The vets and vet techs were wonderful though they kept us informed through the entire surgery.  They let us know he would loose the testicle that the intestine went into due to blood loss from the intestine blocking the artery.  They also came out a few hours later and gave us good news.  They told us that there was no dead intestine.  This made his chance of recovery much greater.  He had an 85% chance of making a full recovery.  We were very happy.  Once they put all his insides back in and stitched him up they moved him into a padded room to come out of the anesthesia.  This was also a very intense and emotional time.  They twist there ears, smack there nose and tap there eyes to try to get them to respond and wake up.  It took Lethal about 30 to 45 minutes to wake up.  Once he did he tried to stand.  He was very unsteady and you could see he was very confused.  That was late at night so once he came through we went home.  The next day we came out to see him .  They told us he was doing well but he had Illius (the intesines shut down from being handled) and a small amount of heat in his feet.  So they iced his feet and began treatment for the illius.We asked if we could take him out and let him graze a little and they allowed us to bring him out for 15 minutes.  He was in the hospital for 5 days.  He seemed to be getting depressed but was off all the meds so we decided to bring him home and his spirits immediatley turned around.  He started eating and drinking normally and talking to all the girls.  We were exstatic.  We would take him out everyday and hand graze him.  We would let him walk around the property and he was very happy about that.  One day he was out and we went into the house to eat some lunch.  We heard him talking to someone so we rushed out.  He had walked up to our back window and saw his reflection in the window and thought is was another horse.  Thank god we came out when we did because he was getting ready to mount the window.  Needless to say we grabbed him and put him back into his stall.  Anyway, things were going well.  Lethal wazs eating drinking and talking to his girls, it looked like we were out of the woods.  About a week after his staples were removed we noticed he was lame, limpimg.  We called our vet out immediatley.  The vet showed up and by the time he got here Lethal was laying down and would not get up.  The vet did a nerve block on both of his front feet to get him out to his truck for x-rays.  Oh my gosh, he was like a new horse after the nerve block.  He didn't limp and he was ready to go.  He had dropped alot of weight as you can see from the pictures because he was on a very strict diet with very little grain and soaked T/A or Alfalfa to take the protein out of it.  The vets reccomdation was Euthinatia but he did not seem to be ready to give up and we wanted a second opinion.  I immediatley got on the computer and began looking up Founder specialists.  I also contacted my farrier who came out immediatley and began to put him up in a make shift sling, He and several people were here until 2:00 am trying to get Lethal comfortable in the sling.  My farrier slept in the stall with Lethal all night and finally cut him down that morning because lethal hated being in the sling and began to fight it.  So the sling to get his weight off of his front feet failed.  I had found a vet by the name of rood and riddle who was supposed to be the best in the world for founder so i contacted them.  The problem was they were in kentucky and there was no way lethal could make the trip.  The day after the nerve block we thought we were going to loose him because he went into shock.  my vet had warned us about the nerve block but we had no option other than to do it.  When you block the feet they have no feeling in them so they stand and walk like nothing is wrong, which puts all their weight on those feet.  After being up for several hours it becomes very painful for the horse but the problem is the horse can't feel it untill the block wears off.  Well, once the block wore off he was in so much pain from standing all day he went into shock.  He was on banamine and rompom all day long for the pain, but he still was eating and drinking.  Anyway, I called Rood and riddle and spoke with the head podiatrist, foot doctor, I sent pictures of lethals feet to him Theseare the exact pictures I sent to him along with the x-rays my vet had taken.  I finally got a call back and the vet told me he could save lethal, he would be pasture sound.  Oh we were so happy.  He sent us specialty boots to put him in untill he could come down in two weeks.  He told us how to treat his feet and what to feed him.  We followed it to the tee.  Lethal laid around alot and we began to really worry.  I called this vet everyday with updates, I am sure he got sick of hearing from me.  Lethals spirits were still up.  We would leave his stall door open all day so he wouldn't have to stare at four walls.  WSe bedded his stall with probably 30 bags of shavings and would add about 4 a day.  Everytime he would go to the bathroom I would clean his stall.  The vet wanted his stall be be extremely padded and dished so that the outside of the stall was higher than the middle.  This would promote him to sit up on his barrel rather than laying flat on his side.  I would go out to his stall at 10:00 pm, 12:00pm and about 2:00 am to clean his stall.  We would be back out at 6:30 am so between 2 and 6:30 I would let him sleep.  He was such a sport.  We would turn him if he was down on one side to long.  He got bed sores which we were told to treat with baby powder and they actually started to heal.  He was getting a raw food diet as well as a handful of grain and soaked alfafa.  We would feed him clovers that were freshly picked from the yard and he loved them. His boots would be taken off every day and cleaned and sanitized and them put back on.  I noticed one saturday morning he was not feeling well so I gave him a shot of banamine to help him through it.  He did perk up a bit after that but this was the end.  At 11:30 P.M. I went out to his stall to check on him as I did every night.  Lethal had passed.  It was one of the hardest things I have ever seen.  I had to run in to the house wake my husband and tell him the bad news.  He immediatly ran out to the barn and just began sobbing.  Our prayers in a way were answered.  We prayed every night that if lethal was not going to pull through this please do not make us make the decision of euthinasia just take him peacefully.  That was a long night of crying.  The next morning were woken up to the phone ringing.  It was a neihbor asking who all the cars were in our yard.  I panicked and jumped out of bed.  Sure enough my yard had several cars in it I ran outside and all our friends and family were out in the barn trying to get Lethal out of his stall.  We are so blessed to have the friends and family that we have.  They were wonderful through the whole ordeal and when it was over they supported us to the end.  Thank you to all that helped and were there for support.  This is one of the hardest things Johnny and I have ever been through, to watch one of our prize animals go from being fat and healthy and over night be on deaths door when we do everything possible to keep our animals healthy and prevent collic is hard. we couldn't have done it with out all our friends and family.  Thanks you all so much and we hope that everyone can learn something from our horrible experience.  We did everything in our power to help Lethal.  Money was no object at this time.  We spent $25,000.00 on him and still lost him.  This is proof that our lives and our animals lives are not in our hands.  When God says it is time to go, no matter how much money yoiu have or if you have the best physicians in the world it is your time to go, no one can stop it.  Lethal your name came up in the book of life and we did everythin in our power to keep you hear, but god needed you more than we did!  I am so sorry buddy!  You are so loved and so missed!