3S Homestead

The pony made it through the night.
Thank heaven!
She didn’t eat or drink much overnight; which has the vet staff concerned. Upon seeing her stall when we arrived for her visit, I immediately saw the problem. They had a stall waterer (fancy)(which she has never seen)(and doesn’t know how to use) so they gave her a bucket but the water was too high for her to reach (duh, ponies are shorter than quarter
horses). I clipped her bucket just above the floor and she took a drink immediately-problem 1 solved.
She ABHORS slow feed nets. Our horses are given free access to grain and hay and grazing. I requested a ground feeder and they filled it with some hay and she went right to eating-problem 2 solved.
They fed two types of grain…a senior feed pellet and a pan of oats. We feed a textured feed and mix the oats in with minerals and electrolytes so her feed was way different. She eventually ate what they gave her but I did have to tell them she is the slowest grain eater EVER! Most ponies are easy keepers (always fat) because they are gluttons. Ours takes her time and makes sure she doesn’t share so she is always more concerned with what her companion horse is doing-a bit of a busy body-so an ICU unit with 8 stalls full of other sick horses definitely kept her attention and made eating even more slow!
We are still dumbfounded by a CHF diagnosis and are weighing her quality of life with the fact that it is only July in Texas and we haven’t seen the scorching temps of August that would significantly decrease her inability to breathe under stress or have her heart keep beating overall. Having another sentinel event and losing her suddenly is a very real scenario. Her not coming up to the barn and having to go look for her across 20acres and not knowing if we would find her before scavengers…it’s a lot. These are hard decisions without factoring in a little person’s love and utter devotion. We trust God’s plan and are walking forward in faith!!!