Poor Malapropism

Only just a couple of days after I wrote about Malapropism (or Mally), he appeared to become even quieter than usual. We had used him in the photograph for the local newspaper article about the children and young people who had successfully completed the OCN course. He was so so withdrawn on this occasion, that although he had eaten up in the morning, we took his temperature - it was sky high, (39.5, it should be around 37.5). Gudrun our vet came to see him, gave him a good check over and administered painkillers and anti-biotics, thinking perhaps that he had some sort of infection. His temperature came down and he appeared to be responding well to the medication. He seemed to be uncomfortable and off colour the following morning and this time Richard came to see him, we were both beginning to suspect that there was something else going on. Richard scanned his belly, and that together with a peritoneal tap confirmed that he was suffering from peritonitis. His medication was increased and Richard was optimistic that we had caught it early enough. Mally deteriorated that night and I feared for him but yet again our vets (this time Richard's partner Andrew) came along and managed to stabilise him. Our vets came along at least once a day for the next week and I kept an eye on him every two or three hours during the night for the next eight nights. He went downhill on Thursday and Claire detected an impaction, he was then tubed and we hoped that he would recover. On Friday morning he became very ill again and Gudrun and I began to worry that this was becoming a welfare issue. The impaction hadn't shifted despite Richard's own recipe of solution that is proven to be extremely efficient in clearing impactions of the gut. Mally was such a good patient throughout, and because of his determination (and ours!!) we decided to send him to hospital. Nicky, from Marlborough Horse Transport arranged for James to come and pick him up within the hour and off he went into the capable hands of Jessica, the surgeon at Valley Equine in Lambourn. Mally was operated on Friday afternoon, and as Richard had suspected all along, he was suffering from a ruptured abcess in his large colon and another couple of tears in his large colon. The operation was a success, Mally came round alright and Jessica rang me yesterday to say that he was doing as well as could be expected and 'so far so good'. I'll keep you posted.