I thought I would be coming back to this week’s Sugar Maple Weekly Updates and telling you all the amazing things we’ve been up to – which would be one of the reasons it has been a month since I’ve done one of these. However, instead, I have some tragic news to share. This week’s Sugar Maple Weekly Updates post may be discombobulated. I’m a bit of a mess about this and I’m sick right now too. I hope it makes sense…
Last Thursday, we had to put Naomi to sleep. While I wouldn’t ever change living on this farm for anything, there are weeks like the last two that always make me question everything. We have such beautiful, wonderful days on the farm, but the bad days here are very bad. It’s been a week since we let her go and I’ve still be procrastinating this post because the new normal doesn’t feel right.
The trouble
On April 1 we all walked outside to do morning chores. The kids were still on spring break and it was going to be a beautiful day. The sun was shining and I had plans that included lots of time getting the garden prepped to chat with you about on the Sugar Maple Weekly Updates. However, then I saw Naomi laying down. I didn’t think anything of it for a minute. Donkeys will lay down for about 2 hours out of the day. Then she rolled.
Now, my donkeys roll socially. They essentially take turns rolling in certain spots on the hardscape or in dirt patches – one right after another. Dirt baths help to keep them cool when temperatures are hot and something they do within their herd that is, well, social. The weird thing was, we put out food and she got up and walked away. She laid down in another spot – a non-normal spot – and rolled again. Then she stayed laying down.
The diagnosis
Naomi is my eater so for her not to be involved in breakfast, and to be rolling so many times in a row in a weird spot told me something was wrong. I called the vet, they had me give her some pain medication and then a few hours later they arrived. My suspicions about colic were correct and Naomi was diagnosed with an impaction colic.
What is colic?
Colic in equine animals is not just one thing. Since this started I’ve found out this could be gas colic, impaction colic and colic where there is a twist in the intestines, stomach or even organ displacement.
Gas Colic
Gas colic, from what I can tell, essentially is what happens when you get gas stuck inside you. It is uncomfortable and sometimes makes it hurt to move.
Impaction Colic
Impaction colic, Naomi’s diagnosis, is essentially a blockage in the intestine. It happens a lot in the spring and the fall because temperatures are going up and down. When the temperatures drop, sometimes animals will not drink enough to keep their digestive systems moving because it is cold and they are not as thirsty. The food essentially gets stuck and jammed up inside and creates a block. Salt blocks can help with this, which we have in each stall. Some say eating too much spring grass can also cause this because it is so good to equine and is rich in sugars.
Displacement/Twist
A twist or displacement is exactly what it sounds like. For the twist, an organ is twisted, usually the intestines but sometimes the stomach. Displacement means an organ is no longer where it should be.
The vet’s choices
Once we received her diagnoses, the issues with our vet began. We’ve been going to the same vet since we first got the donkeys in December 2020. It is a practice owned by one man and then he hires other vets to come and work for him. There used to be a doctor there that I loved, but she moved about a year and a half ago to North Carolina. She was replaced with a vet who is just out of veterinary school. In the past, I’ve not felt like the new woman has really understood or had a lot of experience with donkeys – especially mini donkeys. They are smaller and some differences exist in their personalities that can make treatment and response to treatment better or worse depending on the ailment.
When she gave Naomi the Colic diagnosis that day, she gave us too choices. They could treat her at the barn, or take her for surgery at the Michigan State equine hospital. Kevin and I talked about it later and wished we had more knowledge about all of this. The choices felt too extreme. I compared it to if someone gave you a choice of treating a stomach ache and said you can either take some medicine or go for surgery. It seems like there has to be some middle ground, right?
An odd request
The vet also asked if we could bring her to the clinic for treatment. We said no to this because 1. We don’t own a trailer. Our donkeys are not taken anywhere like horses commonly are. 2. I knew taking her away from the herd would not be good for her. Donkeys form deep, deep relationships with one another. My whole herd is bonded and our other Jenny/Jennet (a female donkey) Luna was Naomi’s best friend. She and Naomi did everything together and being separated from one another really stresses both of them out.
I would have expected the vet to know this. However, it felt like they were asking us to bring her into the clinic to make it easier on them, not easier on Naomi.
The treatment
Well, we didn’t really get the full story from the vet that day. I thought this treatment was a one and done. They would treat her and she would get better…Or she wouldn’t. I knew colic could result in death but I tried not to let my mind go there. So, they put a tube up her nose in the barn under light sedation and added water to her stomach. This is the treatment for impact colic. The idea is that the additional water will loosen up the food that is stuck inside.
