Dewey’s journey: part 1

On Feb 2nd, we embarked on anadventure no equine owner wants to undertake: our donkey, Dewey, presented with severe colic.

Over the next few days, we will share his story. (Spoiler Alert 🚨: He isn’t fully out of the woods, but he is home and doing great).

We’d been fairly warned that donkeys are stoic and will wait until the last moment to show you signs of pain.

Seemingly fine the day before, we found Dewey with a “snotty dripping nose” at morning feed. He was also standing alone - very strange for this social dude.
Compared to how a horse shows severe colic, these symptoms were literally nothing. But our guts sank and we raced for the trailer.

After a long day of trying all we could, we faced the option of putting Dewey down, or having him undergo surgery to remove a large blockage in his gut.

The Star 6 Ranch team went to bat for our little friend - opting to proceed with treatment.

After 6 hours of complicated surgery, Dewey bounced to his feet.

We knew his chances of survival after such an invasive procedure weren’t great, and that there would be a long road of recovery to travel, with an undetermined destination.

But there was spirit in his eyes, and we hoped the stoicism that got him into this mess, would also serve to pull him through.

Brother Hewey, stood by through the entire process, waiting patiently in the treatment rooms, sharing a hospital stall, vocalizing his support, and looking out for his bro.

Though the odds were stacked against him, he was surrounded with love and support.

Beyond that, we just couldn’t shake the vision of these two- running wild & free back at the ranch - sharing joy and connection with all who have yet to visit ❤️💙

Read part 2 here.