I realized when I was starting my new blog about Halo, that my blog about Ellie fell by the wayside. She spent 2012-Jun 2015 at Carol's. The beginning of 2015 Ellie, normally such an easy keeper she only ate pasture and would appear to be in foal year round, began losing weight despite added feed, and she developed a very large swollen knee. Sadly as we added feed, she tried to founder. It was a circle of unlucky events:( After months of trying things for her, and slight pick ups in her condition, just to crash back to where she had been, I made the difficult decision to euthanize her. Here are a few photos of her over the last few years loving the retired life. So thankful to be able to provide a wonderful last few years to this special mare and I miss her bunches.
Her passing was extremely peaceful. If you've never had a horse euthanized (I've seen lots of small animals, and have been present for several friend's horses, but never one of my own) you know that sometimes things go wrong and they get stuck in an overexcited state and it can become traumatic and dangerous.
My vet did a fantastic job. she gave her the anesthetic and the tech took her and helped her to fall lightly on her hip and then lay down, she lay quietly, breathing softly. The tech put her sweatshirt under her head to keep it out of the sand. She held her there until they were certain she was not going to fight the medicine. I was then allowed to join her at her head. Ellie continued to lie quietly, the vet placed an IV into the inside of her rear leg artery, and injected the final dose, she breathed three times, and her eyes just faded to blank as I spoke softly to her, and pet her ears and cheek. It was sad, but also beautiful in a way.
RIP pretty, fancy, smart, sassy, crazy girl, hope to ride you in heaven someday, since I never got to here on Earth.
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