Carrie's plans for the summer all revolved around raising this guy.
So it was a shock when there was an emergency Monday morning. Kitsune kept crying for his mom, but Eowyn was too busy grazing to be bothered. Eowyn saw us bringing out the morning meal and ditched Kitsune in the field. The fact that he didn't follow was a bad sign.
Carrie went out to him and he wasn't moving right. She was able to herd him into the pen, but it looked bad. He seemed to be unable to use his front legs consistently.
I was able to catch some of it on video.
He did something similar Thursday night. With the vet care the fever had gone down and we'd thought we were out of the woods.
We weren't. Kitsune was hot to the touch and had a fever of 104.8 F. Carrie was in tears as she called the vets for help.
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The vets said the only option was to take Kitsune to the hospital. Only the nearest place accepting foals was Virginia Tech (2.5 hours away). Carrie put a distress signal up on Facebook. We needed to load Kit on the trailer, but he'd grown to 200 lbs in the several weeks he'd been alive.
We didn't know the woman in pink who showed up, but Carrie's friend Sarah B came, too. Kit was able to stand up and the women herded him onto the trailer while I led Eowyn into the back. Carrie had me pack bags of bedding around to try and hem/cushion Kitsune in.
Sarah B took Shane to play with her kids and we were on the road. Carrie's stress levels were easy to judge with every bump and bad driver on the road eliciting curses.
We had to stop for gas in Raphine. I took a quick look at Kitsune. He hadn't approved off the barrier and had done his best to destroy it. He kept crying out for his mom....who was also kicking nonstop. How much of it was because she wanted her baby and how much she was angry she was being trailered I couldn't say. Carrie felt her kicking the whole ride. It would've gone better if we'd had time to install the divider in the back, but we'd been in too much of a rush.
We made it to VT with the horses safe (Our only casualties were Carrie's nerves and sanity).
The doctors met us out back rather than at the loading docks. They helped us herd Eowyn and Kitsune in.
Kit hadn't had a chance to feed for hours, so they threw Eowyn some hay and let him drink while we filled them in. I showed them my video clip of Kit's legs failing while Carrie handled all the vet talk.
Then the vets went to work. They had a student with them, so I overheard them giving her instructions on what to do and how they wanted it done.
Kit's fever was down from earlier. The medicine we'd given him earlier had helped and the vets said that foal temperatures tended to run higher than adults (much like babies with humans).
Kitsune seemed stable enough and Carrie hadn't eaten anything all day, so I was able to convince her it was time to eat (If only stress burned calories at the same rate it does nerves...).
Random: We went to a Cook Out, but if we were on a pleasure trip I would've insisted on eating at Double Dragon just for the name.
We dropped by a Dollar General after eating to buy a few things including flip flops.
Kitsune was resting when we got back. He'd been poked, prodded, and tested.
The vets thought there was some sort of infection to cause the fever. Kitsune's was born with a low white blood cell count and had been on antibiotics off and for the three weeks he'd been alive.
However, that didn't explain the neurological deficits they were seeing. He'd had some trouble stepping onto the scale and there were lots of questions (and sadly lots of tests in his future). They needed to sedate him and pull spinal fluid, etc. etc.
We couldn't stay around all day (and all week) for that. We needed to get home, so Carrie said her goodbyes to Kit and Eowyn before we went up front.
We had to pay $2,500 up front. The vet estimated the final bill would be between $4400 and $5000 dollars. I took a bag of chips as our rightful due and we started on the road home.
Today had been a work day for me. I was supposed to report in, close out my classroom, and say my goodbyes for the year.
Clearly, it hadn't happened.
Shane had a goalie training at 5 PM that we also missed.
He'd spent the day hanging out and doing errands with Sarah, Lilly, and Wyatt. Sarah was on her way back and arrived at the house shortly after Carrie and I.
The kids ran in the house and I chaperoned while Carrie and Sarah talked outside.
We were grateful that she'd taken Shane. I believe she dropped by midday to let Loki out to use the bathroom, as well.
Apparently, Lilly and Wyatt had a full treatment involving soap-medicine, vacuuming hair, and options way better than when I had lice "back in the day." Sarah gave us a bottle of shampoo for Shane to use before bed 'just in case,' but I'm sure it's fine. It was a huge help that she was able to take Shane off our hands for the day.
The entire trajectory of our summer changed in an instant this morning. Unfortunately, it ends in mourning. This was Kitsune's final day at home.
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