Even the Best Laid Plans . . .

In other news, the great Gadget has pneumonia. After several days off, I rode him on a Saturday night and had a crappy ride. The next day, Sunday, during the warm-up, he began coughing and actually coughed up yellow phlegm. On Monday, I took him to the vet clinic and he was coughing as soon as he stepped off of the trailer. Otherwise, he was perky and acting fine. They listened to his lungs, took blood, performed a trach wash, sent away a sample, and sent scope down so we could see inside his lungs. The lungs were just completely full of yellow gunk. The vet said he was much sicker than he first appeared.

We went home with a bundle of meds, including antibiotic shots to be given twice daily. The vet actually wanted to keep Gadget in the clinic to administer IV antibiotics for a week, but I told him that as sensitive as he is, I wanted to take care of him. I felt confident he would let me give him his meds and, sure enough, he has been a saint. He is on complete stall rest so I hand graze him for an hour before work and an hour after work. Given the barn is a half hour from home, this is making for some long days, but Gadget seems to be doing well on this schedule.

We are 9 days out from diagnosis and we finished our Nexcel and will be starting a new antibiotic, Exceed, today and then go back on Saturday for a second scope. I'm definitely praying for good news. Although even if things look better, from my research, it appears that he needs some serious down time. Many folks recommend 3-6 months of down time to allow a horse to fully recover from pneumonia. Selfishly, I am really hating the thought of being out of the saddle all summer. We were just beginning to make some progress, so it's particularly frustrating to be sidelined now in the prettiest part of summer.

Obviously, my number one goal is to bring Gadget through this to a full recovery. But I think I am allowed to be a little sad in the meantime too.

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