wingnut
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- Apr 16, 2009
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I'm really sorry to not have updated before now. As some of you might have imagined (and I have yet to read any further replies to my original thread on Friday), we were not "all clear" on Friday after all.
Missy, our 6.5 month old filly, went down again around 10:00pm. I was out with my daughter and came home to find my husband out with her walking her. He had found her down and rolling again. We spent the next several hours walking her in what turned out to be the Blizzard of '09. We called and called and called our regular vet. Tried our secondary vet several times too and even tried a 3rd vet. We knew she needed help and we had no way to give her any beyond keeping her up and walking.
Our regular vet finally called @ 4:20am. His cell phone did NOT signal him that we were calling and leaving messages until after the 4th or 5th time we called. He was horrified and profusely apologized. Despite the poor weather conditions (we had about 3" of snow by then), he made the trip to our house. He was there by 5am.
He agreed that we had a very sick little horse on our hands. He gave her another dose of banamine (sp?) and a sedative to relax her. He then started prepping to put a tube down her nose into her stomach to get some warm water and mineral oil into her. He was really concerned that even his smallest tube wouldn't fit. She has a terribly small nose. Thankfully, he was successful. He left us with more banamine and another dose of the sedative with strict instructions on how to administer.
We took turns staying with her in the barn for another couple of hours. At 7:30am, she was still too cold from getting wet while we walked her. I made the decision for both of us that being in our unfinished basement was what needed to happen. The blizzard was only getting worse at that point. After being bummed for 20 years of never getting around to having a nice finished basement, I was terribly happy that we didn't Saturday morning.
We spent the day on Saturday rotating shifts with her. We kept the doc informed of her progress. By evening he recommended to not only give her the next round of banamine but the sedative as well because he felt she needed to be given the chance to relax so that her intestines would hopefully relax too. That was 5:30? I think. At 9:30 she passed manure! A small amount and loose, but manure! A little while later she urinated. She passed more manure around 2:30am on Sunday. I cannot remember the last time I was so relieved by something, let alone poop!
Another dose of banamine around 5:00am. She continued to seem more comfortable. She was only laying occasionally at this point. We kept tabs with the vet. He showed up @2:00pm yesterday afternoon to check on her again. He agreed she was in much better shape, although not 100% out of the woods. He left us with more banamine and another dose of the sedative. The plan was to NOT use the sedative unless she had a setback. If we don't use it by Thu/Fri, we'll dispose of it as it's not something to keep around. He said we could give her a VERY small amount of soaked hay (barely a handful). She ate it right up.
Within minutes of his leaving, she started passing the mineral oil with gusto. Oh my! We got desperate and improvised a horsey diaper out of puppy piddle pads. That worked beautifully! When I took over again this morning @ 3:30am, she passed an almost normal bm and uriniated a very healthy amount. I fed her another small bit of soaked hay and she couldn't get enough of it.
Finally about an hour ago, she passed another normal sized, almost normal consistency bm. She's obviously feeling better simply based on her ansty behavior. She's acting like Missy again. I'm waiting for what I hope is the last call from the vet to clarify how to feed her at this point and then we're moving her back out to the barn, where she will be stalled for the next several days so we can manage her hay intake. No feed of any kind for a while.
This was most likely caused by worms. We've had her a little more than two months, wormed her when we got her, again last month. She and our other filly were due for another round this weekend. We're going to dose her (per vet instructions) with StronglyCare (I think) this afternoon. In another 10-14 days, we're going to hit them all. We took worming seriously but we'll be even more vigilant now.
And with that, I hope to catchup on some sleep over the next couple of days. 10 hours of sleep in 72 hours is hard on the body and soul. I am blessed that my husband and daughter were here to help and take their turns. We made it through our first real crisis. Due in part to all the great information I read and learned from here.
