We are hanging on. Update on Buddy

After waking up this morning, with most of the night being on watch with Buddy, and experiencing the depth of pain we all do, when witnessing a dear friend losing touch with life, I wrote on gather that I was losing him. I had also called a friend and left a message for a can of Campbell’s chicken soup, to see if I could force a bit of broth into him. The salts and other nourishments in chicken broth help to restore electrolytes needed to keep for the internal electrical system working. Without it, a weakness in the muscles, due to no nerve communications that tell the muscles what to do. I have had this problem, especially when I long distance biked, ran, lifted weights and shoveled manure. All of a sudden I would become very weak, begin to shake, and head for the nearest salty peanut snack I could find. In fact, I have always been a great fan of salt.

Ok, so this morning after leaving the message, I had to rest some more. I also opened my mind to what I might have on hand to help with electrolyte depletion. ‘lack of salts’. I remembered that I have that very thing for horses in the barn from when Josie suffered colic a few winters ago. I went out to the barn and also remembered the block of mineral salts I have for the horses. I always feed it out as crumbles, because iodine, the element that makes the block red, evaporates every time a horse licks it, thus they don’t get the iodine. So I chipped off a few crumbles, grabbed the bag of electrolytes that smell like brewers yeast that I used to drink for vitamin B s before they took the awful taste of it. By that time there were better ways get the same nourishment. Besides I was a drunk then and well….

I came inside, with guess who following me? He had followed me out past the front door and followed me back inside. So I dissolved the salts and other electrolytes and vitamins in water, and managed to maybe get Buddy to swallow about twenty cc’s. I followed that with another few cc’s of clear water and a tiny squirt of coffee for the caffeine. Am I desperate. You bet you bottom dollar I am.

And so, now Buddy is laying by the bed. I put Schooch and Baby out in the truck for a bit, to allow Buddy more undisturbed sleep. Have I seen improvements in him? Fractional at best, however he is just a tad stronger and just a tad more aware. We are living on hope here. Veterinarians in Maine are not open to promises of payment. The one Vet I have had for my horses, lives fifty miles away, it is Sunday, thus to reach him will have to wait until tomorrow. If I had long distance on my phone I would call him at home as we had a working relationship with the horses care. That is until the Government stepped in and made it mandatory for a Vet to be on site where the large animal is or they can lose their license for malpractice by his doctoring over the phone. Thus he stopped large animal practice. However, he is a possibility if I can get Buddy up there tomorrow.

Why am I writing this? Because it helps me to see every thing that I have done, to have someone to share it with in this back woodland, and if it works, I may help someone else. If it doesn’t, well that can also be information, however sad.

Bottom line. Buddy is in the woods, not out. He would be in ICU if he were human. I am the best he has. Me and Mother Nature and Grandfather.