Colic Day at The Mare's Nest

Colic Day at The Mare's Nest

Post by e.. » Fri, 21 Sep 2012 08:40:43


Yesterday morning could have gone a lot better, but then, it could have gone a lot worse, too. Came out to chores and found Moonlight had a case of gas colic.

So, got the vet, who needed to euthanize a down sheep (suffering, needed priority). She had me give a shot of Banamine and watch Lite in the mean time. I parked in the barn with my papers and started grading. Lite was quite crampy, even after the Banamine had a chance to kick in. JJ arrived with the vet soon after, maybe a good hour, hour and a half after the shot. Lite was agitated in waves, nothing ***, but picking up a front leg, stretching, yawing her jaws, pacing, tucking her hind quarters down. She rolled once before and then again about an hour after her shot.

Vet gave her a look see, was not sure she could get in to do a rectal due to the internal and external melanomas. We gave her a pretty good amount of sedative and the vet was able to get somewhat of a feel, not great because Lite was protesting some and also there just isn't a lot of room there. No signs of impaction from what she could get to, and Lite had been passing some manure which was normal.

So we decided to do fluids, requiring tubing her. Vet got organized with the tube, tried to pass it into her right nostril. Lite gave us a pretty good tussle, resisting the tube--she has had it done once and it was totally NBD, so we were a little surprised. And then she got the mother of all nosebleeds, which went on *forever* and was copious. She bled through a big towel and wad after wad of cotton shoved up her nose. Not only that, she started having a reaction to something in the sedative (she has had it before) and her eyes started swelling shut and tearing. So she got a shot of antihistamine to try to combat that, and then something else to help with her skyrocketing *** pressure.

Great.

The vet then tried to pass the tube up the left nostril, but immediately came against resistance in the nasal passage, so stopped promptly. Given the amount of bleeding and the lack of normal space in the nasal passage, the vet (and everyone else there stuffing cotton up her nose, over and over again) thinks that there is a melanoma there that prevents tubing but does not interfere with her normal breathing.

So no fluids. She got a round of *** to provide medical support for the colic, but really, Moonlight presents us with a number of blockers to treatment.

I had a very long day of checking on her. She continued to pass manure, so impaction was not added to our headaches. Water was the biggest issue, since she did not want to drink, but she continued to feel better and better through last night and this morning. Over the course of the afternoon she had a good drink, and tonight she is back out on the pasture with her peeps.

Sheesh.

Eileen Morgan
The Mare's Nest

 
 
 

Colic Day at The Mare's Nest

Post by deirdrethe.. » Sun, 23 Sep 2012 04:37:47

Sorry to hear about this, but glad that it sounds like she's over it.

Cheers,

Tim