If any newbies, like us, are reading this...talk with your vet NOW about how to handle emergency situations like this. I cannot tell you how stressful it was to be in the middle of this ordeal "alone" for as long as we were. Because of this event, our vet will likely be changing his phone carrier at a minimum. I won't be surprised if institutes some other things as well to prevent something like this happening again. He's a good guy and a good vet. He was just as distressed as we were by the whole scenario.
p.s. please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors...I'm too tired to go back and correct myself
Missy, our 6.5 month old filly, went down again around 10:00pm. I was out with my daughter and came home to find my husband out with her walking her. He had found her down and rolling again. We spent the next several hours walking her in what turned out to be the Blizzard of '09. We called and called and called our regular vet. Tried our secondary vet several times too and even tried a 3rd vet. We knew she needed help and we had no way to give her any beyond keeping her up and walking.
Our regular vet finally called @ 4:20am. His cell phone did NOT signal him that we were calling and leaving messages until after the 4th or 5th time we called. He was horrified and profusely apologized. Despite the poor weather conditions (we had about 3" of snow by then), he made the trip to our house. He was there by 5am.
He agreed that we had a very sick little horse on our hands. He gave her another dose of banamine (sp?) and a sedative to relax her. He then started prepping to put a tube down her nose into her stomach to get some warm water and mineral oil into her. He was really concerned that even his smallest tube wouldn't fit. She has a terribly small nose. Thankfully, he was successful. He left us with more banamine and another dose of the sedative with strict instructions on how to administer.
We took turns staying with her in the barn for another couple of hours. At 7:30am, she was still too cold from getting wet while we walked her. I made the decision for both of us that being in our unfinished basement was what needed to happen. The blizzard was only getting worse at that point. After being bummed for 20 years of never getting around to having a nice finished basement, I was terribly happy that we didn't Saturday morning.
We spent the day on Saturday rotating shifts with her. We kept the doc informed of her progress. By evening he recommended to not only give her the next round of banamine but the sedative as well because he felt she needed to be given the chance to relax so that her intestines would hopefully relax too. That was 5:30? I think. At 9:30 she passed manure! A small amount and loose, but manure! A little while later she urinated. She passed more manure around 2:30am on Sunday. I cannot remember the last time I was so relieved by something, let alone poop!
Another dose of banamine around 5:00am. She continued to seem more comfortable. She was only laying occasionally at this point. We kept tabs with the vet. He showed up @2:00pm yesterday afternoon to check on her again. He agreed she was in much better shape, although not 100% out of the woods. He left us with more banamine and another dose of the sedative. The plan was to NOT use the sedative unless she had a setback. If we don't use it by Thu/Fri, we'll dispose of it as it's not something to keep around. He said we could give her a VERY small amount of soaked hay (barely a handful). She ate it right up.
Within minutes of his leaving, she started passing the mineral oil with gusto. Oh my! We got desperate and improvised a horsey diaper out of puppy piddle pads. That worked beautifully! When I took over again this morning @ 3:30am, she passed an almost normal bm and uriniated a very healthy amount. I fed her another small bit of soaked hay and she couldn't get enough of it.
Finally about an hour ago, she passed another normal sized, almost normal consistency bm. She's obviously feeling better simply based on her ansty behavior. She's acting like Missy again. I'm waiting for what I hope is the last call from the vet to clarify how to feed her at this point and then we're moving her back out to the barn, where she will be stalled for the next several days so we can manage her hay intake. No feed of any kind for a while.
This was most likely caused by worms. We've had her a little more than two months, wormed her when we got her, again last month. She and our other filly were due for another round this weekend. We're going to dose her (per vet instructions) with StronglyCare (I think) this afternoon. In another 10-14 days, we're going to hit them all. We took worming seriously but we'll be even more vigilant now.
And with that, I hope to catchup on some sleep over the next couple of days. 10 hours of sleep in 72 hours is hard on the body and soul. I am blessed that my husband and daughter were here to help and take their turns. We made it through our first real crisis. Due in part to all the great information I read and learned from here.
If any newbies, like us, are reading this...talk with your vet NOW about how to handle emergency situations like this. I cannot tell you how stressful it was to be in the middle of this ordeal "alone" for as long as we were. Because of this event, our vet will likely be changing his phone carrier at a minimum. I won't be surprised if institutes some other things as well to prevent something like this happening again. He's a good guy and a good vet. He was just as distressed as we were by the whole scenario.
p.s. please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors...I'm too tired to go back and correct myself