They also gave her an IV which was cold and made her shiver. I gave her a blanket and when the vet was gone I let her rest for a little bit. However, the other cure for colic is walking, which the vet did not instruct me to do. In talking to other people in the equine community, I realized Naomi needed to walk. About an hour after her treatment, I went and walked her.
Horses, even when they are in pain, will generally walk decently for people. Donkeys are stubborn. Naomi did not want to walk. This resulted in me putting her lead rope behind her butt and pulling her. I had been doing this before the vet arrived too to try and get her gut moving.
False hope
And it worked! After a few minutes of walking she pooped! I was elated and texted the vet. I thought it was over. She rested in a stall and I only gave her a mash of soaking wet pellets to eat that night. Over night, she pooped again and peed a little! I felt so optimistic. This week, I figured I would be writing about how we overcame colic on the Sugar Maple Weekly Updates.
I texted the vet again. She said because she seemed to be doing so well, I could give her a little wet hay. In my head, this is where the mistakes really started. After she ate that hay, she seemed to take a turn. I don’t think her stomach was ready.
Treatment again
I called the vet and she offered to come out and treat her again. It is at this time she told me it can take multiple treatments to clear an impaction colic and that it is usually over the course of three days. Why she didn’t explain this to begin with, I’ll never know.
So, she came back and tubed Naomi’s nose again and gave her another IV. That night, I walked her more and Naomi pooped again overnight. A great sign!
In the meantime, Kevin left for a work trip to Spain. It was awful timing but he had to go. Stupidly, he took our truck with the trailer hitch because he thought Naomi was fine. I thought about it before he left in the back of my mind, but I didn’t say anything. In my head, we were beating colic too. From Saturday forward, it was just the kids and I.
Sunday
Sunday came and Naomi was not great. That day the vet told me the best thing I could do for her was to bring her to the clinic so they could treat her twice a day with fluids. She said they would leave the catheter in her for her IV and treat her twice a day.
In my heart, I knew it was time to try and get her there. I called and texted everyone I knew in the area. In an act of desperation, I tried to take the seats out of my SUV to see if I could load her in there. I looked at rental car places but they were all closed. Finally, I rented a U-Haul Truck with a hitch and went to pick up the horse trailer at the vet’s office.
A friend met me back at my house and we loaded Naomi on by offering her more mash. Then, I drove her to the clinic. I brought her blanket for the IV treatments since she gets cold and some of the pellets I was using for her mash.
I’m writing this whole day out very factually, but inside, I was a mess. Keira was watching Roman and I was now in a state of panicking over her health with Kevin on the other side of the world.
However, when I got her to the clinic, I took a deep breath. I truly believed they would do their best for her there.
Monday
On Monday morning the vet said Naomi had pooped overnight and peed just a bit. She encouraged me to visit her at the clinic. I considered not going because I had so much work to do on the farm after not doing anything that weekend, but I wanted to see my girl.
When I showed up, I was dismayed. First, I found Naomi licking the concrete of her stall. There was no salt block for her to lick. I knew she must have been thirsty but she still wasn’t drinking. Second, she was just sad. I knew she would be when I took her away from the herd, but I thought she would be getting the best help she could get. She wasn’t.
Besides having no salt block, she was not being walked. I took her on a walk to try to get things moving. She wanted to eat grass, which she wasn’t allowed to do. Oddly, a little grass can also be the cure for some colic.
I went home disappointed. I knew at this point there was likely no coming back from this.
That night I talked to the vet and she said she was “dumpy”. Well, Naomi is an older, mare donkey. Grouchy is her personality and they took her away from her family. I’d be dumpy too. Clearly, I took offense to that for her.
We agreed that we would see how she was in the morning after her morning treatment. At this point, I called Kevin and asked if he could come home early and he started making plans to come home on Thursday instead of Friday.
Tuesday
When I talked to the vet on Tuesday morning she told me Naomi had not pooped overnight. I knew that was a bad sign. It was the first time she had not had a bowel movement since she started treatment. I had already planned to visit her that day and bring her a salt block and walk her. When I asked the vet if someone there could walk her she simply said, “She won’t walk for us.” This infuriated me because again, Naomi is a stubborn donkey. She is not a horse and will not just walk on a lead rope for a good time. I wasn’t sure why they weren’t doing what I had been doing at home – wrapping the rope around her butt and pulling her.
At this point, the vet gave me a choice. 1. I could come and get Naomi and bring her home where hopefully she would be in a better mood. However, they would not be able to come out and treat her at our house on Tuesday night or on Wednesday because they were too busy. (We live 25 minutes from the office) and they were going to Traverse City on Wednesday for patients there (2.5 hours away).
At that point I knew they had given up on her. She was really giving me the choice of where I wanted her to be for her final days.
