Colic, Lesson, Cold

I realize I should have posted about this sooner, but this dang cold I have has debated otherwise.

My first week back from spring break couldn't have been more interesting. Since I flew in on Monday I had postponed my lesson for Tuesday morning since I work Tuesday morning's anyways.

On my way to work I was pretty much skipping, I was so happy to be back and the weather was amazing (50s baby!) and I couldn't wait for my lesson. It is always nice to get back into the groove of things. I try to get to work for 8 but with buses sometimes I am a little late (about 8:05 usually) but it's not a huge deal and I have another person, Kim, who works with me anyways so she usually starts chores without me.

I arrived and Kim had already got the hay out to the horses, which means next all we had to do was feed Legend and Rollo. Since my lesson was at 9 and Mr P was a MESS I wasn't to make sure I got him in the barn by 830. As I approached the barn Kim met me and said that Jealousy wasn't eating her hay. This sent up a red flag for me because Jealousy is the pig of the herd, and the weather has been so out of whack lately (MN has been in the 70s during my spring break). I grabbed my cell phone out of my bag to call Sadie and asked Kim to get me a halter. As I approached the pasture Jealousy laid down. I got the halter on Jealousy and tried to get her up (this was my first time having to force a horse to get up and I wasn't quiet sure what to do). I pulled and pulled in front of her, I pulled by her shoulder, I lightly smacked her but, tried twirling the end of the lead rope by her but, nothing. After about 2 minutes of trying I called Sadie and told her we had an issue. She asked if she was rolling and I said no, matter of fact other than her lying down and not eating, she looked normal. I checked her respiration rate and it wasn't fast and she was alert and didn't seem like she was in pain. I wanted to check for gut sounds, but safety wise I wasn't sure if that was okay so I didn't. Sadie told me to try to get her back up and walking and she would be right in. After hanging up with Sadie I did a quick emotional check with myself. Sometimes I panic without knowing that I am panicking. But, I wasn't. I was super calm. I think the only reason for this was because she wasn't rolling and didn't seem like she was in pain. The only worry that went through my head was that if she started rolling how in the world would I stop her? About 10 minutes passed and multiple check in's with Sadie, and I still couldn't get her up. Finally a vet from the hospital came out to help. By this time Jealousy had started looking depressed and sleepy. The vet checked her gums and they were super pale and tacky (dang I forgot to check that!). Sadie arrived a few moments after and we got Jealousy up. She refused to walk and even once she started walking it was super laggy. We went into the hospital and some vets looked at her, and did an ultra sound (I could fill you in more about this process but this post would be forever long). Long story short, they found one small impaction and nothing else and they did some blood tests and would keep her in the CCU with an IV until they heard more.

Fast forward a couple of days. I saw Ali (a first year vet student) how Jealousy was doing. She said that a bug had caused her colic. Being the vet student I am I asked what bug (bugs can cause colic? Learn something new everyday!) They said that they had narrowed it down to two bugs, Clostridium or salmonella. Clostridium is found EVERYWHERE and everyone has some in their bodies. It become a problem when the bad clostridium gets to high. This can be caused by stress, injury, numerous things. Salmonella is VERY bad and very transmissible. So it had the hospital under a scare for a while. Come to find out it was clostridium. As far as I know Jealousy is still in the hospital but is doing great!

For my first colic incident I think I handled it very nicely. Mostly because I didn't panic. A part of me wonders if that is a bad thing. I knew the signs meant colic and that it was serious, so it made me act in an urgent way. But I was doing all I could do and as far as I know I was doing it correctly, which made me not panic. I'm sure if the hospital wasn't RIGHT THERE and she was rolling and thrashing I would have been a little more panicy, but lets not test out that theory xD


My lesson was canceled for that day and I had it on Wednesday. Long story short, it was one of those 1 step forwards 2 steps back type of lesson. Mr P and I know each other very well and he knows how to push my buttons. Heck its WWIII just trying to get him to trot now, but Sadie hopes on him and just brushes her calves on his sides and he does a nice trot *head desk* I know a part of it was that I was sick and this must be one of my platteu moments in my riding. We will see


OH on a couple of side notes 
1. The U offers kickboxing every friday for $8 wish I had found this sooner but I am so going!
2. I applied and got accepted into UMO!
3. UMO offers FREE kickboxing!!! 


Thanks for reading :)