The Old Folks Home

[vehve]

Bunny, hope your horse gets better. I thought you were supposed to walk them, to get the digestion going.

 

[perchie.girl]

So happy to hear that she is doing better! Boy, the meds today, so grateful for the knowledge today too on animals. Helps to have a vet that knows his/her stuff.

You got that right.... Back when I first got into horses 1967 Vet care for horses was virtually Medieval. And that was considered very good care.... walking horses that were exhausted because there was no way to determine how much pain they were in or why.... I remember having to whip one mare to keep her standing... it was horrible.

Now we can let them lay and digest and be quiet..... as long as they dont struggle.....

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Oh Yay.... I got back up just to check to see...

deb

 

[drumstick diva]

Glad to hear your horse is UP,

 

[superchemicalgirl]

So glad to hear the horse is feeling better.

I put my eggs in the incubator around 5 pm last night. I split them between the Brinsea Octagon and the LG - figured I could have a nice scientific comparison of the hatch rates in both the still air (that I'm new at) and the Brinsea (which I'm an old pro at) with this method.

The LG had been rock solid stable, beautifully stable, once I finally got it to temp after a couple days messing with it, so I wasn't worried. I added water to the troughs of both the Brinsea and the LG, and put the eggs in and monitored every few hours.

The Brinsea came up to temp nicely within about 2 hours. The LG? Yeah, it never did. It dropped significantly with the addition of the water and the eggs, finally increased back up to about 95 and then never moved.

I was getting up every few hours in the middle of the night to check it and discover it wasn't budging. Knowing that you're not really supposed to mess with it for 24 hours, I decided at 0400 that I was just going to scoot everything over to the Brinsea so I could mess with the LG without causing myself a breakdown. The Brinsea is now full and only about a degree lower than desired; I might be able to get another few eggs in it if I removed the rails and rearranged everything for best use of space.

What happened???!!!

Edited to add that the wiggler temperature also reduced temperature and stayed at about 95. With three different probe thermometers.

 

[perchie.girl]

Bunny, hope your horse gets better. I thought you were supposed to walk them, to get the digestion going.

the walking really was to keep them from laying down... When a horse is in a lot of pain they can lay down to releive it and just cant get into a good position.... so thats when Thrashing can occure.... i have seen a horse in that condition and its very scary.

During that time the gut is pretty much stopped cooking its food and the muscles tighten up from the pain.... this is when your horse is at risk for having a twisted gut. Which causes peritonitis of the gut due to lack of blood supply.

Reasons for colic:
Low water intake.... digestive system requires lots of water so the hay can be broken down by bacterial in the cecum....
Sand in the gut.... Sandy soils dont break down in the gut and can collect and form blockages...
Bad Feed..... Moldy hay or grain or Hay and grain that are in the process of decomposition.... Causes gas or bloat
Too rich of feed.... Happens in the spring often times pastures are very high in sugar because the grass is rapidly growing this can cause gas or founder too.
a horse that bolts its food.... eating too fast through competition or bad habits can cause the food to not be masticated well.

Passing stones or entrolyths.... Sandy soil or sharp bits in the soil that are injested are often times coated by the body to protect is self... Entrolyths often times look like small stones and yes they are very stone like. they are calcium layers depositied on the sharp object to protect the gut. If you find a flattened stone in your horse's poo there are more.... they get flattened by constantly rubbing on another entrolyth. there are cases where a single Entrolyth will form around a piece of wire.... I lost a mare to such a stone.

She never had a sick day in her life... Oh colds and off days but never colic.... I had ridden her the night before and groomed her and put her out in her small pasture.... the next morning the Stable owner called me hysterical saying my horse had died in the night. I immediately told her to call the vet for a necropsy. Because we both wanted to know why. Necropsys here are rare so sometimes its hard to get a vet to do one. Thank goodness the stable owner knew one who was also a teaching vet. The Necropsy was done that day... Mom watched... He said as soon as he opened the body he knew what he would find. she had bled to death internally. He pulled out an entrolyth the size of two Softballs and egg shaped. It weighed eight pounds.

Apparently it had set in her large intestine and grown over the course of several years.... He guessed it was at least eight years to create a stone that size. She was eleven. He said she had felt a sharp pain and decided to lay down because she was sleepy.... she never woke up. As far as ways to go unexpectedly this one was the most peaciful.

My dad took the stone to an industrial exray machine the kind they use for inspecting welded metal for flaws. He said it was soo dense it took a half an hour to get an image from it... in the center was a piece of wire about a half inch long... the size of a small nail or piece of bailing wire....

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

back to bed now that bunny's horse is comfortable...

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: No, I've heard the walking is really just if the horse keeps trying to roll. This gal has been been lying around, looking sorry for herself, but not really rolling. She seemed kind of depressed - more like a donkey colic. Horses usually go in for more drama.

The obvious answer is a tummy full of dry hay, and not drinking enough water (in cold weather; horses will do that to themselves), but the vet thinks there may be more going on than just a colic. Once we got her up, the horse was showing signs of stiffness and muscle spasms. She was given some Banamine and fluids, but they are doing some blood work to see what else might be going on. Prayers and good thoughts are appreciated.
Praying your horse will get will quickly!

SCG sorry about your finger I hope it will heal quickly!

Oz glad your ok, I saw the pics on the news and said a prayer for y'all.

 

[ozexpat]

Oz glad your ok, I saw the pics on the news and said a prayer for y'all.

We were lucky. If we left an hour later I would have not made it to the airport. Seeing so many flooded homes was sad. I normally stay put when we get storms so I have not seen the damage as it is happening before

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: Good thing y'all got out! Hopefully there will not be to much damage to your place.