As the days continued to press on our beloved Frank seemed stuck. He was no better or worse than he was before. At this point we had been treating him for over 6 weeks and we were really questioning what our next steps were.
He could still eat, get up and chew his cud, but he was not able to walk without the support of his stall to steady his wobbly body. As fate would have it, I began feeling contractions the night of October 12th around 9:30 PM and I told Rob that I thought they were the real deal. So we packed our hospital bags and decided to try to get some rest. By the next morning my contractions were more intense and about five minutes apart. Rob went out to do chores and by 9:30 AM we decided to head to the hospital.
On our way I texted our farm sitter who was on standby and explained to her where Frank's meds were. However in our rush to get out the door we had broken the Thaminine bottle. Rob called Sunny Ridge and was able to get a replacement bottle that our sitter picked up to give to him while we were at the hospital. Our wonderful sitter picked up the thiamine and continued Frank's treatment. Rob came home Friday morning to do chores and he noticed Frank had gone down hill and was not standing well on his own, he considered putting him down, but as he was still able to get up and down on his own he left him. Our wonderful friend Joey came Friday night to do chores and give Frank his shot for us, and she agreed he had not improved. By the time we got home from the hospital on Saturday with Avery poor Frank was a mess, he was not able to stand and could not even be propped up between two hay bales. Rob and I immediately agreed we needed to have him put down. He had been through enough and even our last ditch effort to save him was not enough.
So I made the call to our local hospital who agreed to put him down. To add even more to the complexity of the day our old horse trailer was scheduled to be picked up by its new owners while I was in the hospital, so they rescheduled it for the day we came home. Which meant we had to get the title notarized and have them pick it up before we could take Frank in. Once that was done, we loaded our new daughter Avery up into the car and Rob held Frank as we drove to the vet. We brought along several of his favorite treats and once we got to the parking lot I fed him as many leaf chips as he wanted.
Sadly even Frank's zest for life had left him, he didn't want to eat all of his treats or leaf chips that were brought to him. As they called us in the vet on call wanted to know what we had tried..... and we had to relive his saga to them. As the sedation was administered we felt Frank's poor little body relax for the first time in what felt like months and Rob and I knew we did the right thing. He rested in Rob's arms as the final injection was given and we tearfully said goodbye to the sweetest little black buckling we had ever known.
It has been a tough year here at Udderly Wicked Farms, and all we can hope for is that next year will be better. Take care all, have a wonderful thanksgiving and thank you for all the patience with my posts as we adapt to life with a newborn. Happy Goating!
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