Wow! Being a vet is cool! (Warning: gory)

Today ended up being an interesting day, to say the least!  I was home sick with a cold this morning but knew I had to get out on Jasper for a training ride.  I stuffed myself full of ibuprofen and nasal decongestant, crammed my pockets with kleenex, and headed out to the barn to meet Lacy for our riding date.  When I got there, I could tell something was wrong.  I could hear Megan, the barn owner, saying something "was NOT cool."  Uh-oh, I thought, as I saw Lacy run to where she was standing in the barn.  I figured someone was colicking, and picked up the pace to see what they were looking at.  Both Megan and Lacy were standing in the door to the sick stall looking down at a ewe that was looking very poorly.  I asked if it was the ewe that had been down a lot for the last couple days, and she said it was.  I could see the ewe was laying down and had the foam coming out of her nose that indicates pulmonary edema.  I asked if they had a gun, since it wasn't humane to let her suffer any longer.  Lacy ran up to the house while Megan lamented they'd lose the lambs.  "Why don't you just cut them out?" I asked.  "I can't do that! Eew!" Megan replied. "I can." I replied.  I asked how far along she was, and Megan thought she was due any day now.  I ran up to the house for supplies, which ended up being a box-cutter, paper towels, old dingy towels and iodine to dip the navels once we got the lambs out.

When Lacy returned, I washed my hands in a bucket, stripped down to my undershirt and poised to perform surgery, James Herriot style.  Lacy took care of euthanizing the ewe, and I got right to work getting the lambs out.  I was so grateful for my prior surgery experience.  I know NOTHING about sheep, but as my ag animal medicine professor says constantly, "A Mammal is a Mammal."  I was able to find the uterus quickly, and made quick work of getting out the first lamb.  She was black and looked too little, but I passed her off to Lacy and Megan while I went fishing for the second.  I found her quickly and got her out as well, but could tell she already was gone.  I think that because the ewe had such trouble breathing for the last hour or so of her life, the babies probably were getting very weak already.  Add to that the fact that they were still about a week premature, and their hope for survival was very small.  I was sad the lambs didn't make it, but was happy we were able to put the Mom out of her misery.  At least we tried.

After cleaning up and taking the ewe to the university for disposal, Lacy and I headed out for a very nice and fast training ride.  Both ponies were feeling so good they had to walk the last half-mile, which they did not think was very fun.  We practiced more leap frogging and pacing in general, and both horses did very well.  Lacy's been working with Rocky on extending his trot out, as he takes about twice as many steps as Jasper and she's getting tired of trying to post it.  He knows how to do it, but usually would rather be going much faster, so I think he does it because he's being impatient.  Both horses pace well together, and our nice easy pace is about 8.5-9 mph.  Jasper can step it up to 11.6 mph without too much trouble, although at that point he often tries to pick up the canter.  I'd like to do our first ride at about 7-8 mph trot, as I think that will leave plenty for a full 25 miles.

Tomorrow we're heading down to Hell's Gate with my friend, Jane.  She has a "real" endurance horse and has competed for the last 4-5 years on him.  I'm looking forward to it!