Almost a year...

It's been almost a year since Parlay was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. His death sentence postponed for quite a while, considering the grim prognosis of 3 to 6 months all those months ago.

It is still a balancing act every day with him. Parlay still eats sporadically, turning his nose up to things here and there and making me work at getting him fed and keeping him looking good.

I am constantly playing with the medication and nutraceuticals. Herbs and powders and all kinds of supplements. And Lasix. The life extending furosemide. Continually adjusting dosages and timing and number of shots daily...

It has been a challenging ride.

And, with the weather today, I take a step back and reminisce about how ugly it all was a year ago.

The weather has been just horrible. The heat index today was above 100 degrees and the reports are that it is going to stay like this for a few more days. Parlay is noticeably uncomfortable. It was going pretty well up until a few days ago.

Parlay has been struggling since July 4th. We had a bit of an "incident," here with my neighbors sending off fireworks above the horse paddock. All of the boys were dashing around a bit and it really through Parlay into a tailspin. Pulse and respiration were way up and have not really come down. The coughing is back with vigor. He has not eaten a full meal since that night, choosing instead to kind of pick at the food. I am not sure if the incident is the cause or the drastic weather is the culprit, but whatever it is, I have my hands full. Again.

Par has been on twice a day Lasix (7-8 mL per dose) for well over a week. Naturally, Lasix is in hot demand these days and pretty hard to find. I have had a couple of scares as I got to the wire waiting for it.

He is also getting Accupril (120 mg) once a day. I thought about taking him off of it, but my contact at Cornell says that it is probably helping more than I know. So, he stays on it.

He is getting Magnesium Oxide, an Omega 3 supplement, 2 different types of electrolytes and MSM. I have cut out all of the herbal remedies for the coughing--it didn't seem like they were doing enough and he was starting to snub them in the food.

He still gets CoQ10 and Hawthorne and Rescue Remedy. I am considering adding dandelion (an herbal diuretic) to see if I can use that to reduce the amount of Lasix again.

But now is not the time to be switching anything up. He has his hooves full trying to keep up with the thick air quality right now. Tonight I gave him a nebulizer treatment of Albuterol Sulfate. I haven't done that in quite a while and I am hoping that it gives him some relief.

It is 1:45 AM and I will probably go out and check on him again in a few minutes. Back to sleepless nights, it would appear.

As I become more woozy from the lack of sleep, I wonder if I will finally just bring him inside to the air conditioning...