s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

With some effort Tam and I got Jim out of the paddock yesterday, this involved taking down part of a wooden fence, rope, and the ute. We got him out just as Julia arrived, thankfully she was early getting out of an appointment in Ohirau Valley, and swung by on her way back to clinic. So we had the PM done at 3:45 not 6:45. Due to the heat of the day, that is a good thing. The longer you wait and the more decomposition sets in, the harder it is to determine cause of death.

Jim had blood in his intestine, throughout the upper bowel. The bowel was also really inflamed. I would guess that was the immediate cause of death. Samples were taken. He also had lesions and evidence of damage in his lungs, so we toook another sample. Right now we don’t know if the two are related. There is a chance that the lung damage was cronic, or occured years ago (pneumonia as a cria?). We have to wait about 5 days for the pathology and histology reports to come back. I hope we can get a definiative cause of death.

We always knew Jim was fat, but boy we didn’t realize how fat. Fat enough to complicate the post-mortem at times. I don’t know if his fatness contributed to his death, and I don’t know what we could have done about it. All he got was grass (no feed supplements), but he was a lazy bugger, and was very good at conserving energy (sitting in the shade) and converting all that grass into fat. I shudder to think what Oak is like, as I think he is even fatter.

After Julia left we got Jim up to the graveyard with Yvonne’s help, and did what we needed to do. Steve came by with his digger to make the grave. It was a long and grueling day. We finished up about 8:30PM, and after washing up went into Tawa to get food. Eating so late has caused the predictable reaction today- migraine. I will sit in a dark room, take happy drugs, and do very little today.