Hurrah, hurrah, he's doing well.
The temperature/pneumonia worry is always there, but touch wood, he's fine at the moment. Still being fed by nasal-gastric tube, every two hours, day and night, but he's getting stronger every day. They hope that soon he will develop a proper sucking reflex, but of course nobody knows just how premature he might be. Sucking is much better for the digestion than a stomach tube - all the wee scrap's 'systems' will work better.
But he is getting stronger every day. I asked if he was standing properly yet, and Dr. Boubker replied, "Standing? He's running about ! We're having a problem keeping him in his hospital quarters". He promised some more photos later today
Good news then, but please remember everybody, he's still very much 'at risk' - he's very fragile.
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Thursday, 15 October 2009
LATEST BULLETIN ON TOMMY ,direct from the'horses mouth' in Marrakech 10.30 am ,15th Oct
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
STOP PRESS : MEDICAL BULLETIN ON TOMMY (SPANA clinic, Marrakech).
Well, the good news is he's still going, the bad news - it's a bit of struggle.
No surprises there I suppose - the poor wee scrap's got a lot of challenges to face.
Main problem, he's probably quite premature - though hard to be accurate as to just how much. But it translates into he's got no sucking reflex. So, to feed him we've had to do it by naso-gastric tube, every two hours.
Now, you can imagine, feeding the tube across his trachea as often as that, it would be very, very easy to get a drop of fluid down into his lungs - a potential disaster. Pneumonia is the last thing he needs, and last night he had quite a temperature. So, he's on antibiotics anyway, and they decided to give the feeding a break (we can always give hime a glucose drip so he doesn't get dehydrated), and this morning his temerature was back to normal again.
But you can see, his grip on life is still pretty fragile, though I've always felt he was a fighter. And that's worth a lot. Without that spark, it's very hard work. And he's up and walking around - good for the systems, breathing, digestion etc.
Fingers crossed and hope for the best.
Watch this space.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Tommy's Story - A tale from Marrakech
You always know when something awful is happening in our animal hospital in Marrakech.
There is a sudden kerfuffle, perhaps with a certain amount of yelling – then some histrionics – usually involving grown men and women weeping copiously.
So it was last night just as darkness began to descend. Oh, but I forgot to say, at the same time as the histrionics our team goes into overdrive, while at the same time depicting a stony-faced professionalism.
It took a while to find out what was going on.
Apparently, a female donkey had been brought in on a cart, in the last stages of tetanus induced paralysis.
It is sometimes possible to help animals with tetanus, especially tough old donkeys (horses have got almost no chance), but you’ve got to get to them early. And this poor old girl had been left far, far too long – when the only possible and humane treatment is euthanasia – and as soon as it can be administered..
But sadly, this case had a slight complication. She was also in the last stages of pregnancy.
So, there was an immediate emergency caesarean-section, before the poor old girl was put out of her misery, and before our vet, Dr. Boubker, was able to carry the little bundle of uncertain life into the ‘intensive care’ ward – that had been set up about thirty seconds earlier.
A little grey colt foal, all legs and tummy, but at least breathing, was laid on insulated matting, wrapped up in towels, and rubbed and caressed to encourage his fragile hold on life. Not surprisingly the volunteer vets and every other female in sight or earshot rallied to his aid.
But what could we do? Does tetanus cross the placenta? Apparently not, but the toxins from the infection might.
We managed to telephone our long suffering and patient Chairman and veterinary mentor and advisor Professor Derek Knottenbelt at the Liverpool Veterinary School, for some very welcome advice.
The mother’s colostrum would be toxic, but we could take a blood transfusion from another young donkey to extract the plasma which would help his seriously challenged immune system. And tetanus anti-serum would be good, just in case. But what on earth were we going to feed the poor little scrap on? There is no artificial
mare’s milk substitute in Morocco – the best we can do is UHT with a spoonful of honey (Heh, that could make a good title for a song, couldn’t it ?)
Every two hours, day and night. We’re determined to keep that little flickering flame of life alight.
We thought we’d call him Tommy.
