Happy 4th of July!

We broke the emergency record at our hospital yesterday...17 emergencies, plus 12 hospitalized cases. Our ER doctor rocked, and I think so did we-not one treatment was late, and we were able to get the emergencies in the door, properly taken care of, and back out the door in no time at all. It was a maddening, relentless pace that we had to keep, however, and I was exhausted by the time our 13 hour shift was over.

When I got to the barn, Diana was still there. Bali had been colicking on and off pretty much all day, for reasons unknown, as her management is ideal (hay 4 times a day, very small amounts of grain twice a day, she is on UGuard, Sand Clear for 7 days once a month, she drinks plenty of water, and is dewormed regularly). By the time I made it to the barn, Bali was doing better and had been nibbling on her hay, but she still looked rather dull. Her breathing was a little heavy, she seemed cranky and uninterested in her surroundings, and her gut sounded like she had some hypermotility going on. However, she had not had much to drink, and her bowel movements seemed rather dry compared to their normal appearance. Her gums were moist, but her capillary refill time was slightly delayed at 3 seconds, and a skin pinch test confirmed she was still slightly dehydrated-it took a couple of seconds for her skin to snap back. She was still passing a lot of gas.

Bali had had 2 5ml injections of Banamine (I'm not sure why Judy chose to spread the Percheron mare's dose in two half doses given a couple of hours apart, considering Bali had collapsed in pain at one point that morning), and Diana had attempted to give her Gas-X, which Bali would usually eat right from her hand, but she did not today. She had not had Gas-X yet. So I counted out Bali's dose, crushed the pills in a cup and mixed them with water to make a slurry, and showed Diana where I keep my own oral meds syringe for next time. I syringed the medication to Bali, who took it very well, but gave me a dirty look afterwards. Diana had to leave for the night to go home and take care of her daughter, as she had been at the barn since 7:00 am, and wanted to give Bali one more Banamine injection. She had never given an intramuscular injection before, and wanted to learn how to give it, so I showed her where the "V" on a horse's neck is, showed her how to pinch the skin over the area a couple of times to desensitize Bali, and how to steady the syringe with one hand while pushing the plunger with the other. Bali didn't even flinch. We hovered for another hour or so, during which Bali defecated again, and started eating her hay. We declared her to be on the mend when she pinned her ears at Lily, who was trying to nuzzle her from her walkout next door.

After Diana left, I hung around. Since I hadn't been sure at what time I'd get out of work with it being so busy, Diana had set up Lily's feed for me and Judy had picked my stall. :) No chores to do. You can actually see most of the fireworks from our barn, so I took Lily out in the arena to lunge her and do some groundwork while waiting for the fireworks to start.




Fireworks seen from the barn this past New Year's. You can see the fireworks from at least 4 different parks all the way around.

I let her trot and canter on the lunge, then I brought her in. We practiced backing with me just walking forwards towards her, disengaging the hindquarters, and I had her back up through an "L" of groundpoles that Judy had set up in a corner of the dressage arena. This is a challenging exercise that Lily did very, very well, despite the fact that fireworks were starting. Her concentration didn't waiver. I then practiced sending her over a single groundpole, not her favorite exercise, but she did it without fail each time-she didn't even try to dodge the pole. After that, I set her free and worked her at liberty, with changes of direction. She actually chose to do her final lap around the arena within the dressage arena instead of following the track on the outside, and I was finally, finally able to get her to come to me, not once but twice. While at liberty. In the arena. This was HUGE, and I ended the session on that note. I hosed her off in the barn, but Bob, the other new horse in the barn, was trotting in and out, from walkout to stall, and this had Lily nervous. I took her back outside to allow her to dry, and she stood next to me in the arena while the fireworks went off. I wish I could've taken a picture, but it was too dark. There was a giant loop in the lead rope and she stood quietly and calmly next to me, ears pricked and one hind leg cocked while the fireworks blazed 360 degrees around us. I kept looking at my mare, and was insanely happy by how relaxed she was, standing next to me. She was definetely hearing and seeing the fireworks, but she was fine because I was standing next to her.

As it turns out, all of the horses in the barn were standing outside in their walkouts, completely calm, watching the fireworks. It was really cool to see, and I wish my phone could've taken decent night photos, because it was postcard material-10 horses watching the fireworks.

I did one final check on Bali, who had pooped again, and was devouring her hay. She looked much, much perkier than earlier that evening, and had even drank half a bucket of water. I breathed a sigh of relief, and turned off the lights for the night.

It was a good ending to a long and stressful day.