to lay on up against the wall.

We ruled out doing surgery. I think this is a recurrence of an infection that has been afflicting him periodically over the past six months or more.  He starts getting sick, we treat him with antibiotics and he gets better, but it comes back after the medication is stopped.  Based on his history, I just don't think this is a problem that will have a surgical solution.  It may not have a solution at all, but we are going to give this a try for a few days at least to see if it helps.  This all seems to date back to when we had his spleen removed, and maybe it all has the same underlying cause, I don't know.

He doesn't appear to be in pain, but we can't let him linger for long without the use of his back legs.

A vast expanse of the sky looked like this today, late afternoon.