Living on a farm is soothing and fulfilling. As with all things in life, can break your heart

RIO LINDA, CA (MPG) - I usually write articles about happy things. Last week’s was on the needed benefits for traveling veterinarians when you live on a farm, in the article Equine ER on the Road. 

My husband and I have had a mini-farm for many years. Little emergencies come up with your animals just as they do when you have children. It is just part of living with living things. Accidents happen. It is never easy and sometimes as in last night’s situation, it can be gut-twisting.

My husband heard our dogs barking in an unusual way. If you own dogs, again as in children, you can tell what is going on by the tone of their voices. Our dogs’ tone was different. He rushed outside, it was about sunset, and found our BIG dog had busted through our wooden fence, and was chasing our animals. He called him off but you just KNEW it was going to be bad as his head was wet and it looked like his mouth had blood on it. He grabbed him up as the dog was in a state of hysteria.

Dennis said he had only put the dog out 10 minutes before this. He worked hard to put metal fence and more metal fence inside that fence to keep our dog contained. We did not count on the wood fence that came with the property to be as rotted as it turned out to be and that is how they broke out.

After the dog was contained, we went out. I was so scared. We have mini pigs, alpacas, sheep, a donkey and the two mini horses. We had NO idea, but knew someone was hurt. He took off to the right and I ran off to the left.

I screamed!! He came running and we found our mini horse standing still in a pasture, with the sheep gathered into a corner, and you could see there was blood on her backside. I wanted to kill the dog!! Penelope was just still. We could not get her to move. The sun was setting and we had to hurry. I left him talking to her, and ran for my phone to dial Loomis Basin Veterinarians. I babbled into the phone my address and to please, please hurry. I raced outside to help Dennis. He had managed to get her out of that smaller pasture and into a gated pen to wait for the vet.

Both Dennis and I have medical training. He was a Navy Corpsmen and spent 3 years working in a North Carolina ER, before going into computer program development for UCD Veterinarian Teaching Hospital in Davis. Both human and animal medicine treatments intertwine. He retired and we are enjoying our farm. I worked as a veterinarian tech. in a pet hospital for years and was a Hot Walker at Pimlico Race Course. I have owned many horses and livestock through the years. So, as we waited he got blankets, and tried to tourniquet the back legs. He then went up to the front gate to wave down the veterinarian into our back yard to speed up treatment.

About 10 min later, the sun had set, and it was dark; I saw that White Wonder Truck come through the side gate and over to where we were with Den right behind it. When the veterinarian got out I saw that it was Dr. Lehma. I had just met her a few days back when I traveled up to Loomis Basin Veterinarians, to write up the article about why there is a need for Traveling Veterinarians. It wasn't time for hellos and she got right to work. First thing she did was to put on her head a head lamp. It looked like what a miner might wear underground. Before I saw that, I was wondering how I might get light to the situation since we were in the middle of a pasture after dark. I even thought about getting our car facing the area and turning on the headlights if needed.

Fortunately, this whole time, Penelope was as calm as she could be. I knew not to give her ANY pain medicine until the doctor said. She needed to see the patient as is, no medicine. Dr. Lehma spoke calmly to me as I stroked Penelope on her head and told her how sorry I felt. Dr. Lehma asked the how, when, and what happened to the horse. As I told her, I was just crying... She stayed patient with me. After the initial exam she said she would like to give her some pain medicine.

"Yes, Yes, Yes," I cried. She went and got all the things she needed. She shaved a patch of hair to get to the vein. By now she was laying down on her side in the stall.  I am so grateful Penelope stayed calm, I saw the damage. The guilt was awful. In my mind I knew it to be an accident, but seeing her on the ground, damaged as she was, the guilt was very heavy. After the quick assessment, we stepped to the side to talk while Dennis watched over the patient. She outlined all she found and said what she could do. After hearing all the damage to both her back legs, a decision had to be made. As hard as the situation was, you must think of the patient. Between her and I and Dennis we decided the damage to both back legs was too much for her to endure.

I was on my knees crying at Penelope's head, stroking her warm skin. She was in no pain now thanks to the initial shot Dr. Lehma administered.

After collecting all she needed and asking me again if this was our choice, she got on her knees along side of me and felt for a vein. She explained EVERYTHING before she did it. What would happen once she gave the shot to put her down (to permanent sleep) so I would not be surprised by anything. Thank goodness she did. Afterwards, the three of us just kept silent as there were no words!! I just kept stroking her head. About five minutes later, Dr. Lehma took out her stethoscope to listen for a heartbeat. Then she felt her eye and there was no blinking, Penelope was gone and out of pain. 

After getting a big needed hug from Dr. Lehma, she wrapped up her truck to go back to the office. I asked her before she left about the bill and she said to us, 'not now' we will bill you... What a kindness that was as we had enough on our plate. She drove off and Dennis just held me as we cried over the loss of such a kind animal.

We covered her up as it was too late to do anything else. 

In the morning, my husband had the awful task of taking her away from the property. He went by himself. I am so grateful to him and to Dr. Lehma for getting me through that night. Owning living, breathing, feeling animals can be so much fun, as they give US so much back. But, farm life has a dark downside as you can read. The only thing we can do is keep taking the best care of the animals in our hands. Accidents happen on the farm and to people. It is hard and it sucks, but it is life. Until next time Rio Linda, be safe and hug your LOVED ones, four and two legged, as much as you can.