Month 1 Part 2

Now let me see, where was I, oh yes on to New Bolton.  There are not enough words meaning perfect, exceptional, talented and dedicated to describe the vets at New Bolton.  It is IMHO the Johns Hopkins of the large animal world.  They took my sick foal and made her well and they treated her with kindness and compassion while doing so.  What can I say.

There were however two sort of funny things that happened. The first was a bit like an episode from I Love Lucy. I can just hear ya'll thinking that I have just lost my mind. How on earth could New Bolton be like the Ricardos?  Well in this particular episode, Lucy wanted to buy a pricey negligee and she knew that when Ricky saw the price tag, he have a fit and make her take it back.  So what did she do?  She bought twelve negligees and when Ricky had his huge fit, she offered to take eleven back, if she could just keep one.  Well after seeing the price tag for twelve negligees, one seemed like a welcome relief and he agreed.

When we first got there, the primary vet said that his best estimation for time and cost was five days and $5000. Yikes, but it was our foal's life, so we agreed to do it.  Then the veterinary resident came in and said no more like between $2000 and $3000 and we would have to pay half of the highest price up front. Gee $1500 after $5,000.  That seemed like a bargain and when it turned out that was all our bill was, instead of thinking $1500, yikes, $1500.  We said oh my god, what a bargain.  It wasn't even close to the $5000.  Hence the twelve negligees.

The next sort of funny was the source of her infection.  When we came in, I told the primary vet about the small healed over puncture wound and he told me point blank.  No, these infections were always blood borne and the source was somewhere else.  When we looked at the xray, there was a pocket of infection, next to the joint (luckily it had not gotten into the bone.)  When I said look at that, could that be the source of the infection.  Oh no, the source was somewhere else.  So when the vet called the next day with his update.  I asked, did you find the source of the infection, and guess what? The infection was not blood borne and they couldn't fine the source.  I wanted to say, Hmm, how about that puncture wound, but I decided gloating wasn't becoming, so I refrained.

Just to show how nice they are, a few days after we'd come home, I received the sweetest letter from the Resident in which he told me that not only was Jolie unusually pretty, but she was amazingly well behaved. Now before you guys start thinking that I have equine equivalent of some cutesy combination of Angelina Jolie and Sydney Sawyer (in case you've forgotten he was the brother who was always reminding Aunt Polly that he had his Sunday School suit on and knew his Bible verses); I want you to remember that I said that not only is she a bossy boots, but she is also quite the little madame. And that gentle readers is another story for another day.

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite shots from the past two weeks.