Chance's Crazy Month

While Steve and I were away in Iceland Chance had a run in with that spring gate I'd talked about in the previous post. I have no idea exactly what happened but the spring gate got caught on his tail, he probably ran around like crazy and Dani was probably chasing him. Then by the water trough he barreled through the top rail either kicked it or hit it when he tried to jump it....this is my feeble 24 almost 25 year old horse with all the health issues. He normally just plods around the paddock and pastures like the effort is enormous. Anyhow, he got out of the paddock and then ended up down the street where my neighbor later found him. All four legs had big scrapes on them and he was bleeding some. He was in pain.

My pet sitter was alerted while our friends who had been helping care for our dog and indoor critters got home from work and tried to patch up the fencing. My pet sitter called me and was really concerned about how Chance was moving, he wasn't putting weight on some of his legs. I told her to get the emergency vet out. We were afraid we'd be making a decision from Iceland that we didn't want to make. Luckily the vet treated his wounds, they weren't as bad as my pet sitter suspected and the pain meds helped him too. She kept him separate from Dani for the rest of the week. Poor guy and my poor pet sitter, she is in the process of cutting back to give herself more time for travel so I'm sure this was the final straw! Just kidding, she's still gonna help out but I found another farm sitter group for our travels so I won't have to worry about critter care.

So Chance recovered from that and then a few weeks later I had the vet out again on a Sunday because he was acting off. I suspected colic or impaction with his behavior and lack of eating or pooping. The vet came out and they said his gut sounds were good. We didn't know what to do and I wasn't going to make a call at that time. We decided pain meds to get him over what ever issue was going on and stayed on the course of wait and see. Moist food was provided. The next morning no better really and he seemed to be more agitated and not laying down for long at all when he did. This time they gave him more pain meds and electrolytes. I'd even called his former owner since she had not seen him in a while and I really wasn't sure what way we were going.  

We did get one bowel movement and the gut sounds were still good. We became more aggressive with electrolytes and damp food. I got some alfalfa cubes that I soaked, some mash and electrolytes. Chance pulled through and began eating more. I kept him separate from Dani and soaked his food really well and continued with the pain meds for a day as well as continuing to finish with the alfalfa. He's been loosing weight so we've had him on more grain lately but not so recent as to cause this. I think we just need to really soak it for feeding him at this point since 1) he's getting more than just the 1lb a day and 2) he's older and his teeth are probably not as good.

A tooth floating is on the books for both horses, fall always seems to be that time of year. I'm very happy that he seems to be doing much better and is eating well again. He's got a lot of health issues with Cushings, Heaves, suspensory ligament degradation (DSL) and the vet questioned maybe sidewinders....still have to read about that. He holds his body off when he's in pain so that may just be a coincidence since I don't see it now that he is well. We are just trying to keep him happy and comfortable for as long as he desires. We'll know when he's done. I didn't think he was this time around and I'm glad we held on with pain meds and let him work through this minor issue. With the good gut sounds we still don't know if he was slightly impacted or colic or what. I wish horses could talk; happy to have my bay Arabian pony still here though! :-)