I was having a wonderful Friday morning. Sitting in front of the fire eating a chocolate chip cookie (okay I know... I'm trying to get back to eating healthy)
I was really enjoying that cookie though.
That's when I got the text message from my barn owner saying that Louie wasn't eating.
Now, let me take a step back and explain a little about Louie. Louie's number one priority in life is food. I have owned many horses and ponies and I have never had a horse be THIS food oriented. I mean, if I feed Pancho without feeding him (he can see Pancho from his stall) he will pitch the biggest fit. Like full blown temper tantrum. I saw him attack a pile of hay once - like a lion. He can fit 3 carrots in his mouth before needing to chew. My dad calls him Hoover (like the vacuum).
So when I was told he wasn't eating I knew immediately something was very, very wrong.
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| Trying to get cute sunset picture but Louie is obviously too busy stuffing his face |
I called my vet as I was leaving my house so she could meet me there.
We both arrived at the barn at the same time and Louie was in his stall doing the downward dog with a huge pile of untouched hay. His stomach clearly was in a lot of pain.
We started with a shot of Banamine intravenously. Then he got a nice dose of Xylazine (sedation) so we could continue with a rectal exam. We found very hard fecal matter and quite a bit of sand. Consensus was an impaction.
Next we did nasogastric tube. Of course Louie wasn't about that and gave us a very hard time. I am 5'6 and I'm pretty sure my vet is closer to 5'2 and when louie stands on his tippy toes he can get his head a nice 8 feet in to the air. Not the easiest task. We had to sedate him but, my vet is awesome and we finally got him to take the tube and swallow so it went down into his stomach.
We got some reflux and we pumped a gallon of mineral oil and then we walked. And walked, and walked and walked. We walked for hours. Standing still seemed to be more painful for him because he would immediately go into downward dog or try to roll so we kept walking. Thank god my dad was there because even though I would have walked the entire time, my leg was really struggling after the first hour or so and I needed breaks.
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| They're besties |
Jannae kept saying she would bring lunch and I was being annoying and telling her no but she came anyways and brought Jimmy Johns (hallelujah) (Jimmy Johns is life).
After around 6 hours of walking Louie still wasn't doing any better. He definitely didn't feel better just standing around so we walked some more. I called the vet to let her know he wasn't progressing and she decided it would be a good idea to come back and take a look at him again.
He had a whole lot of gas trapped in there and was having pretty bad muscle spasms trying to pass the impaction. We gave him some Buscopan and hoped that would help. That's when my vet pulled me aside. Basically how to conversation went was something along the lines of - we still have a few more things we can try if he doesn't start improving but you need to talk with your family about surgery and possibly euthanasia.
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| Couldn't imagine losing this incredible guy |
(If you would like to help me out please click here <3)
We got to the point where we had decided that we had better take him to Idaho Equine. I knew they couldn't do a whole lot more but I had to be realistic about having his body removed. My current barn (especially since it was an ice rink at the time) would be very, VERY difficult to get his body out of either the arena or his stall and I just couldn't handle going to the barn everyday to take care of Pancho and having to see my baby horse dead in his stall until the ice melted. Idaho Equine would be a much more ideal place for removal.
As soon as we had made this decision I heard a fart. Now, there were a few other horses in the arena so I just assumed it was one of them but my dad was convinced it was Louie. I didn't believe him so we walked him for a while longer until I heard another fart. This time he was the only one in the arena so it was either him or my dad or Jannae. None of the humans claimed it so it had to have been Louie. I was still skeptical so we just kept walking until I saw his tail go up and I watched him pass gas. Okay, yes I know gross... but I was crying I was so happy! Never have I ever been so happy for a fart.
Our night was far from over though because we were waiting for the much anticipated poop. Louie, however, was noticeably feeling better and looked like he was about to fall on his face out of exhaustion so we put him in his stall and drove the car up to the stall so we could watch him with some heat on while we ate our (now dinner) Jimmy Johns.
We stayed for a few hours while he slept to make sure he didn't slip back into unbearable discomfort. Then we took shifts watching him for an hour and then going home to sit in front of the fire for 20 minutes, then back to the barn to watch him for another hour. Around 1AM we made it back out for another check and Louie was looking much more alert. I was checking his belly when I stepped in something squishy. (Okay I didn't step in it, just saw it, but I thought that would be a nice comical addition to the story) POOP!! He pooped!! Thank God all mighty he pooped!! I immediately texted everyone in the world he had pooped.
Still being the crazy horse mom I am, I stayed to watch him for a while more and he pooped again right in front of me. Almost like "okay mom, I'm feeling better let me sleep now".
Finally, I decided it was safe for me to go home and sleep for a few hours. In the morning he was right back to normal begging for food.
We celebrated by blasting old Ke$ha songs that we could sing along to the entire car ride home.
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