I didn’t say it to Pete that I’m almost too tired to write a dispatch, but then again, I might have said this to him. I don’t know. I don’t think that this was the context for his saying that I should write about Tyra’s poop.

I will, I decided, do this and see where it leads to. Never, in the whole history of horsedom, has any horses’ poop been so scrutinized. May have paid close attention to the lack of horse poop because a horse that has an impaction, that is colic, is not pooping. Such owners breathe a sigh of relief when the horse does eliminate because this then means that the horse is temporarily, if not permanently better.

Tyra has had the opposite problem. For some time she’s had intermittent runny, smelly, watery, gassy poop. It’s been very cyclical – it’s firm for a while then runny, smelly, watery, and gassy again. Then it’s firm again.

We tried feeding her expensive grass hay. This worked for a while then didn’t work. We tried putting her on supplements. This worked for a while and then didn’t work. We tried putting her on Panacur Powerpack, a dewormer. This worked for a while and then didn’t work.

Now she’s on a drug, the name of which I can’t pronounce -- Metronidazole. This makes me nervous as does the fact that this drug can have side effects, one of which is that she might colic. I’d rather see runny, smelly, watery, gassy poop than no poop at all.

We had her on this drug for two days. Her poop was then as it should be, solid and dry. We took her off this drug and she was fine for a week, then her poop was again runny, smelly, watery, and gassy.

Calley, our veterinary friend, concurred with our veterinarian Zack Kaiser that we should immediately put her back on Metronidazole. Maybe that’s the name of it. Their rationale was that the first two day dose killed some of the weaker bad bacteria, but what lingered was the stronger, more resistant bacteria. This made sense to me.

So we are back to giving her the remaining five days of medication. I am nervous in part because I am not sure that what I’m seeing is a sign that she’s better. Her poop is now taking the form of larger balls, and they are dark and pressed together. The poop forms mounds on the grounds – it’s like they are stud piles. But Tyra is no stud. In fact she is very much the opposite.

I guess I’ll take her having runny poop over becoming ill because of an adverse reaction to the drug she’s being given.

There is a basis for comparison. Raudi’s poop has always been what we call textbook – perfect. It’s a rich dark brown, in uniform size. And it’s dry. And Hrimmi’s poop is just a shade darker and the ball a bit larger than Raudi’s.

There. I did it. This should please my assignments editor.

Next: 185. 7/9/26: Being the Heavy