Gwen update

Oy vey, this has been a stressful day.

At my last blog posting, it was shortly after Gwen's vet appointment, and her prognosis was not so hot. For several hours she just stood in the corral with her head down, looking pretty pathetic and getting rained on (hey, you can give a horse a 12x16 stall, it doesn't mean she'll use it!).

When I went out around 3:30 to check her, she was much worse than she had been for the few hours before that. When standing, she was constantly kicking her belly. When laying down, she would turn and look at her belly or bite at herself. Obviously in pretty serious distress, still no gut sounds... Picture an old horse on her side on the muddy ground, and her owner kneeling next to her sobbing and you'll pretty much know what that was like. I just kept thinking about the day when my first horse Thunder was put to sleep, and how I thought at that time that if I'd known the day beforehand that it would be the last day, I would have spent more time with her. It felt like it might be the day beforehand... and I stayed there for a long time.

By 5 she really hadn't changed.

Around 7 she seemed a little better. Still extremely lethargic and reluctant to move, but not kicking or biting at herself. But there was the faintest rumbling of gut gurgles, and she was starting to pass gas. You wouldn't think a person could get so excited about horse farts, but when your horse is potentially life-threateningly impacted, gas is glorious.

Around 9:30 she was actually alert and nickered when I walked into the barn. She wanted food, but was only allowed a tiny handful of grain. Still had not passed any impacted anything, but the guts are rumbling and that's a good sign!

So, keep your fingers crossed! She's not out of the woods but she's closer to the exit.

I am just so glad that I happened to see her this morning. If she had gone out into the pasture I wouldn't have seen her laying down when I went out to catch the birds, and would have left for Reno at 9am. Mom would not have found her til late this evening, and that could have been a really bad situation...

Life with animals, it's always something! I'll keep y'all posted!