Wednesday, April 04, 2007
I have a tummy ach
What happened to spring? There is snow on the ground and we actually had to keep horses in for 3 nights because of temps dipping way below freezing. That nice weather sure was a teaser. All of the horses except for our yearling filly started to do the heavy shedding routine so I never imagined that we would get the freeze we did. I know spring is unpredictable with temps fluctuating but as I sit here tapping away on my computer keys I’m looking at near white out conditions outside with snow everywhere. The temp changed so quickly that it really bothered one of the yearlings that came in last night with a tummy ach. I wonder if he wasn’t drinking as much water as he should have. Poor guy came in and was looking at his belly and laid down rather then eating his dinner – Huston we have a problem was ringing loudly in my brain. After 15 mins he still was doing the sick horse routine with getting up, looking at his belly and then laying down. He had passed some manure, which looked normal and did urinate so I wasn’t in emergency mode yet but that can change at the drop of a hat. So off to the house I went to get my Banimine and 20 mins after injecting him with the recommended dose he was up and walking the barn isle looking for some trouble to get into. He passed some gas and seemed to be much more comfortable. Much to his chagrin, he didn’t get any grain that night but did have a flake of hay, which he finished off by midnight. It was a pretty sleepless night for me because I worry excessively about a colicky horse and was out in the barn every couple hours to check on him thru the night. I have lost one gelding to a twisted gut and lost another young mare to a sand colic a number of years ago when I was boarding my horses. Its not an easy thing to deal with, you always wonder if you could have done something different that would have made a difference in the outcome. I guess all sickness/injuries are like that when you care for children or animals. They trust and depend on you wholly for their every need. This morning was a bright sunny and cold morning and while I was groggy from lack of sleep because of checking on my youngster it was also fulfilling because I had 7 bright and shining eyes looking for me to come feed them and 7 happy horses were turned out to romp, play and munch on a hay pile like nothing had ever happened.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home