It was a lovely life here for Indiana. He lived in happiness and peace. He was surrounded by friends and safety. Well fed. Sheltered. Clean. And he was afforded the luxury of the best vet care in the country. We wish that for them all.
He literally was fine one day and quit at life the next! After initial diagnostics at the University of Tennessee revealed nothing remarkable, he was transported to the New Bolton Center in Pennsylvania for a robotic CT scan.They only found degenerative disc disease. No tumors. No abscess. No breaks. No infection. It was a pretty dramatic presentation for “arthritis,” but it’s what we had. They enlisted physical therapy, sports medicine, and acupuncture to see if we could help him cope.
He was in increasing pain in spite of narcotics, anti-inflammatories, acupuncture, and physical therapy/chiropractic consults and treatments. They helped him up and he could only stand for less than a minute. Without a clear diagnosis we could fix, we had to consider what he was communicating to us. He was in enough pain that he hadn’t stood for a reasonable amount of time in a week. He wouldn’t eat, and his heart rate was elevated. All signs pointed to pain. They had tried everything, including increasing his pain meds. But it didn’t work and we had to be respectful of his limit.
Working with a herd of aging animals is fraught with heartbreak. Our focus is on treating each of them as respected individuals worthy of our affection and attention…no matter how short our time is with them. We’re proud to be here and honored to meet their needs.
See you on the other side, Indiana-sir. Save some snacks for the rest of us.