Life and Death on the Farm

[Gunz]

If this is inappropriate to post here, feel free to move or delete.

Last Friday afternoon I was out running errands. When I got back in the truck I saw that my wife had texted me and called me about a dozen times in ten minutes. The text read: "Lightning hit the mares. They are both dead."

This was a 30-year-old mom, Tatti, and her 10-year-old daughter, Lexi, living in the same pasture.

Needless to say, my wife was frantic because she'd seen the lightning strike. There was no rain. Both mares went down like they'd been shot in the head. I raced home and by the time I got there, Tatti, the mom, was standing up grazing, after being unconscious for 45 minutes. Lexi was dead. They'd been standing next to each other and Lexi took a direct hit that knocked her mother out.

I had to dig the grave. I don't have a backhoe on my tractor just a loader with a bucket, and it takes me close to three hours to get a horse-grave dug. I had to drag Lexi's body out of the pasture with the tractor because I didn't want to bury her inside the pasture with her mother. My wife held her while I dragged the body out and it was the closest thing to a look of horror on a horse's face I've ever seen when I dragged Tatti's daughter out.

My wife's been kind of traumatized by the whole thing.

I've buried plenty of animal's in my life, horses, dogs, cats, goats, and it's never easy. But most of them have been put down by the vet, never had one hit by lightning until now. Usually I dig the graves by hand because I want to sweat and work hard to give them a decent burial after all the pleasure and happiness they've given me. It's the least I can do. So I hopped off the tractor whenever I could and used the shovel until I started getting overheated.

God Bless all animals. They are indeed a joy to us.

 

[Devildoc]

Hell yeah it's traumatizing. Man, that's tough. I cried more when my dog of 15 years died than when either of my parents died. Animals are tough.

 

[104TN]

If this is inappropriate to post here, feel free to move or delete.

Last Friday afternoon I was out running errands. When I got back in the truck I saw that my wife had texted me and called me about a dozen times in ten minutes. The text read: "Lightning hit the mares. They are both dead."

This was a 30-year-old mom, Tatti, and her 10-year-old daughter, Lexi, living in the same pasture. Lexi we called the Miracle Baby...because when she was born she was "stall blind"...meaning she couldn't find her mother's teats to feed, she'd just stick her head in a dark corner of the stall. It's an emergency. The vet came out and put a tube down the foal's nostril and for the next 36 hours we took turns milking the mare into a jar, every hour on the hour, around the clock, putting a funnel on the foal's nostril tube and pouring her mother's milk through the funnel. She survived and became a wonderful healthy young filly.

Needless to say, my wife was frantic because she'd seen the lightning strike. There was no rain. Both mares went down like they'd been shot in the head. I raced home and by the time I got there, Tatti, the mom, was standing up grazing, after being unconscious for 45 minutes. Lexi was dead. They'd been standing next to each other and Lexi took a direct hit that knocked her mother out.

I had to dig the grave. I don't have a backhoe on my tractor just a loader with a bucket, and it takes me close to three hours to get a horse-grave dug. I had to drag Lexi's body out of the pasture with the tractor because I didn't want to bury her inside the pasture with her mother. My wife held her while I dragged the body out and it was the closest thing to a look of horror on a horse's face I've ever seen when I dragged Tatti's daughter out.

My wife's been kind of traumatized by the whole thing.

I've buried plenty of animal's in my life, horses, dogs, cats, goats, and it's never easy. But most of them have been put down by the vet, never had one hit by lightning until now. Usually I dig the graves by hand because I want to sweat and work hard to give them a decent burial after all the pleasure and happiness they've given me. It's the least I can do. So I hopped off the tractor whenever I could and used the shovel until I started getting overheated.

God Bless all animals. They are indeed a joy to us.

That sucks. I hope you and missus are able to find some comfort in each other and Tatti.

 

[Red Flag 1]

If this is inappropriate to post here, feel free to move or delete.

Last Friday afternoon I was out running errands. When I got back in the truck I saw that my wife had texted me and called me about a dozen times in ten minutes. The text read: "Lightning hit the mares. They are both dead."