Poor communication
Before I went to visit Naomi that day, I had called my friend Mandi at Wild Oak Farms. She lives in Missouri with her spouse Casey and daughter. They have a farm and sell goat’s milk soap. She was in the veterinary field at one point and they have a donkey too. Mandi and I agreed it was best if I brought Naomi home. She told me to ask if they could leave the catheter in so I could administer some IV treatments when we got home and see if it helped. I had a glimmer of hope.
However, that hope was quickly dashed. I texted the vet and asked her about the catheter. She said, “Oh year, she kinked it overnight so we had to take it out this morning.”
I was livid. If they took it out that meant she didn’t get fluids that morning. I went to visit Naomi again and brought her a salt block. The staff was rude. Yes, they were busy but they were also rude and indifferent. I’ll never forget how poorly they treated me or how they seemed to treat her, even knowing that she was dying. It was like we were just a problem they couldn’t wait to get rid of. It felt like they wanted me to bring her there to make everything easier on them, but didn’t consider what it would do to her or the quality of care she was getting from me at home versus the staff at the clinic.
They said she was able to have some grass so I walked her again and let her eat. Then, I decided to go get the kids at school so I could pack her up and bring her home. Until I saw her I really hadn’t been sure of the best decision, but between not walking her, the issue with the catheter and the way the staff behaved, I decided to bring her home where she was loved.
The final trip
I picked up the kids early from school – sobbing because I knew what my decision to bring her home meant. She was going to live her last days with everyone who loved her and not in a cold stall where no one paid attention to her needs.
This time, I had to rent the truck from a U-Haul place all the way across town because the closer one was already rented. It took us an hour and a half to get back there. In the meantime, I asked Keira to text the vet to figure out the last time Naomi had IV fluids. The vet responded Sunday night. I swear I think my heart stopped. In my head, if she was well hydrated, I could get her home and give her a good last few days. I was truly hoping she could make it until Kevin got home. But once I heard they left her catheter in but hadn’t even given her an IV in almost 48 hours, I wasn’t sure she would be able to make it.
When we arrived back at the clinic to get her, the staff begrudgingly helped me hook up the trailer and load her. Then we drove home.
Coming home
When we arrived home, I can’t even explain to you how happy the herd was to see her. I put it in the final video I shared of her on Instagram {HERE}. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. As soon as they realized it was her, they rallied around her. Luna ran to her. She literally ran. Leo (her son) and Cosmo (basically her adopted son) followed her everywhere. Atlas, my alpha, followed too, but you could see he knew. He always seems like such a wise, old soul to me. He’s older but always the first to step forward when there is something that might threaten the herd. It’s like he’s seen it all before.
Sometime during all this, I called another vet and called the equine hospital at Michigan State. The new vet said they would have treated her the same (although they would have kept giving her the IVs) and Michigan State said they needed to talk to my vet in order to intervene. My vet had already decided Naomi would not be a good surgery candidate because she doesn’t do well under anesthesia.
I stalled her that night and fed her some water via a syringe. She still wasn’t drinking, which is why to me the IVs had been so important. She did finally start taking some of the water from my syringe, but I knew it wasn’t enough. I stayed in the barn with her until after 10.
I watched her throughout the night on the cameras we have – something I had been doing before I took her too the clinic too.
Wednesday
That morning, there was no poop. Maybe I had been naive to expect it but I was still hoping for a miracle. It was a beautiful day. Kevin and I already decided we would not keep her stalled and she could do whatever she wanted to that day. She ate fresh grass and rested in the sun. She rolled more showing her discomfort. And she walked more that day back and forth trying to work it out in between nibbling on the grass. Her herd family followed her and watched her all day long. I did too.
That night I texted Mandi and told her Naomi was pacing back and forth. Altas was standing there watching her do it. She said she was probably uncomfortable. I saw that too. She head was a little wobbly, another sign of colic. I wanted to leave her unstalled that night (which is what we do with our donkeys every night) but Mandi said to stall her in case she fell and couldn’t get up. So I did and I sat with her in that stall until around 9:30. I could see on her face she was hurting. I knew that this was going to be her last night on Earth.
When I left to go back to the kids, I continued to watch her on the camera all night. I watched her walk in circles, lay down, get up, lick her salt block…at one point she eat the very runny mash I had left her.
Thursday
Thursday, I had already decided to let the kids stay home from school that day. I didn’t know when it was going to happen but I knew it would be difficult to be able to pick Roman up during the day if anything happened. I looked at her at 6 a.m. and saw she was standing, resting with her head in a corner. Around 7:30 we were getting ready to go see them and I checked Naomi again. She was slumped over in the stall. I lost it and we all ran outside.
