Update on Trooper

Thank you to everyone who has read about Trooper and responded through Blogger and Facebook. You have many great suggestions, such as contacting the vet school to see if treatment would be less expensive there, if surgery is necessary. I know their livestock treatment options are considerably less expensive than private vets.

After many excellent suggestions for a name, we thought that Trooper was the name that really fit him. It honors everything he's already been through and will go through as he continues to heal. He is quite a Trooper! Cupid was a close second because he is such a lover, and he showed up just in time for Valentine's Day.

Several people have now contacted me privately through Facebook or commented on here that I should set up a fund to help pay for Trooper's medical costs since he is a rescue. Initially, I replied that it wasn't necessary, but I have to admit that I am thinking about cost when deciding what to do next with him. And after seeing him poop this morning, I think x-rays may be in order. Yesterday, Katherine told me that his poop looked oddly flat, and he seemed to be straining. It was before the vet visit, so I didn't think much of it, especially having no idea of what he had been eating. But then this morning, she said he pooped four separate times during his walk, and the poop was always flat. So, I am wondering if there is some kind of obstruction in his pelvis.

Otherwise, he seems pretty happy. We're keeping him in the barn office, because he only has one step up to get in there. He'd have to go up eight steps to get into our house, and then it's two stories. He is not supposed to be doing any more walking that absolutely necessary. He sleeps all the time now that he's on medication. He even sleeps through all of Mike's hammering and sawing, because we're working on new kidding pens out there. (Kidding starts in about 10 days!) When we take him outside, though, it's obvious the pain meds are working well, because he seems to want to explore a lot. Leash walking is definitely necessary to keep him from overdoing it.

If you would like to donate something to his care, you can send it to Deborah at Antiquity Oaks dot com through PayPal, and just put something about Trooper in the comment section. If anything is left over, I will use it to care for future deserted animals. We try to get the stray cats spayed and neutered, but can't always afford it in a timely manner -- meaning that the boys will reach sexual maturity and start to stray or the females reach sexual maturity and get pregnant. I'm happy to say we've only had one female get pregnant in the last seven years, and that's because we underestimated her age. We currently have two male cats that should be neutered (the two kittens that were dumped last summer), which I was going to do in the next week or two, before Trooper showed up. Please don't donate any more than you can afford comfortably, and if you live on a farm, I know you already have your own little charity cases to care for, since so many people think that they're giving animals a second chance by dumping them in the country.

Thank you again for all of the great suggestions and offers to help. You're really terrific!