A Tribute to Libby

Lucky Harts Magic Libby

Brewers Dark Magic x Lucky Harts Little Lily

5/31/1995 - 6-30-2010

It's hard to understand why bad things happen. We lost one of our favorite minis, our little Lucky Harts Magic Libby. I had just posted a photo of our little boy, Captain America this week.  Libby was 15 years old, and in what we thought was good health. She never showed any signs of being in distress or out of sorts, until Tuesday night when she didn't come in with the herd at feeding time. Bob was late feeding, it was after dark so he took the truck and spotlight out to look for her.

He found her standing under a tree with her colt, just standing, like it was mid-day and she was cooling off, no sign of colic or pain, but he knew she wasn't well.

He led her to the barn where the light was better, and she just stood where he let her stop. No interest in water or food, but kind of moving her mouth funny, slow and as if she really wasn't sure what was going on. No wobbles, no major symptoms and temp was 101. However her respiration was dramatically slow at 20/min, so he called our vet and left a message for him to call us back.

He couldn't entice her to drink so he cupped a little water in his hand and tried to get some into her mouth. She moved her tongue a bit but didn't try to swallow. He gave her 1cc of Banamine (in case it was colic) while waiting o the vet to call. She stood in the same place for almost an hour, before finally moving over to try and nibble on some hay. Even that seemed labored, slow and out of sorts.

We didn't get a return call from our vet, and there are no other equine vets on our side of town, so after watching her for about 2 hrs, her respiration became more normal and we went to bed.

Bob checked on her about 5 am, breathing was normal, but she still appeared lethargic, so he gave her about 5cc oral B12 solution. Most dribbled out but we hoped she would absorb some.

We finally got a call from the vet about 7 am, he said to drop her off at the clinic and he'd check her out after his morning run (as fate would have it today was his farm call day). He didn't call until late afternoon, and Bob could tell by his voice the news was going to be bad.

His prognosis was she most likely had an abscessed liver, blood work showed many very alarming indicators. Her liver function was very low, kidneys starting to shut down, and he said she most likely had become so septic it had affected her brain (and that was what was causing the problem chewing and swallowing).

He gave her less than 10% chance of survival, and said if she did she would probably have severe liver and possibly kidney damage, so we made the decision to have her put down.

One good thing her colt IS eating well, but of course he doesn't understand where mom is. He seems certain she is still in the barn or that trailer.

Here's to Libby, we will miss you, Sweetie.