Colic at the Barn

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Echo Coliced Yesterday

My horses, Echo and Preacher, got their spring vaccines and blood drawn for a Coggins test yesterday in preparation to moving to a new barn the first of April.

Well, Preacher gets a reaction to tetanus where as he doesn't feel good and gets an elevated temperature. It's happened before so the vet gives him Banamine first.

Now, Echo has never reacted to any vaccines but yesterday within about an hour he was showing signs of colic. He wasn't acting himself and then started to roll in the arena. When he started to get sweaty I called the vet and she came right back. Gave him Banamine for pain and steroids to counteract the vaccine reaction. Although, a little better, he still wasn't feeling good. She gave him a little sedation and we put him in his stall. I watched him for an hour but he still wanted to lay down and groan so the vet came back.

She sedated him, did a rectal and then tubed him and put a gallon of mineral oil in his stomach. When he came out of the sedated state he felt better. I stayed with him till 10:30 last night.

He could have handfuls of hay scattered in his stall and walked every couple hours.

When I left he was feeling much better. Carol, the barn owner, checked on him and walked him during the night and kept me informed.

Now, I've seen enough colic to last me a lifetime! I hate it!!!

Here is where I sat next to his stall all evening.

Here is Echo today, acting completely normal!!

Thank you Jesus.

Preacher's temp was 102.2 at noon today. It was probably higher during the night. He was acting grouchy and cranky and didn't finish his 10 pm feeding. I gave him some Banamine today and he should be fine. He's acting normal now.

Horses are very complicated animals. Both their physical makeup, their digestive system especially, and their minds! They get stressed easily. You can do so much damage to a horse's mind if you are not careful. And they don't forget!!

Shirley

(And I'm not even talking about my stress!! I'm just sayin')