I found a good article on colic. It is some hard reading, especially when you get to the mortality rate for horses who had similar cases to Isis (50-75% mortality in the worst cases). The article covers pre-op to post-op care. The good news was that 90% of the horses who survived the surger and fully recovered were able to return to the original occupations/use.
Insulin resistant horses like Isis have trouble with heat. Insulin resistance is similar to a pre-diabetic condition in people: the horses who have this metabolic issue do not process insulin (and sugars) normally. IR impacts everything else in one giant cascade: IR horses’ immune systems aren’t quite at 100%, heat affects them harder than other…
I’m visitng my parents this weekend, so I’ll be possibly posting. Depends upon how exhausted I am from working at the barn. It’s a good exhaustion. đŸ™‚ Mom has Isis’ daddy, Sirdar, and several of Isis’ sisters. She also has Kasane’s sister, Kenya, who is by the same sire and out of Isis’ sister, Farah….
The barn where I board is full of wise old eyes: half of the horses are over 20. My old girl, Prize, is 28 and still teaches people (myself included) about riding and jumping. She’s a bright bay Arabian mare with three white socks, a snip, and a blaze. She’s not typey for an Arabian…
Just as I walked into the barn today, Kasane managed to get cast against the stall wall. Seriously cast—as in, she couldn’t push herself away from the wall to get up. She was on her left side against the stall wall partition with her front legs tucked underneath her. She kicked out with her back…
Sunday morning was the weekly riding lesson. My last riding lesson was last Sunday and it went well. Unfortunately, my back hurt so much the morning after I had to stay home from work. Last night, I went to the company holiday party. Three hours of walking around in heels plus moving boxes out of…
Isis came home last night. Got on the trailer like a champ and hauled quietly back. She settled in immediately, happily munching hay and looking around. Her body seemed to relax again to realize where she is. I called the vet school twice to verify the amount of hay she’s allowed to have and whether…