It was February, 2009 when our senior gelding, Pablo showed signs of colic. He couldn't urinate or have a bowel movement. He was in a very depressed state. Right away we called our vet, but he couldn't get here due to the weather. We had a snow and ice storm and he couldn't come, so we had to call a vet that was closer and one we never used for our horses before. When he got here he attempted to due a rectal examine and found that Pablo was impacted. He tried to clean him out. The next day there was no progress and infact he was even worse.We called the vet to come back out. This time they tried to flush him out mineral oil and warm water, but that didn't work either. The prognosis was not good. She suggested we should put him down. We didn't want to give up on him, we had him since he was 11 months old. That is when she told use about Dr. Amy Youngblood at Southeastern Indiana Equine Center. She said if anyone could do anything for him it would be her, so we loaded him up in a horse trailer at 7pm and headed out to the equine center. The weather was so bad, we didn't get there until 11pm, normally it would have only taken about 1 hour or better. When we pulled up at the facility, she was waiting for us and went right to work on him. After she examined him, she found out that he had a 12 " tear in his colon. I am not going to point fingers, but with research, I found out most tears in a horses colon are caused with an improper examine. At that point our main concern was to try and save him and it was not important how he got the tear. We stayed with him until about 1 am and she was still working on him. Put him on an IV right away and antibiotics. He was severely dehydrated. She said she would do what she could, but he was in real bad shape. When we left that night I never thought we would see our Pablo alive again. It was touch and go for some time. She would clean him out several times a day and treat the tear. He wasn't on any food, just the IV for sometime, then he was started on Senior Glo feed and cut up hay soaked in water, but was still cleaning him out. She still didn't want him to have a bowel movement on his own. We would visit him every week and every week we could see him making progress.
He was there at the Equine center for 2-1/2 months and they all fell in love with him. He has an awesome personality and obviously a strong will to live. Dr. Amy called him her Miracle horse.She told us she didn't think that he was going to make it. I can't say enough good about her. She is an awesome vet and she is only about 5 ft tall and 100 lbs. Not many vets would have put the time, effort and dedication she did to save an animal . I will always be grateful to her. She didn't do it for the money either. It is truly just for her love of animals.
It has been almost 3 years ago and Pablo is doing fine. We still have him on the Senior Glo pellet food and we add about 1/3 cup of vegetable oil to it. We also bought a heated bucket for water, so he will drink plenty.
I suggest that in the winter months that you buy a heated bucket for your horse, especially if you have a senior horse, because if they don't drink enough water. it is possible they could get impacted. I think that was what happened with Pablo and I am not sure what caused the tear in his colon.
The upper picture is of Pablo at the Equine Center.
The bottom picture is of him last summer with Vision.(date on picture is not the right date. I didn't know how to change the date) LOL
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