Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Blind Brynn and blind Darby were the other two horses who went to the vet clinic yesterday.  I brought them home today, along with blind Blue. 

We had discovered blood in Brynn’s urine on Tuesday during her morning bath — she leaks while we bathe her, so we get up close and personal with her urine every day!  Obviously blood in her urine set off our alarm bells, and we needed that checked out right away.  As long-time followers of the blog know, Brynn’s entire urinary system is honked up, she’s had two (so far unsuccessful) surgeries, and she’s now down to one kidney, too.  None of this bothers her, though, and she continues to be her sweet, happy, affectionate little self. 

She had blood in her urine on Wednesday, too, but by today the bleeding had — for some unknown reason — cleared up. In the photo above that I took this afternoon, our equine vet, Dr. Erin Taylor, is doing an ultrasound on Brynn’s left kidney.  Erin is holding the probe in her left hand and looking at the images on the monitor as she slides the probe around.  Erin also examined Brynn’s bladder and the rest of her plumbing. 

We know from earlier ultrasounds at WSU’s veterinary teaching hospital that Brynn had kidney stones, and Erin found similar results today.  It’s possible that one or more of them had passed through, or some of the raw material the stones are made from had migrated down her ureter, causing the bleeding.  So at this point we’ll just have to keep a very close eye on her urine.  Her blood work today showed her critical kidney values were normal, which is great news. 

Darby is an older, blind mare whose eyes bulged from glaucoma.  We had been treating a painful left eye for the past week.  We’d made some progress, but the time had come to throw in the towel and take the eye out.  Her right eye also had uncomfortably high pressure in it, so Erin removed it as well.  We’ve found, time and again, that when blind eyes get this way, the best thing to do is take them out … and the relief is almost immediate.  Alayne took this photo of me with Darby after we got back to the ranch this afternoon.

(Click on photos for larger image.)