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- Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!sgigate!sgi!fido!odin!vesuvius.esd.sgi.com!betsy
- From: betsy@vesuvius.esd.sgi.com (Betsy Zeller)
- Newsgroups: rec.equestrian
- Subject: My Sailor is gone
- Message-ID: <1992Nov20.174858.14956@odin.corp.sgi.com>
- Date: 20 Nov 92 17:48:58 GMT
- Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News)
- Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
- Lines: 35
- Nntp-Posting-Host: vesuvius.esd.sgi.com
-
- Yesterday, on Thursday Nov. 19, I had my beloved Sailor
- put to sleep. He had been suffering from intractible laminitis
- for seven weeks, which was being driven by the fact that he
- had a pituatary tumour. This caused his pituatory to tell
- his adrenals to pump out too much corticosteroid, which in
- turn kept causing the laminitis to flare up.
-
- Even up to last Tuesday, we thought he was going to get better.
- He was on a drug to control the results of the tumour, and
- despite a mild setback the previous Monday, he looked good.
- Unfortunately, despite all the medications he was on,
- he had two more bouts later in the week. By the next
- Tuesday, the left pedal bone had come out the bottom
- of his foot, despite the cast that was on it. He kept
- fighting, but by Thursday it was clear we couldn't
- control the pain, and I had to let him free.
-
- He was so brave, and so good. No matter what we had to
- do to him, he never complained. He was my comfort and my
- joy for the fifteen years I had him. My only consolation
- is that his feet don't hurt him any more. He has been
- part of me for my entire adult life, and it's hard to
- imagine what it will be like without him.
-
- He always greeted me with a nicker or a whinny, even
- the last morning of his life, when he was in so much
- pain. When he was young, he went out in a big
- 50 acre paddock, and I would go to the gate and
- call to him, once. Then I would go and get my
- tack, and when I came back outside he would be
- at the gate waiting for me.
-
- I miss him so much. I loved him so much.
-
- Betsy Zeller
-