In The Wee Hours

My grandfather always said there's "no rest for the wicked." Not sure about the wicked part, but there's certainly no rest for anyone around here tonight. We have a colicky horse.

To anyone who knows anything about horses, those words are sure to strike fear. We all know that every horse we have, no matter how healthy he is, no matter how much he cost, no matter how much we love him, is always just one grain or one pellet away from colicking.

Knowing that colic is the number one cause of equine death made our hearts beat quite a bit faster when our Freckles refused his evening feed and then started showing signs of severe distress. We tried making him walk (the best way to keep the gut working and cause him to pass gas and stool) but his knees kept folding and he'd try to crumple to the ground. The vet (ours is on speed dial, I'll bet yours is too) said to allow him to lie down if he insisted, but to keep him from rolling at all costs. So, we aimed him to his stall and prepared ourselves for a long vigil.

After a while on the ground, Freckles apparently decided that this position didn't hurt any less than standing up, so he labored back to his feet, and then without any fanfare...he pooped and farted. What a wonderful sound! First the pfffffffft and then plop plop plop.

Looking at the pile of manure proved the type of colic we were dealing with. Most are treated identically at the beginning, but post and preventative treatments vary according to the type, so it's important to realize what's causing the problem. With Freckles, the dry flaky stool showed he was suffering from "pelvic flexure impaction". We'd been out of town over the weekend, and to make things easier for our barn sitter, we'd put out extra hay for everyone and lessened the numbers of feedings of grain per day. All of this extra hay had impacted and stopped moving, most likely in the left colon where the intestine takes a 180 degree and turn and narrows. What fluids he'd managed to intake were not keeping his gut moist enough to keep food digesting, so every bite he took kept piling up and up and up like cars in a wreck on the interstate until finally he simply...filled up.

Because his bowels were functioning now and he was able to pass fecal matter and gas, the prognosis for Freckles began looking brighter immediately, but still requires overnight watch which will include no feed for 24 hours, free range to graze if he chooses, as much water as he will drink (putting apple cider vinegar in a pail of water will sometimes entice them to drink, and is great for their system) and a new diet when he starts back to eating. This diet will include wheat bran (32 oz every day) to aid digestion, no hay at all for 10 days, and as much fluid as we can get him to take. We'll soak some beet pulp and add that to his food, and probably soak the bran before feeding it too.

While Freckles was down, we gave him a shot of banamine and that was when he began to made a turn for the better. At times like this, I am grateful for every moment of medical study and research and every single medication that is available to us to make life easier and healthier for our animals. As much as I believe in the power of alternative and natural medicine to heal, and as much as I want to give our animals a natural lifestyle, I also believe that we are responsible for providing as safe an existence for them as possible. This means taking the boat when you are offered it (are you familiar with that old joke about the man in a hurricane who keeps telling rescue workers to go save someone else, God will save him....as he is about to go under water he asks God how he could have failed him so and God speaks "Fail you? I sent you a boat, I sent you a helicopter, I sent you a.....")

I am lucky to have vets nearby who are willing to help me find a balance between old and new medicine and who have given my animals truly the best of both worlds. There are not enough words to express my gratitude.

Now, it's time for a check-in, and then if all is well, maybe an hour or two of sleep. Perchance to dream. Most likely about new saddles, clean stalls, and maybe even a nice moist poop or two.