Tummy Ache

Except it was a little more serious than a tummy ache. But thankfully not as serious as it could have been. And since the thermometer read below zero last night, I was all the more grateful for that.

This is Drifter, one of our two horses. He is young, robust, fiery and oh-so intelligent. He's my slow but sure training project... Slow because I've been pregnant for a majority of the last two years. Sure because I just keep plugging along with his training, slow and infrequent as it may be, and luckily horses seem to almost pick up right where you left off quite easily.

He eats like a... Well... A horse. He loves food. He loves to let us know with a little nicker when it's time for him to have his food. He paws at his hay bunk while we're getting his food ready. He looooooves to eat.

So, last evening, after my husband fed him and I saw him standing over by the fence about 60 feet from his bunk and not eating, I knew something was wrong. Then I saw him stomping his hind legs and twitching his tail and turning his head around and looking at his belly. Then he dropped down and rolled a little. Something wat definitely wrong.

Colic... The word every horse owner cringes at hearing. And the only thing that makes us cringe worse than hearing the word is seeing our horse show the symptoms of it. Basically, colic is a tummy ache. In horses, it can be caused by varying things, resulting in anywhere from mild discomfort to fatality. The problem is, horses can't tell you how bad it hurts or where or what it feels like or any of that helpful information, so you kind of need to take it seriously from the start.

I got all bundled up (more bundled than I've probably been in years... my outings usually don't last more than 5-10 minutes these days) and headed out into the sub-zero mountain tundra. Luckily, I saw where he had taken a small (by horse standards) poop. (Sorry to any of you who don't like to talk about poop. But if you don't, you probably don't want to continue reading my website.) That made me feel a little better. But he still wasn't eating and seemed uncomfortable, so I knew we weren't out of the woods yet.

I chased him around a little to get him moving and hopefully help whatever was giving him trouble work its way out. Still no poop. Then I called our helpful neighbor lady, also a horse owner, to get her opinion on the matter. Helpful as she is, she got all bundled up and came over. I called the vet and he recommended some medicine. (I shall not mention what kind of said medicine... I'm not here to promote veterinary recommendations and/or diagnosis.)

Thankfully, soon after ingesting his medicine he headed over to his hay bunk and began munching away. Whew. Thank you, Jesus. It was colder than molasses in the winter time out there. Which is probably why his gut got a bit discombobulated... Our helpful neighbor lady said that she has heard that sometimes a large change in the barometric pressure (it was 60 degrees a few days earlier) can cause horses to colic. Also, when it's that cold, they don't always drink as much water as they should, which can also contribute to colic.

So, there you have it... A little slice of my life and a little information about colic in horses. I hope it was slightly informative, but not too educational... Consult your veterinarian, encyclopedia or wikipedia for a more reliable source.

This morning he was still on all fours -- ALWAYS a good sign in horses -- and ready to dig into his morning ration of hay and sweet feed. And he went and took a good drink of water. Whew. Thank you Jesus. Again.