My "to do" list is always long and most days, I manage to check off quite a
few items. Days like today are -- THANKFULLY -- the exception.
I was on task and making good headway. The dogs were fed as well as the
ducks and chickens. Lorenzo and I had run through the things I hoped to
accomplish today. The back yard was picked up and the house was reasonably tidy. My
patient, the orange tabby cat, Mason Pumpkin, had been fed, watered, exercised,
and medicated. I held two horses for the farrier, paid him for his good work,
collected the dogs, and headed to the house to get an early lunch.
Passing the horse paddocks, I noticed that my two year-old blue roan filly,
Jetblue, was kicking at her stomach. As I observed Jetblue, a sick feeling
welled up inside me. Not all that long ago, last January, I had to rush Jetblue to
Oregon State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital for an emergency life
saving surgery. The scene playing out before my eyes this morning was curiously
deja vu.
I called to Lorenzo and together, we swifty assessed the situation. Lorenzo
walked Jetblue while I phoned my vet, giving her a heads up.
Jetblue's abdominal sounds were, if anything, a little bit louder than
usual. Hedging my bets, I gave her a half dose of Banamine and headed to the
arena to lunge Jetblue. We loaded and unloaded her to the trailer three times,
then put her in a clean, hay-free stall with a big bucket of warm water.
The filly hoovered up a bucket-and-a-half of water and, within a half-hour, produced a nice batch
of road apples. It's been thirteen hours since Jetblue first showed signs of a
colic and in that time, we've hand grazed her, soaked small amounts of hay for
her, filled her warm water bucket multiple times, and observed eight piles of road apples. A good sign.
I'll be checking on Jetblue through the night.
My motto: When your day gets derailed, just go with it!
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