Jagannath Passes – Posted in: Jagannath

Sadly, this day will also be remembered for another reason. It absolutely breaks my heart to inform you all that we lost our gentle and majestic Jagannath this morning. His problems began about 3 weeks ago when I found him lying lifeless in the field. The vet was called but it was a mystery as to why he was down. After what seemed like hours, a handful of injections and a bit of help, he managed to get himself up. Once up, he looked as normal as ever. We still didn’t know what had caused this and assumed it was a one off occurrence.

About 4 days later, I find him down again. Max the vet returns and now we are beginning to think there’s a big problem here yet no clue as to what. I then realise that I haven’t seen him getting up and down at all over that period which then makes us suspect an issue with his back.

He was down for 2 days & 3 nights and was thoroughly enjoying me waiting on him with the best sweet hay from this year’s crop.

Once up, I moved him and Jambo away from the others to a field where we could keep more of an eye on him.

Our suspicions were confirmed, he didn’t lay down for 5 days until he was exhausted, then crashed out. During this time, I was trying to get osteopaths and/or physios to come and see him but to no avail.

And Jaggies back problem was getting worse. He went down a further two times and when he finally went down last saturday, he was unable to get up.

Alongside the vets, we have tried everything to try and make him comfortable but his condition continued to worsen.

Finally, this morning, after a very long and demanding night, physically, mentally and emotionally, he left us.

It feels so unfair that such a sweet, strong, intelligent ox should be taken from us at such a young age. All I can do is relish the beautiful memories I have of the wonderful time I spent with him and take solace in the fact that he touched the hearts of everyone he met.