Pony Drama

Spotlight gave me a mild coronary last night as I watched him, moments after bringing in, struggling to swallow. He only gets a handful of grain for coming in at night, still that was enough with his gulping tendencies to block his pony esophagus.

A choking horse isn't in the immediate danger that most other living things are because they can still breathe as food or objects tend to get lodged down in the pipe itself.

Spot hung his neck straight out, slung it violently, had copious amounts of fluid and half-chewed grass pouring out of his nose, and couldn't dislodge it. His frightened eyes locked on me and he rammed his face into my stomach begging for help. He'd crane his head high and back, like a donkey in the mud, and try as best a horse can - to wretch it up. It sounded like a cat failing to produce a hairball...only larger. I didn't honestly know a horse could make that sound since they can't vomit.

I called the on-call vet after Spot's attempts to save himself were failing. The vet gave us a time limit of about 45 minutes to let him continue to fight it out and mentioned that if he throws himself to the ground and thrashes like a colic, let him because he might break it up that way. I asked if I would hurt him if I used my hands to try and break it and he said to do whatever would work.

I called Chris up to the barn next, my hands weren't getting the job done after 15 minutes of trying really hard to help the little guy out. At this point poor Spotlight is soaked in sweat through his winter fuzz and has stopped thrashing constantly. Chris worked his hands all down Spotlight's neck and found a mass. He worked on him a good 10 minutes and broke it up so it could travel down.

Another 20 minutes later, Spot is eating and drinking with nothing coming out of his nose and looks relieved. We checked him again a few hours later and he was back to his normal self.

So... Spot get his handful of feed soaked from now on. I was already soaking the other horses, it was just simpler to toss a handful to him dry. No more little buddy, that was scary. The Thoroughbreds get into enough trouble on their own without pony drama added in please.

I'm thankful for a husband who has no trouble diving in when the horses have a problem, a vet who is open to letting owners try as best they can on their own, a pony who is okay (we really love the little guy), and NO VET BILL. Whew. I'd be really happy to see our vet again only when it's time for Spring Coggins!!

"Behind every successful rancher is a wife who works in town"