October 7, 2009

We had a very scary night last night. In this picture, the vet, Dr. Rohn Hendricks and our neighbor, Grant Stanfill are helping us with Mystyk (our Arabian horse) who has a really bad case of colic (stomach ache). Colic in a horse is very serious because they can die if not treated. Dr. Hendricks is pumping Mystyk's stomach and Grant is holding the twitch (it's used to squeeze their upper lip so it will take their mind off what you are doing - it's used rather than sedating the horse). When you pump a horses stomach, the vet inserts a tube into the horse's nose and pumps water through the tube into their stomach. When he stops pumping, it creates a vacuum so whatever is in the stomach will come out. He pumped her stomach 5 times.

After her stomach was pumped, Dr. Hendricks inserted a catheter into her jugular vein in her neck and the two bags of saline solution will re-hydrate her.

Mystyk was no better this morning so I hauled her to the specialty emergency horse clinic at the Lone Star Race Track in Arlington, Texas. At first they thought she had an inflammation of her colon but finally found an impaction very deep in her colon (good news - it isn't nearly as serious). They're going to keep her a few days to make sure she'll be ok. You've heard the saying "Healthy as a horse"? Well, that's really not correct because horses can be very delicate. A stomach ache or impaction can be lethal to a horse and they can happen in the blink of an eye.

In this picture, poor Mystyk is a mess - we've had a lot of rain and all the pastures are muddy. Horses like nothing better (except carrots) than to roll in the mud and she's been having a really good time.

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