I go out to the barn around 4pm today. We have 4 horses here, all pastured together. They usually are glued to one another's hips. Our gelding Nut-Megg was standing up by the water tank by himself...no sign of anyone else. I had seen him lying down about 15 minutes before I headed out there to groom horses.
I get out there and he's standing still. Looking listless. I look closer and he has bright green snot caked to his muzzle and dripping down to the ground. :shock:
I luckily had a rag with me and cleaned up him a bit but it was still coming out.
He's choking. He's done it before years ago on an alfalfa cube so I recognized the signs. My panic was starting to rise. I check his pulse, respiration and gums. Pulse is normal, respiration is okay, a little "raspy" and his gums are extremely pale. I can't get a capillary refill. Checked for gut sounds and all is well there. Lots of gurgling.
I call my mom and let her know what's going on and tell her I'm contacting our vet.
Call the vet's office...It's closed. Ha. Of course.
Call the vet's cell number and she answers. Thankfully. I tell her what's going on. She tells me to massage his esophagus for 20-30 minutes and see if that helps to get things moving. So I start rubbing on him and talking to him. His eyes start to close and he's very relaxed. Vet told me a lot of times you can feel the lump and help to massage it through. I didn't feel anything. I noticed he has some enlarged lymph nodes on both sides of his neck.
After some time, his head lowers and he starts grazing again. His snotty nose has subsided and it's no longer wet. Whew. My panic has reduced and I feel the high blood pressure in my veins ease away. LoL.
The vet called me back and asked how things were. I told her and she says good job. LoL. I told her about the swollen glands too and she thinks that that's his thyroid glands. I'll keep an eye on that and hope it doesn't progress into something else. None of the other horses have any issues going on right there so that's promising.
Overall, that was not what I wanted to deal with today. LoL. It didn't help that I was the only one home and we had the delivery guy show up to drop off our new fridge at that exact moment in time.
All is well though. I'm heading out to check on him one last time before calling it a night.
I get out there and he's standing still. Looking listless. I look closer and he has bright green snot caked to his muzzle and dripping down to the ground. :shock:
I luckily had a rag with me and cleaned up him a bit but it was still coming out.
He's choking. He's done it before years ago on an alfalfa cube so I recognized the signs. My panic was starting to rise. I check his pulse, respiration and gums. Pulse is normal, respiration is okay, a little "raspy" and his gums are extremely pale. I can't get a capillary refill. Checked for gut sounds and all is well there. Lots of gurgling.
I call my mom and let her know what's going on and tell her I'm contacting our vet.
Call the vet's office...It's closed. Ha. Of course.
Call the vet's cell number and she answers. Thankfully. I tell her what's going on. She tells me to massage his esophagus for 20-30 minutes and see if that helps to get things moving. So I start rubbing on him and talking to him. His eyes start to close and he's very relaxed. Vet told me a lot of times you can feel the lump and help to massage it through. I didn't feel anything. I noticed he has some enlarged lymph nodes on both sides of his neck.
After some time, his head lowers and he starts grazing again. His snotty nose has subsided and it's no longer wet. Whew. My panic has reduced and I feel the high blood pressure in my veins ease away. LoL.
The vet called me back and asked how things were. I told her and she says good job. LoL. I told her about the swollen glands too and she thinks that that's his thyroid glands. I'll keep an eye on that and hope it doesn't progress into something else. None of the other horses have any issues going on right there so that's promising.
Overall, that was not what I wanted to deal with today. LoL. It didn't help that I was the only one home and we had the delivery guy show up to drop off our new fridge at that exact moment in time.
All is well though. I'm heading out to check on him one last time before calling it a night.