Keira got there first. “She’s breathing,” she said. When I saw her, I thought she had already passed – alone and in pain. I was so grateful she was still alive. She sat up when we entered the stall. She tried to get up to greet us. But she couldn’t. I knew there was no more waiting. It was time.
I called our vet’s office for the last time. (We will be getting a new vet) They said the doctor had some patient work to finish at the clinic but would be out between 9:30 and 10. It was about 7:30 and I knew she was in pain. In my head I cursed them, an in my heart I cursed myself for waiting. In reality all I said was, “Thank you.”
Naomi tried to get up a few more times until she finally just let me cuddle her. The stall door was open so the other donkeys could see in. They knew what was happening. At one point, Luna came into the stall to wait with us. The kids stayed and gave the other donkeys comfort while I sat with Naomi, talking to her and petting her. I cried and I apologized. I told her about my memories of her and I told her soon it would stop hurting.
When the vet finally arrived, I let the kids go in. Less than 10 minutes later, she was gone.
Aftermath
Once the vet left, the rest of the donkeys came over to the stall door one by one. It was almost like a funeral procession of her friends. Luna came first and the devastation that crossed her face was heartbreaking. (Image below) Her ears pointed down and she know. When she walked away, Atlas came. He bowed his head in acceptance. Next was Cosmo. Being 3, he has never experienced anything like this. He was the only one to actually walk into the stall and smell her. Then her walked out, knowing too.
Lastly was Leo, her baby. He hadn’t come on his own after Cosmo and I walked out of the stall. I saw him in the pasture run in. He was by himself. My donkeys are never by themselves. I called over to him and he started walking towards the stall.
I walked back in the stall and waited. He stood outside. He leaned his head in closer, but wouldn’t step in the stall. His ears moved like he was listening really hard to hear her breathing. And then he realized it too.
I left the stall open for them when I went back inside and wait for the cremation service. Atlas stopped back again, but no one went it.
When the cremation service arrived, they very gently rolled her onto something that was like a sled and pulled her into her truck. Then the herd and I all watched as they drove away with our girl.
What’s next
- Kevin came home later that day. He was on an airplane that whole morning. I had wanted to wait for him, but Naomi just couldn’t wait. He understood that.
- Naomi’s ashes are ready for me to pick up. I’ll do that today or tomorrow. Then we will get a new sugar maple to plant by the pasture and lay her to rest under it.
- Right now, I’m keeping a close eye on the rest of the herd. We still have up and down spring weather, which concerns me. The boys seem to be doing okay.
- Luna is deeply angry and sad. She bites at the boys whenever they come near her. She does let me love on her, which is not something she generally tends to do. She is from a kill pen and was either abused or feral. She’s only this year started tolerating love from us and we have had her three years now.
- I know I’m going to have to find another female companion for her. I was hoping to give it a few weeks but she is just so sad. She’s stalling alone, eating alone. She will go to the pasture with the herd, but she keeps the boys at a distance. Female mini donkeys are hard to find. Most people keep them for breeding. But I do think we need a jenny/jennet. With three rowdy boys, I just don’t think we can handle more men and I don’t think another boy will do Luna any good. So, I’ve started searching.
- I’ll let you know how it is all going on future Sugar Maple Weekly Updates.
In case you missed it…
I’m including a few of the most recent posts here in my Sugar Maple Weekly Updates in case you missed them. With everything happening in the last two weeks, I didn’t get the chance to post as much as I like to. However, here are a few things:
- Homemade Flatbread Recipe {HERE}
- Garlic & Green Onion Pesto {HERE}
- Roasted Asparagus Salad with Arugula & Parmesan {HERE}
- Tips for Starting Seeds Indoors {HERE}
- Sheet Pan Lemon Chicken {HERE}
- Buttered Roasted Radishes {HERE}
Any Questions?
I’m sorry this week’s update was so sad. Let me know if you have any questions below or if there is anything you would like to know about in next week’s Sugar Maple Weekly Updates. Have a lovely week, friends. Sending all of you love and light for any troubles you may be going through this week.
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Mallory says
This is truly heart breaking and I am so sorry for you family 🙁 We had a bad vet experience at the end of your 16 year old dog’s life and it made a terrible situation so much harder. I hope your family and herd are able to find some peace and comfort this week.
Rachel says
Thank you so much. It is so sad when it doesn’t go the best it possibly can.
Dina says
I am so so sorry!!! What a precious baby! I have no words to say how sad this is and the Vet with little compassion. SHAME on THEM!! I know your broken heart though as I have experienced the loss of such a sweet close furbaby. You are in my prayers
Rachel says
Thank you. I’m sorry for the loss of your baby as well.