That's fine, you can call me lazy!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

It’s been quite a wild ride the last few weeks, and to be honest, I’ve just been too drained to update this. I’ll fill y’all in now, tho.

Saturday, June 6. 2009

Anne from Beauty’s Haven came out for a site visit. It was a blast meeting her and talking about how far the girls have come. Of course, as soon as she leaves, the rain starts. Horrible horrible rain. I couldn’t even see the road from the barn!

Monday, June 8, 2009

My first real horsey emergency with the girls happened.

Anni coliced. Started at 6pm when I went out to feed. The girls were in their stalls (I'm stalling them doing the day due to heat and storms) and I could tell Anni rolled. No biggie, til I went to take off her flymask. Anni looks wrong. She's facing the back with her face into the fan. I go in, touch her belly and she jumps. Sigh. And damn.

I grab her halter, get her walking, call P to tell him I'll be late and call K to tell him I need help. Twenty minutes in, I give Banamine. I was hoping she'd work herself out so I waited a bit. But she was parking out and rolling so I gave in. K pulls up right then, and he starts walking her. I feed Adiva and get some food for Anni. Watery beet pulp and way too much corn oil. She's not buying it. Her belly is hard, but gurgly. She's not in horrible pain, but she's way way uncomfortable. I'm betting gas colic.

We take turns walking until 8:30, when she passes normal stool, and is finally interested in her mash. I turn her out so she can move and graze a bit. She looks better - more alert. Half hour later, she parks out, then lays down. Shit. We go out there, and both horses spook and take off running. I encourage it, of course, cuz moving will force all that gas out. Well, not so much.

I grab her halter and we go at it again. Make her fave – Gatorade - to tempt her to drink but no dice. She's slightly dehydrated but not horribly so, and I chalk it up to her being icky feeling. She keeps escalating. Rolling more violently, pawing at her belly - she was going downhill fast.

I'm freaking, cuz as y'all know, the last colic call I made was Classy, and I'm just dying inside. I'm scared to even call. But I can't let this keep going, so I call the vet at 10:20 and he calls back 5 minutes later - he's on his way - 30 minutes.

Lucky for me the vet coming out was the owner of the business and he's been around Florida colic so much he can do it in his sleep. I feel way better about him coming out. When he gets there, he shoots her full of Xylazine and takes her vitals. All normal. Heart rate, temp, respiration. Even had normal belly sounds, tho a little diminished on her left side. He gives her Banamine and does a rectal. (Did I mention she's passes FIVE normal stools since 6pm?) All he finds is normal stool. A bit gassy, but nothing crazy. So, oil time. We load her up, give her more Xylazine and that's it. We put her in her stall to sleep it off. Vet gives me strict instructions and tells us to get some sleep. I get home at midnight, shower, fall into bed, wake up at 6 and head right back to the barn.

She's better - two piles of normal stool - but she's stuck in with no feed. Not that she cares. She's definitely still feeling bad. Adiva, luckily, is being an angel and not complaining about anything. I head off to work, and inform everyone that I'm going to be a bitch. When I explain why, one of the techs tells me to bring in a fecal sample and we'll check for worms. Well duh! Why haven't I thought of that? I check on them at lunch and Anni actually nickers at me. Oh joy! She's obviously feeling better. She's not allowed to eat anything yet, but she seems to be happier. I take some nice fresh poopies to work and test it. Guess what I find???? Hookworms. Lots and lots of hookworms. WTF? I mean, it’s not like they aren’t being wormed. So, after work I head to the feed store, grab oil, bran and dewormers and head back to the barn to hope she has passed some oil. If so she gets to eat. If not, I call the vet.

Oh joy – oily poop!!! That means she gets a nice bran mash. Here starts the scary business of feeding her again. But I’m a good girl and follow orders – only 1/4 of normal diet for now and if all goes well I can increase by 1/4 each feeding. She’s stuck in again at night – I don’t want to risk letting her out and having her overgraze.

She continued to improve day by day, but it took her a good week to start feeling (and looking) herself again.

Adiva was nice to her the entire time too. I’m a bit surprised as she’s a true alpha mare and can be so mean sometimes!

Speaking of Adiva, I did get to work her once last week – she was a defiant little mare and we had a long discussion about it. She’s decided that the lunge whip isn’t scary, which is good, but she doesn’t have to listen to it. So how to you convince a horse to listen and respect a whip without scaring them? Yeah, not easily. I haven’t had a chance to mess with her again, but I think I have a few ideas. Hell, if she’d just move on her own I wouldn’t even need a whip!

Anni hasn’t worked at all. They’ve been getting groomed, but I wanted to give her some time to recover, plus the farrier is due and it’s just been so effing hot! Heat index of 106 today. It’s been like this for a while now, and I see no reason to push the girls. I’m just going to wait it out and take advantage of nice days.