Monday, March 18, 2013

Happy, happy...





Another fun filled weekend on the farm...Saturday evening Emma was acting very colicky.  She was very withdrawn, tense and every few minutes she would pin her ears and hunch her back up; clearly having cramps.  I gave her a dose of Banamine, worked at tracking down a vet on a Saturday night in case I needed one and took her and Ramsey for a walk around the pasture.  After  the drugs kicked in and about 45 minutes of walking she was finally able to pass some manure.  It is ridiculously amazing just how happy an equine owner can get at seeing yet another pile of poop.

I have been watching Emma like a hawk for the last 24 hours and trying to devise ways of convincing her to drink more water.  I finally made her a concoction of hay pellet soup that I was able to get her to slurp down and I will probably try to continue that until the weather finally warms up.  The recipe that worked in case anyone needs it is:

1 cup of hay pellets soaked in 1/2 gallon of warm water
a teaspoon of molasses
a couple of pelleted, apple flavored treats dissolved along with the hay pellets

I had to squirt some of the resulting mess into her mouth with a syringe at first, but once she decided that it tasted good, she drank the rest.  I think I will ad her vitamins to the mix and give her some each day.  She needs more water.  I finally breathed easy late this afternoon after I had to clean up several more lovely piles and she and Ramsey went out into the field for a romp and a wrestling match, both feeling good.

I remembered at some point this afternoon, while I was concocting Emma's green brew, that it is St. Pat's day, which means that it is also Tessa's birthday.  That reminded me that I completely forgot Gabe's birthday a couple of weeks ago.  Good thing horses don't care about such things.  They just think every day is a birthday.

7 comments:

  1. Oh my, you are so good at seeing anything amiss with your animals and acting so quickly to care for them. I've read about a few other donkey owners dealing with colic related to the cold weather and their animals not drinking enough water. We even had a run of freezing weather here on the coast in California and I saw the level in the drinking water of my two donkeys not going down. I started giving them small buckets of warm water as a "treat" expecting to stop when things warmed up. Hah! They love the extra special attention. Hoping Emma continues to improve and everyone else stays well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Breathing a huge sigh of relief for you that she came out of this ok. I am sure going to put that soup recipe in my handbook. Little miss Sassy does not drink on road trips and it worries me to no end.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Never a dull moment with critters around. So glad she is better and I don't think animal parents are the only ones that watch poop! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  4. I feed mine, beet pulp, just to get the extra water into their gut.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You're such a great mom. So glad you dodged a bullet and Ms Emma is back to being "regular". Hugs to you and all the critters!

    ReplyDelete
  6. It seems we've both spent several hours in the barn this week! You're very observant with your animals and notice things that might be off right away- that's a talent that's worth more that it's weight in gold!

    ReplyDelete