Valiant Princess Still Bravely Battling On.

Just a short note to say a big THANK YOU! to everybody for all your prayers out there. Pinkie's temp dropped to 39.1 oC this morning. Her eyes are still swollen and her appetite is slightly down, but she did squeel at me as I rubbed her stomach this morning..good job girl! I had the more hits on yesterdays post, than I ever had on any other post...lots of people Googling AHS at this time of year perhaps? Whatever the case I know a lot of prayers went out for her and I am so thankful. Today is day 6 of her battle..,hopefully she will get over this soon now. I am totally exhausted by all this worrying,lord knows how Pinkie must feel! We are not out of the woods yet by a long shot as anything can still happen,but I am being as positive as I can under these circumstances...

The End

African Horse Sickness

That dreaded disease hit us again for the first time in many years. 45 horses have died in the Gauteng area in a very short time. There is no cure for this disease. There is a vaccine available but it is not effective against all strains of this disease. My supreme champion Welsh Section B mare, Lemal Valiant Princess,first showed signs on Friday at lunchtime. The vet prescribed treatment including Lasix,Phynadene and pennicillen. She had a very high fever of 40-4.3 o C. Late yesterday afternoon het temp dropped to 38.3. This morning it plummeted to 36.8oC and a light sweating on the neck and she started to go cold... I put a blanket on her and now we have to wait it out. Throughout her ordeal thus far she didn't break out in a sweat until this morning. The tell tale swelling of the eyes have been present since the onset of the disease although her whole head and neck thankfully diddn't swell up yet. Her breathing is laboured today due to fluid on the lungs. Horses with AHS normally drown because of fluids in the lungs. Until this morning I was hoping she had only a light case of it...now I am scared for her...She has been fully vaccinated against the disease every year of her life by a vet and has it fully recorded on her passport,even so,lots of horses still die..I can only pray that she makes it now...

Whatever you do,do not let a horse with AHS go cold...This morning was the first time Princess showed signs of growing cold since the onset of the disease on Friday...

The tell tale swelling above the eyes.

To top off all of this,last week we had a terrible storm here,causing the electricity to go out for 14 hours and then the following day again for 12 hours while repaires were being done. In the total dark of night the python struck again...This time attacking both my whippet pups where they were sleeping in the outside laundry room. One got away with no damage the other got a chunk bitten out of its side..

Amazingly,After he got over the initial shock of the attack,Duke is none the worse for wear and running around,playing with his brother!

I hope this week will be better.

Calling on all my Blogger friends to send out prayers for Pinkie...

The End