Mannequin
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2006
- Messages
- 1,733
I had a bad scare tonight with my horse Taz. I was looking at reception hall information with my fiance'' and my mother called just before we were ready to pack up and head out to grab dinner. She said to drive carefully but to come home quickly because my horse was in distress. I immediately went into panic mode - Taz is 27 and aging gracefully, and he doesn''t usually have any sort of health concerns. BIG uh-oh.
Mom told me that my daddy came home today and noticed that he went down in the paddock but did not get right back up. He rushed out to see what was going on and got him up on his feet, but Taz was very agitated and kept wanting to get down. As soon as Mom got home and found out something was wrong, she called my trainer who told her to look for a few things before calling the vet out. She checked for blood or cuts, and there was nothing. He had no interest in food, HUGE deviation from the norm for him as he is a glutton for snacks. He had a lot of dirt in his eye from trying to lay down outside and it was puffy, but no other marks on him. When she checked his gums, they were white with no capillary response and he was very cold and shaky. Shock symptoms, SO not good.
Mom called the vet and she worked on Taz as I was on the way up to Metamora. I was speeding my way there, cursing the traffic, fiance'' in tow, and I made it there just after the vet left. Taz seemed to be experiencing some kind of impaction colic or something, very scary as we''ve never had to deal with anything like that before and certainly never expected it from him. The doc gave him a few sedatives to help him relax, and she listened to his gut noise and tubed him to check for excess gas. His heart is fine, and his ears perk and swivel so he is semi-alert, but still listless compared to normal. His breath is HORRIBLE, and is evidence of fermentation in the stomach, which means he is not passing things through properly. He has two huge, spongy "pouches" on his rump full of gas, poor baby. Doc pumped a ton of warm water into his system to help work everything through, and she gave him a bunch of electrolytes as well. She wants us to watch him carefully to see if he has any bowel movements before attempting to feed him anything.
Taz was at least starting to pass gas when I arrived. He did go to the bathroom once while I was up there tonight, but no manure. We''re all waiting on that, and if he doesn''t have any in his stall in the morning, Mom will call the vet back out to see him. His gums are pinking up, and he is moving around the stall as the sedative wears off, but I am still very worried for him. I hope he is able to bounce on back from this quickly as it came on. I''ve had him to love for ten years and I can''t bear the thought of losing him so suddenly. Think of my darling boy, please...