Colic.

So when you have horses this is the dreaded "C" word, right?

I've been passionate about avoiding this situation since I was in high school and aside from a few small Banamine fixed bouts, I haven't had to deal with straight up, go to the clinic colic ever before so this was a new one for me.

Australian Shepherd Nationals were being held in Bryan this year so I naturally was attending and my friend from AZ was coming in for a week of fun (and loads of dog related work!).  That morning I'd taken Katy for a lesson with Sarah and as I was parking the trailer I noticed that Mango was laying down mid day.  Nothing dramatic, but she was down and sleeping.  I've learned that on weekdays during the day my pasture mares love to sunbathe so I just wrote it off.

Mango in Jail Recovering

Trailer unloaded and horses done, I set about packing and changing things up for the dog shows we had.  I kept looking out at Mango and she would get up, get water, graze, walk around and then end up laying down at some point.  No rolling, nothing uncomfortable looking, just chill.  I tend to be overly paranoid (see above paragraph about colic avoidance), so naturally I was a bit obsessive as I washed dogs and get things ready.

My friend rolls into town and I go to check on Mango one last time and I KNOW she's more rotund than normal and I don't want to deal with this this weekend so I load her up and we head to the clinic for some Bute and Banamine.  Upon arrival we unload and she calmly goes into the stocks.  At this point she's looking more like a balloon and I'm getting more worried.

I have a strict "no surgery" opinion about colic to this point as I've seen very few horses have long term success after having it so I'm eyeing up Mango as they pull an obscene amount of fluid from her stomach.  After the 4th 3 gallon bucket I'm all making my peace.  They aren't too happy about anything they're finding and now I'm sure we're heading towards euthanizing her.

The final test they do is to check the fluid past the obstruction and... its totally fine.   Fluid before it is fine too.  They go for another ultrasound and due to her thick conformation can't see anything.  Rectally they find out her colon is over her spleen.  What?  So yeah...

We run her in the round pen after giving her some meds to shrink her spleen and I leave her to marinade at the clinic overnight.  Next day, no dice.  We opt to just roll her and she comes through that just fine.  Colon is righted and everything gets back to normal.  Three days at the clinic and she comes home, happy as ever and we move on.

Horses.  And Dog Shows :)

Me tormenting Mango while she eats :)