Author: Rosemary Watson

Grady colicked on December 1, 2011. The vet came to our barn to treat him and determined that he had a displaced intestine that wasn’t going to right itself. Two days later we decided to go ahead with surgery. Grady went through colic surgery wonderfully and appeared to be making an amazing recovery. Unfortunately, after he was released from the vet, he started to get a fever. After many visits from our vet and endless tests, we discovered that he had developed pneumonia, something that can occur any time a horse has a tube down its throat. We took him back to the vet where they started Grady on antibiotics. But just when we thought nothing else could possibly go wrong, he became very sick with diarrhea, which was caused by the harsh antibiotics he had to have.

On January 16, 2011, two weeks after we took him to the vet, Grady died. My daughter stayed in the stall with him for his final day of life, letting Grady rest his head on her shoulder. I think they both knew what was coming. My daughter and I miss Grady everyday.