Last Saturday Katie went to the barn around mid-day to ride. When she got home she remarked that Dude seemed a little lethargic and not quite himself. He didn't come to the gate when she called him, like he usually does, and when she rode, he wasn't too energetic. Just about the time we finished talking, barn owner Julie called to say that something was definitely going on with him, he was standing in his stall with his head hanging and completely uninterested in what was going on around him. She had taken his temperature, and it was 99.6, then about an hour later, 100.8. So not super high, but combined with his lethargy, concerning.
I headed off to the barn by myself, as I had planned to ride Bestie that afternoon. I called the vet shortly after arriving; Dude just didn't look right, and it turned out he hadn't eaten his grain or hay that morning prior to going out. He swung his head when I approached the stall, but didn't move, and when I tried to get him out of the stall, I couldn't budge him. He'd been in by then for a couple hours and hadn't pooped or peed.
The vet arrived pretty quickly. Dude wasn't exhibiting classic colic symptoms, but he was stopped up and after sedating him she was able to glove him and pull out some stuff. She also put two bags of fluids into him intravenously. Once the sedation wore off he seemed to perk up, but was definitely not back to normal. We walked him, cleaned his water, and watched him for a while.
Julie and Larry checked on him twice that night. He didn't poop until early the next morning, but seemed pretty comfortable. As Sunday wore on he seemed to tank, and we ended up calling the vet again. His temperature went up and he got sort of dopey looking again. More hand walking and willing him to poop. His blood work came back negative (the vet had thought he might have Potomac). He had a small amount of bran mash, which he wolfed down.
On Monday he pooped early (great rejoicing!), right after I arrived for a pre-work check on him, and the vet stopped by. She thought it would be good to get him out, since he seemed to have rallied again, so he went out in the round pen by himself, within view of the other horses in the paddocks. He had breakfast, lunch and dinner bran and nibbled on a few grass blades he could reach from the pen. He wasn't drinking much water, so it was good he was getting some hydration from the watery mash. When Katie and I got there in the evening, she handwalked him a couple times, and he actually seemed fine, except for only pooping once more. We hung out until about 9:30 that night.
Yesterday he was cleared for watery grain and some hand-grazing (which seemed to prompt him to drink), and today he had watered hay. Knock on wood, he seems to be rebounding and getting back to his normal self. I'm hesitant to say he's fine (feeling like I might jinx the recovery) - at the barn yesterday and today I found myself peering at him for any little sign that he might be going downhill again. By the time I left the barn tonight at 6:15 pm, he had pooped twice since turn in, a new record :). Over the next couple of days the vet feels we can ease him back to his regular feeding routine.
Needless to say, it's been scary; we've never really dealt with anything like this. The uncertainty and the worry was nerve-wracking. Support from the vet and from Julie and Larry at the barn was awesome - they had some late night shifts as well as conscientious daytime nursing, for which I'm so very grateful.
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