Tristan

BostonBanker

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#1
Obviously not a dog, but I've shared enough about his health issues here that I wanted to let people know that Tristan was euthanized last night.

He's had three bouts of colic in the last 6 months or so, with the last two being less than two months apart. When he got colicky last night, and the usual dose of banamine didn't touch the pain, I called out the vet. He was very uncomfortable and needed heavier pain meds and sedation to be still for an exam. An abdominal ultrasound revealed that the walls of his colon and small intestine were extremely thick and inflamed. The vet strongly suspected that the underlying cause of all his issues was a slow-growing lymphoma that we had simply managed incredibly well for the last 7 years. She pulled blood and abdominal fluid and was going to go back to the clinic to run it for me so we could get a clearer picture, but he was blowing through the sedation and meds about every 20 minutes. I didn't want him to become more painful while she was 45 minutes away doing lab work, and the reality of the situation was that we weren't going to fix him. We might have gotten him through this bout, but they would become more frequent and nothing was going to stop it. So I elected to have him put down then. We got him comfortable enough to walk out to the hay meadow, and as soon as we hit the deep clover where I regularly grazed him, he went down flat and stayed there.

This October would have been 15 years that I've had him. He came to me intended to be a training/resale project, stayed to be my show horse for a bit, and has been semi-retired the last few years, just going for nice walks in the fields with me and the dogs. He became very ill nearly 9 years ago with what was eventually diagnosed as Inflammatory Bowel Disease with no real known cause. Almost 2 years ago, I was ready to have him put down before winter, because he just couldn't get his weight up and I didn't want him going in to winter 200 lbs underweight. We tried steroids as a last ditch effort and he rebounded almost instantly. He's been on and off them ever since, and even when we started, my vet warned me that we were maybe buying him 3 years. I'm glad that I did another cycle of it this spring. His last months, he was comfortable and eating and looking good.

Despite knowing that he wasn't going to be a horse who lived to be 30, the end still felt too sudden. My heart is a little broken, and Gusto is going to miss his best buddy as well.

I took this photo just about a week ago to send to my friend, because I was so incredibly happy with how he looked after another round of not eating well this spring. It helps that he went out during a good time; for years I've dreaded having to watch him slowly starve until I finally have to make the call.




 

SizzleDog

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#2
I'm so, so sorry. He was a beautiful horse, and you took such good care of him. He was lucky to have you as an owner.

((((hugs))))
 

Xandra

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#7
I'm so so sorry. And yes, you've been wonderful to him. I'm glad he had a great last few months. RIP Tristan.
 

Beanie

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#9
Oh gosh... I'm so sorry. You really moved heaven and earth for him.
 

Dekka

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#20
I am so sorry. I remember all your struggles, with him eating etc. So many people move horses on so quickly, he was very fortunate to have you as his person. I will miss hearing the occasional updates, he was a very handsome boy.
 

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