It was hot again today. Even hotter than yesterday. My bite was a little better but Mom still didn't want to ride me so she just hosed me off (that felt good!) and took me for a walk. It was just that sort of day, the sort of day when nothing really exciting happens. So today I'm going to tell you about something that happened a while ago.
It was back at the beginning the last rainy time when the weather was just starting to get cold. I don't like it when the weather changes suddenly. It's not comfortable at all. One day it's nice and sunny and warm and the next day, it's cold and raining. Changes like that can make a horse sick and that's what happened to me. Early in the morning, I started to feel bad. My stomach didn't feel right and I didn't have any energy. The guys brought my morning hay but I didn't even feel like eating it. That's not like me. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I love to eat.
Mom came to the barn a few hours later and knew right off that something was wrong. I didn't feel good at all by this point. My stomach hurt and I just wanted to lie down and rest. Mom took me out for a walk and I didn't feel like moving at all. I just kept stopping and I wished she'd let me go home. She walked me until I finally pooped and she seemed happy that I did but I still didn't feel very good.
So she took me back to my stall and cleaned it real quick. She put a lot of fresh shavings in it and I was so happy about that. I went right in and laid down on them. I didn't roll or anything. I just wanted to rest. Mom was worried, I could tell. She closed the door to my paddock and laid my warm blanket over me so I wouldn't be cold and then she pulled out her little box thing that she talks to and I could hear her talking about me and how I was sick.
I remember at one point the Shoe Man came and he must have wanted to play with my feet but Mom told him I didn't feel good and he said he'd come back another time. He said he hoped I felt better soon. I was glad he went away. I don't think I could have stood upright long enough for him to play with them. After he left, Mom came in my stall and sat on the floor with my head in her lap. That was nice. I just let out a big sigh and stayed there resting. Oh, I felt bad!
I don't know how long we stayed like that but finally the horse doctor came. His name is Dr. Bart and I like him lots. He always pets me and talks nicely to me and he always remembers my name. The girls who are always with him usually give me cookies and pet me too but I didn't feel like having any cookies this time. I just wanted to feel better. He came right in and gently asked me to stand up. I didn't want to but I did. You have to be a Good Girl for the horse doctor. That's just good manners.
Well, Dr. Bart spent a long time listening to my tummy. He uses this thing kind of like a bridle for people. It attaches to his head and it has a long piece with a metal circle on the end of it that hangs down under his face. He puts the metal piece on me and bends his head close and he does that all over me. It doesn't hurt or anything. It's kind of strange but I don't mind it and I know he's just doing it so he can help me feel better. That's what horse doctors do.
He did that and he stuck his little stick in my butt like they always do, and he looked in my mouth and at my eyes. Then he told Mom that I had colic. That's a kind of stomach ache. Horses can get really sick when they have colic. As bad as I felt, sometimes horses feel a lot worse. Some of them even die. Mom says that horses have very sensitive stomachs and I know that's true. Before my mom started feeding me hay snacks in the middle of the day, I sometimes felt kind of funny in my stomach.
Dr. Bart is the one who told Mom to do that. He said that it would help my tummy stay healthy. So every day I get some extra alfalfa and it seems to help a lot. I haven't been sick at all since then. He also gave me some medicine that he jabbed in my neck with a big needle. I don't much like those big needles but I'm always good about them. It doesn't help to get all upset after all, and Dr. Bart always pets me after and tells me that I'm a Good Girl. That medicine must have helped because I started feeling better not long after he left and I was able to eat my dinner okay. By the next morning, I felt fine. Mom gave me some other medicine in a tube for a few days that was supposed to help too. It tasted pretty nasty but I took it. I kept hoping it would taste better.
Sparky got colic one time too. I felt bad for him because he didn't have a stall to rest in because he lives in the pasture. Mom took me out of my stall and his mom put him in it. I didn't mind. Sparky is my best friend and he was sick, after all. Mom gave me a nice hay snack to keep me busy and told me to leave Sparky alone. I tried to but I was curious. I kept trying to poke my head in the stall but he didn't even pay attention. He felt awful. I know how that is.
Well, his mom called the horse doctor but it was a lady who came out instead of Dr. Bart. She seemed nice and Sparky told me later that he liked her. She gave him medicine and his mom put him in a stall near the Pony Arena that they keep for sick horses. Spark told me it was awful. He was all alone there and it was strange and there weren't any other horses nearby. He called and called but no one answered. Even though he felt pretty bad, he just couldn't relax. And he had to stay in that stall for a couple of days because his colic was a different kind than mine. Mine was because I have something called Ulcers. I don't really know what they are but Mom says racehorses get them a lot of the time. They live in your stomach and bother it but the extra alfalfa I get and the tube medicine mom gave me helps them.
Sparky had something they called gas colic. He said they only gave him a little hay at first and a bran mash twice a day. He liked the bran mash. He told me about it. It was wet and mushy and at first he didn't know what he was supposed to do with it. But then he tasted it and he said it was delicious so he slurped it right up. He got those for a couple of days and told me he wished he could have one every day. But my mom gave me one today and I didn't like it at all. The bran got up my nose and made it feel funny. And there was nothing to chew. Sparky can keep those old bran mashes. I like my bucket dinner.
He told me he felt pretty bad for the first day and a half. But then he started to feel better and his mom gave him more and more hay until he was finally getting the amount he always did. When he was all better, she put him back out in the pasture and he was so happy! The other pasture horses were too. Those pasture horses don't like it when one of them is gone too long.
I guess it's this hot weather that made me think about all that. It's surprising how delicate something as big as a horse can be.
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