Day #32

Happy birthday, Dan! I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to be together riding in the wilderness. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to ride today.

Pearl was worse this morning when we got up. We had given her baby food with Psyllium husk mixed in it last night. It had resulted in a small, but loose bowel movement. She still wasn't eating or drinking.

Al came down with his horse expecting to take us on a trail in the foothills of the Superstition Mountains. Only I went. It was a nice two hour ride. We covered nearly 6 miles. The terrain was different than at Horspitality. Much less sandy and rocky. Much greener. And more cholla jumping cactus. I had to stop after 5 minutes to flick one off of Blaze.

After we got back he had several needles stuck on his legs and was not happy when we had to use the pliers to pull them out.

But our main concern was Pearl. Al brought over some alfalfa soaked in water and a mash to entice her to eat. She was interested in the alfalfa, but barely drank any of the alfalfa water. After talking to Al and Ann we got their vet's number. The vet said this was an emergency and she would be out in 30 minutes.

We knew she wasn't well, but never thought we would get a vet to

come on a Sunday and on a holiday weekend.

Dr. Susan Roach arrived at 6:10 pm and left at 8:30 pm. In that time she took Pearl's temperature, respiration, did a capillary refill test, did a rectal exam, sedated her and put a tube through her nose and into her stomach and put in 1.5 gallons of warm water, 1 lb of Epson salts and electrolytes plus 2 cups of mineral oil.

We cannot feed her for 24 hours and the mineral oil has to come out first. The diagnoses was impaction colic and gastric ulcers with a possibility of a twisted gut. This is not good.....

Pearl is spending the night in the horse trailer so she can move about freely. In the morning we are to call the vet for consultation. As a matter of fact, she said we should call at anytime during the night if Pearl was in distress. We opted not to operate.

We will need to go into Apache Junction tomorrow and buy eletrolyte past and rice bran flakes. We are also to give her aloe vera juice which will help coat the ulcer while her stomach is emptying out.

The vet said that some horses take up to six days to have the impacted area soften and pass through. Check back tomorrow to find out what happened overnight.

Asking God's blessing.
Pam