This was a 30-year-old mom, Tatti, and her 10-year-old daughter, Lexi, living in the same pasture. Lexi we called the Miracle Baby...because when she was born she was "stall blind"...meaning she couldn't find her mother's teats to feed, she'd just stick her head in a dark corner of the stall. It's an emergency. The vet came out and put a tube down the foal's nostril and for the next 36 hours we took turns milking the mare into a jar, every hour on the hour, around the clock, putting a funnel on the foal's nostril tube and pouring her mother's milk through the funnel. She survived and became a wonderful healthy young filly.

Needless to say, my wife was frantic because she'd seen the lightning strike. There was no rain. Both mares went down like they'd been shot in the head. I raced home and by the time I got there, Tatti, the mom, was standing up grazing, after being unconscious for 45 minutes. Lexi was dead. They'd been standing next to each other and Lexi took a direct hit that knocked her mother out.

I had to dig the grave. I don't have a backhoe on my tractor just a loader with a bucket, and it takes me close to three hours to get a horse-grave dug. I had to drag Lexi's body out of the pasture with the tractor because I didn't want to bury her inside the pasture with her mother. My wife held her while I dragged the body out and it was the closest thing to a look of horror on a horse's face I've ever seen when I dragged Tatti's daughter out.

My wife's been kind of traumatized by the whole thing.

I've buried plenty of animal's in my life, horses, dogs, cats, goats, and it's never easy. But most of them have been put down by the vet, never had one hit by lightning until now. Usually I dig the graves by hand because I want to sweat and work hard to give them a decent burial after all the pleasure and happiness they've given me. It's the least I can do. So I hopped off the tractor whenever I could and used the shovel until I started getting overheated.

God Bless all animals. They are indeed a joy to us.

I am so sorry to hear this news, A. We have a couple of horses on The Farm, Abby and Sherry. They are very social, and in their fenced in 10 acre pasture, they are always within sight of each other. If one goes to the hay barn for some eats, or to get out of the sun, they are always together. They still will let the grand kids on their bare backs, but if you try to saddle either one, you'll have your hands full; they both work together to keep the saddles off. I can understand why you had to use another pasture for burial, and what a brutal day for Tatti. I understand your loss, and as you so nicely put,"God bless all animals". I just love all our critters.

Any thoughts about a companion for Lexi?

 

[CDG]

Sorry for your loss brother. Losing an animal is never easy. I remember driving our miniature schnauzer to be put down, with my mom and two sisters in the car. Cassie, the schnauzer, had developed an inoperable brain tumor and was having seizures and in pain, so putting her down was the only choice. I held it together until I got home, and then it got dusty as fuck in my room.

 

[Gunz]

Thanks for the kind comments. We haven't thought about a companion. She's 30, which is pretty ancient for a horse...for her to get up after being out cold for 45 minutes was pretty amazing. Amazing also that she didnt break a leg when she fell in a heap. So I guess you could call her the Miracle Mom. She seems to be doing okay. It's hard to tell with a horse. They're not as emotive about loss as dogs are. When we lost our female Golden retriever, we could tell her son, Benny, was grieving for months. Luckily TR, the Mal pup has brightened up Benny's life immensely--not to mention ours.

 

[Red Flag 1]

I would often get a wee one that needed some time in the OR. Tonsils, PE Tubes in the ears, or a hernia repair and so on. Every now and then, on saying I was going to,"put them to sleep", the wee one would ask if it would be like ( name a pet dog or cat), who went to sleep and never woke up again. It took some time to explain the difference; and, again in the OR. "I'm going to wake back up after, aren't I"?

Touching times.

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

Sorry brother, it's never a good experience.

 

[Dame]

So sorry to hear that. Are you planning on planting anything over Lexi?

 

[Ooh-Rah]

The compassion in this statement will resonate with me for some time.

I had to drag Lexi's body out of the pasture with the tractor because I didn't want to bury her inside the pasture with her mother.

So sorry to you and your wife for the loss -

 

[Ex3]

I'm really sorry. xx

 

[racing_kitty]

I'm truly sorry for your loss.

 

[Gunz]

So sorry to hear that. Are you planning on planting anything over Lexi?

Not right now, ma'am. I put a little garden fence around the grave site to keep any critters away and the grass will probably grow over it pretty quickly. We've buried our other family pets in the shade under a stand of pines on top of the hill. Two dogs and a cat. We haven't marked their graves but we know where they all are and I go up there and think about them from time to time.