The Secret Life of A Box Walker and Pollys Colic

So poor little (big) Daisy seems to be recovering from her laminitis. In fact from Saturday onwards she has been tanking around as soon as we let her out. Seeing her trotting soundly across the stones, with her new lean look, I was tempted to enter her into the Grand National 😊
We are slightly scared to allow her back out full time though.  So she continues to come in at night. And she hates it.  She has taken to tossing her haynet over the door. And she has obviously been box walking.  While this has contributed to her weight loss, its not nice knowing she is so stressed.  Every day the droppings have been trodden in, and mashed up, making it a bit of a job mucking out.  Saturday night she managed to knock her water over.....Not a small bucket I hasten to add, but a full size black dustbin! Box walking is not good.....a real sign of stress.  At the end of the day horses are outdoors animals, they live in herds, they like to be able to run away.  Stabling is not natural. When the rain is lashing down and the wind is howling, you may lie in bed happy that your horse is tucked up in cosy pjs in a nice warm stable. In reality the horse is feeling trapped......its hearing all the noise of the weather, and really wants the comfort of a herd, and the ability to run from danger.....
Worth a thought.....
Anyway here are the before and after pics of saturday night water escapade....

Before....nice cosy stable


                                                                                                                                                                           








                
And after....Trashed stable in true rock star fashion....................











We had to use the trailer.....And it took 2 trailer loads to empty it.  We were seriously weighing up the pros and cons of leaving her out all night, with a grazing muzzle on.
 Anyway racing round doing the fields we noticed Polly lying down. She had been down when we arrived....not unusual first thing..Charlie and Lu are usually asleep together when we arrive. But more unusual to get up and then down again.  My colic radar buzzed. She didn't look right.  We got her up to check her out. She wasn't sweated up but she was grinding her teeth. A sure sign with Polly that something hurts. Then she went down and rolled again. We brought her in for a bran mash, which she wasn't interested in. I walked her while Jo called the vet.  Its not worth messing about with colic.  Having had a very colic prone horse in the past (Skittles) , who eventually died from a twisted gut, I have always been able to spot colic a mile away. If you are not sure, call the vet.  Signs are getting up and down a lot. Rolling. Looking at stomach. Kicking at stomach. Raised heart rate. Pinched lips. Sweating. Groaning. Not interested in grass. These have to be taken together. A horse may not show all these signs.  But if you know your horse you should be able to spot discomfort or pain.  But if it is simply having a roll, or kicking at a fly, don't panic.  I once had someone inform me one of the Rda ponies had colic. Looking out of the window and watching him calmly munching grass, I asked, "What makes you think that?" The reply was, "He kicked at his belly.  I read in a book that that means colic" Hmmmm it was summer....he was kicking at the flys. It is always worth spending time with your horse, in the field, just watching. Then you will know when its not right. 
Anyway the vet appeared....pulled out a lot of sandy droppings from Polly. We are on very sandy soil.  Unfortunately when the grass is short, and it rains, as it had Saturday night, they tend to pull the grass up from its roots, and eat it sand and all.  Some horses are fine with it.....some have slightly less efficient guts and they get a build up of sand which gets stuck.  After a shot of Buscopan and Bute, the vet tubed her.  If you haven't seen this done before, a tube is passed up a nostril and pushed down into the gut. Then about a gallon of liquid paraffin and warm water is poured through a funnel into the gut. Not pleasant,  but it usually gets things moving. Polly was a star, and didn't even need sedating. No drama there. Skittles used to fight, and rear and always had to be sedated. Then her nose would bleed and I would end up covered in blood, snot and whatever food came back up. 
All this done, it was about time to bring Daisy back in. As the shetlands had just arrived back from their holidays, we were able to stable Polly too. What a difference that made to Daisy.  Nice clean stable this morning. Both looking bright and chirpy.  They have been turned out on long grass today, and will be in tonight......And then, hopefully they can both go back out full-time.