It began like any other day–I rolled out of bed, showered, dressed, put on my makeup, poured my orange juice, grabbed my computer and purse, and went out to the barn to feed the horses before heading off to work.
When I opened the barn door, I jumped back and yelled a little because Ms. Starr was not in her stall, she was clumsily backing herself out of my 4-foot-wide tack room.
Apparently during the night, somebody had managed to unclip and unlatch her stall, so she was free to explore the rest of the barn. (I can’t decide whether I think it was Starr who sprung herself out, or whether she had some help from her next-stall neighbor Max, who loves to fiddle with things, including latches.) There was evidence of her fun night all over the barn–one of my saddles was knocked down and stepped on, there was poopie everywhere, and everything was just in a state of disarray. But that was all trivial compared to what I discovered next: she broke into the large rubbermaid feed box (in spite of its locking handles) and gorged herself on Purina Enrich 32, which is a 32% protein concentrated supplement. When I say “gorged herself”, i mean that Miss Piggy ate somewhere between 20 – 30 pounds of a feed that is designed to be fed at a maximum of 2.5 lbs per day.
It was at that point I started flipping out at my mare, who was by now standing in the aisle with her pink blankie around her neck like a superhorse cape (because she’s a pretty great blanket escape artist too.) “What did you DOOOO? Ohmygosh Starr, I cannot believe this! We are in such big trouble here.”
When horses binge on hard feed, the results are often really, really bad. The immediate concern is colic, because horses can’t regurgitate. When something goes in, there’s only one way for it to go out, and if things get backed up (which is likely when you’re talking about 30 lbs of hard feed) then you’re in all kinds of trouble. After the immediate concern of an impaction colic though, there’s the metabolic disturbance that occurs when you flood a system with ten times its usual load. This can also cause a colic and a host of other ailments, the worst of which is founder, an often-fatal hoof condition.
When I finished my tirade, Mare was very nonplussed. Max and Jezzie started kicking for their breakfast.
I sighed dramatically, whipped out my cell phone (which, miracle of miracles, was actually in my pocket for once), and called the vet, praying they were open.
“Equine Medical, this is Dixie,” a chipper morning voice answered. DIXIE!! I love Dixie. Her cheery voice has calmed my fears through 3 veterinary emergencies now. I explained the situation and asked what to do. After consulting one of the vets, she said that I should bring Starr in as soon as possible to get her “tubed”. I thanked her, said we’d be in by ten, rolled my eyes at PigHorse, and called my boss to arrange for the morning off. He was very understanding. I’m very lucky.
First things first: hitch up the trailer. It took me several tries to line up my ball hitch with the trailer, only to realize that the trailer was jacked up on blocks for the winter and would not, no matter how hard I wished, drop down onto my ball hitch. Frick. I called Dad to see what to do now. He directed me to where I could find the jack in the garage. I called him back once I got it positioned under my hitch, to ask how to get the thing to work. He explained how to turn the handle. Finally, I was able to free the trailer from its blocky stuckness, hitch it up, load the horse, and head to the vet clinic in Lowell.
At the vet clinic, we were seen almost immediately Dr. Baby Blue Polarfleece. He listened to PigMare’s gut and said that she had normal gut sounds, “a little gassy but not too bad”, and it looked like we had caught things nice and early. He gave her a shot of Banamine (pain medication), proceeded to thread a 6′ plastic tube down her nostril and into her stomach, and pumped about 2 gallons of mineral oil and water into her. This was to “help” things move through her system as quickly as possible so that she would have less time to absorb the feed, and so the effects of her binge would be mostly mitigated (we hoped).
Before this incident, I was really happy with myself for staying so far under budget this paycheck. I had planned on adding to my savings account, throwing some extra at my truck loan, and maybe buying a pop-up awning for at the horse shows this summer. But when I went into the front office to settle up, I realized that Starr had saved me from going through all that trouble. She just loves me so much.
I really wish that was the end of the story, but it isn’t. Our ride home was uneventful and Mare unloaded just fine, but when I went to re-park my trailer so I could head to work, I got my truck stuck in mud almost to the axle. Mom had to come home with the Suburban and pull me out.
At that point, I decided it was OK to break down and cry.
