Mira's Operation

Phew, I am totally exhausted. What a day! We trailered Mira over to the vet's at about 2:00 this afternoon, where he has a nice flat grassy arena, and he shaved a piece of her neck, injected lidocaine, and inserted a catheter in her jugular vein. This will stay in there until she no longer needs intravenous medications.

Then, he gave her a tranquilizer, and Mira started getting really woozy. She kept leaning her neck against me, so I put my arm under her jaw to help stabilize her head. He put a big head "bumper" on to protect her head when she was down, and after a couple more minutes, he gave her the IV anesthetic. This anesthetic is interesting, because the animal can still sense noise and touching, and will wake up if there is too much noise or stimulation. Otherwise, it is very effective.

It was about 60 seconds before she went down, and she just kind of sat down and rolled over. Once she was out, we put ropes around her legs and rolled her over the other way, which was amazingly easy - I've never had to do that before, but it was not hard at all. The vet didn't need me then, and I was feeling pretty upset at the moment and didn't particularly want to watch, so I went and sat at the edge of the corral and looked at a book I brought along, and prayed. I felt like crying from sheer nerves, but after reading some of the book (I don't remember much of it, now, though) and praying I felt a lot calmer. The entire operation was maybe 15 minutes at the very most.

He debrided the dead flap of the cornea, and installed a second tube going through (yuck) the upper eyelid. The tube ends at her withers, and I'll use it to flush her eye 6 times a day. Tonight I am making a chart to use for all the different meds...

After another 10 or 15 minutes Mira started to wake up, and she got her front legs under her. Then she stretched her neck out and tried to prop it on the ground to keep her head up, but her lower lip kept sliding and she kept having to adjust her position. I told her she was a goofball.

Once she was up, it was only a matter of standing/walking around with her for the next hour and a half, until she was really steady on her legs, and the vet had finished getting all her supplies together. One good sign was that as soon as we took the head bumper off, she started gobbling the grass.

Then we came home, and she and Anatolian were REALLY glad to see each other again! I guess he ran around whinnying for a long time after we left... They are still in separate corrals, though, because I can't chance him chasing her or bugging her at all.

Now I'm looking at about 2 weeks minimum of flushing and meds every 4 hours. I am not really looking forward to the midnights, but oh well. The vet said he was really pleased with how smoothly everything went, and now it depends on the nursing care - and if we can keep her from rubbing that eye! So, I am going to be praying a LOT that I can keep her from rubbing it at all. I am thankful for my vet, who used to be a farrier and horse trainer before he went to vet school, and is extremely knowledgeable. I am also thankful that he prayed for Mira too. I am especially thankful that my bill for the operation and all the various syringes and meds and things was under $600.00. I know he must have really given me a discount, just looking at all the paraphernalia, so I'll have to give him some banana bread or something as an extra thank-you when this is over. Any other suggestions for gifts for vets?

Thanks for reading this book (:-D) that this turned into, and I hope you are all having a good day. I'm gonna go get supper and go to bed ASAP...


L