In our last installment from the book Equine ER by Leslie Guttman, Thoroughbred Slewpy’s Star was dying of pleuropneumonia, and as a last resort, owner Ed Frederick signed a waiver for Slewpy to take an experimental drug.

In mid-June, Slewpy’s Star got her first injection of SLO. Over about the next two weeks, she got SLO every day. Ed Frederick, her owner, noticed her slow progression toward wellness É she started eating more É then she was moving around more É then she got turned out in the day pen at the front of Rood & Riddle (covered with a blanket so people driving by wouldn’t think she was being starved and call authorities). During her hospital stay Slewpy’s Star for the most part was quiet, uncharacteristically nice. As she started to recover, she began getting touchy. Then she kicked somebody. “She must be feeling better,” said Frederick when Dr. Bonnie Barr told him. At the end of the second week, she was healthy enough to go home.

Slewpy’s Star was clinging to life after two trips to the hospital