Coconut's Colic Continues

So, where were we...traveling home after Coconut's IV froze up at ten below in the unheated barn in Esko. We headed out from there at about 11:00, it must have been. Midnight McDonald's and gas at Holiday, arriving at Man Elverhoy's heated garage around 1:30. We hooked up the IV to the catheter, and with somebody standing on either side of him so he wouldn't move around, we slowly dripped the two five-liter bags of Lactated Ringer's Solution into the jugular vein of the horse, all night long. The third bag had drained itself almost out onto the floor of the back seat of Jim's pickup when the needle fell down. But after we had done all this, at five AM, a little wet green biscuit fell on the floor. We were elated, we had what we were looking for. I went home for two hours of sleep, swung by the hospital for 3 liters of Ringer's, which is what they could spare, and one liter from Kim before I returned.

When I got there Solveig and Kari had been walking that horse around all day without any sleep, and we tried pumping that into him. A retired big animal vet who was up to go XC skiing stopped by twice, and assured us there was nothing else we could have done. Along about dark, we loaded him back in the trailer. He hadn't eaten or drank a thing. We took him home to Solveig and sister Kjersti's new place, where Gepetto his pasture-mate hollered to him. Coconut spoke back hoarsely. We took him to the water tank where he stuck his nose way under water for several seconds, but would not drink.

Solveig and I followed him around the yard there, and he laid down three or four times, groaned, and got up. The last time he laid down we knew he wasn't getting up. Before he went down he was coughing or blowing up brown fluid from his lungs, but he just laid down then, with his old horsey head in our laps and his breathing sped up and slowly faded. He died right there. I never have been with a horse when it died. We were both overcome. I sobbed like a little kid, passed around some tobacco I had, Solveig said, "Just think, Marco, I was with you when I met Coconut, and I was with you when he died." The sunshine girl speaks the truth.