Say It Ain't So Fritzy!

Why is it that we worry about our horses so much? And isn't it funny how we know our horses personalities so well, what they do, what they don't do, what they like and what they don't like?

I have been pretty lucky with my horses in the past 6 years. (I know I always say I have bad luck, but when it comes to my own horses, I seem to have good luck, now I probably just jinxed myself!) I haven't had any serious injuries, diseases, or colic. So when I got home from work on Tuesday and went out to feed, and after I fed Brandy and Fritzy their grain (supplement), I noticed that something was not right with Fritzy. She stood at her grain bucket, but wouldn't eat her grain. That is NOT normal for Fritzy. She usually stands there and paws a hole waiting for me to pour the grain in her bucket. Not to be this day. So I shook her bucket, nothing. I climbed over the fence and went to see what was going on. She showed no interest in it. I tried hand feeding her, she took a nibble then turned her head away from me. I watched her for awhile and she left her bucket, walked over to the water trough and laid down and rolled. OH NO! That is not good. She got up and walked right past her hay and laid down in a muddy, poopy spot. My first thought was that she had colic. I ran down to the house and grabbed her halter. I ran back up to Fritzy and made her get up. I took her down to the house where I could assess her closer. She was very lethargic and I could just tell in her eye that she wasn't feeling good. I listened for gut sounds and didn't hear anything at that time. I immediately called my vet.

My vet told me to immediately give her 750 lbs of Banamine, take her temp and listen for gut sounds again. Also I needed walk her around. I gave her the Banamine, which is amazing in the fact that she let me give it to her. She is a very difficult subject to put a tube of paste in her mouth, but she didn't fight me. I took her temp. It was 102.9, oh goodness. I listened to her gut again and finally did hear gurgling. I walked her around for 45 minutes then called my vet back. I told her everything I just did and she wanted me to temp her again. This time it came to 99.5. Hmmm......My vet said she didn't think she had colic, but she was probably getting some type of virus. She told me to put her in a separate area from my other horses and monitor her closely. Do not feed her. I was to walk her every hour for 10 minutes and then at midnight I was to temp her again after the Banamine wore off.

I could tell the Banamine was kicking in because she started to paw. Fritzy is a habitual pawer. She has no patience and when she is tied she will dig a hole to China. Well, the pawing started, she started to become more alert and I could tell my Fritzy was coming back.

At first I was wondering where the heck I was going to put Fritzy. I don't have another pasture that I can put her in. Well, the light bulb went off in my head and decided I would put her in the round pen. I could haul water up to her and there is nothing to eat there but a little bit of grass on the outer edges of the paneling. I could also monitor poo since there was not a single pile of poo in the round pen. Perfect! Good thing the weather ended up being nice this week.

So I took Fritzy up there and turned her loose. I went back to the house to get a clean muck bucket that I only use for water on our yearly family horse trip. Of course my OH decided to put them up really high in the tractor shed, so I had to haul the ladder over there to get them down. I don't have water access out at the round pen. So I had to come up with a solution to get water up there. I put the empty muck bucket in the wheelbarrow and filled it up to the 30 gallon mark. I made sure I could lift it out of the wheelbarrow when filled. Barely. I figured these muscles were going to be working overtime to get that water filled muck bucket out of the wheelbarrow (remember my OH works nights now, so I am all alone to do the dirty work.)



My round pen is not close to the house. We have 5 acres and unfortunately my round pen is way in the back. Great. So I push the wheelbarrow and the water is sloshing everywhere. Lovely. But I get it up there, maybe only losing a gallon of water. My next test would be to get it out of the wheelbarrow without spilling it all over myself, because then I would have to start all over again. I think I should have only filled it to the 25 gallon mark, it was HEAVY!! But I did it. I got it out without spilling any water, okay, maybe a drop. I put a piece of duct tape inside to mark where the water level started out at. I wanted to be able to monitor Fritzy's water intake. You can see I spilled some on the trip up to the round pen.



Fritzy had decided she was hungry again and started to nibble on the grass right outside the round pen. That was a good sign she was hungry, but my vet didn't want her to have any food.



Fritzy was a little confused as to why she had to be up there. I mean really, is this necessary?



Even Chance was wondering what was going on.



Brandy also made the trip to the back of her pasture to check it out.



I went out every hour to walk her, but she was doing a good job of walking herself. She didn't know what to do with herself in the round pen, so she would just walk circles. I looked for poo, none. I checked the water level on her water bowl (I just had to say that, my OH called me at work today to tell me he kept checking her water bowl, isn't that cute?) At 10:00 p.m. it was dark. We don't have any lights out back, so I donned my cold weather gear and head lamp, and made the trek to the back forty. I do have to say I have some fear of the dark. Especially with the break ins and crazy stuff that have gone on in our neighborhood recently. I took Bailey with me, locked the door to my house and made a run for it. I walk Fritzy for 10-15 minutes. I was thinking that if my neighbors happened to look out their window, they would see this light going around and around and around. If they happened to go outside to check it out, they would have heard someone talking, so they would probably think I was totally crazy, walking around in circles in the dark, talking to myself.

At midnight when my OH got home from work, we went back to the round pen to temp Fritzy again. She was at 100.5. Still no poo and the water level was the same. Hmmm....

This morning I went out to check on her and low and behold! POO! 4 piles! I have never been happier in my life then to see poo! The water level also did go down. Yeah! When my OH got up, he went out to temp her again, this time it was 99.1 and there were a couple more poop piles (he even texted me picture's of her poo, he's so cute, isn't he?) My vet had said that if her temp was normal then we could feed her a little hay and give her another dose of Banamine. When I got home from work tonight, I temped her at 99.5 and fed her a little grain and some hay. Her water level had gone down quite a bit. Very good news. So I had to fill up another muck bucket to haul water out to the muck bucket in the round pen. I only filled it to 15 gallons, I was not going to be able to lift 30 gallons this time to pour it into her water bowl, sorry, I just had to say water bowl again!!

I am so happy that everything is okay. At least right now it is. She is doing fine and I am so thankful it wasn't colic! Fritzy has only had a couple colds in the 4 years I've had her. She has never colicked. She is a very healthy horse, so hopefully this virus will not get any worse, and she will be good to go for some trail riding soon!

You aren't going to leave me in here, are you?



Yes Fritzy, I am!