No Sleep Tonight

Apparently my plan of catching up on sleep tonight isn't going to happen...

Faith is down in her stall right now. I heard some banging coming from her general area, flew out of bed, put boots on and ran downstairs. She appears to be resting comfortably, but there are some signs of distress. Her heavy breathing and scattered shavings tell me that that she may have tried to get up and was struggling to get her feet under herself. Of course, she may just have been rolling around. Fingers crossed...

I do not believe that she is colicking; what I fear is in my gut. I have a feeling that this is another issue with her lack of strength in her hind end. I'm going back down shortly to give her a dose of banamine, hopefully it is just preventative. I'll check her TPR and post the results.

I won't go back to bed until I know she's up. I'll keep everyone updated as the night progresses...

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Faith is still down. I had brushed off the shavings and hay that were on her neck and head before I last left her, in order to determine what's going on. Sure enough, she had more stuck to her, proving that she was trying to get up and kept falling over. Ehhh.... my heart is sinking.

TPR looks good. Her pulse and respiration were slightly elevated, but I'm attributing that to the fact she was struggling to get up. She drank about 3-4 gallons of water since dinner, which is average for her. Her CRT is good and she's not dehydrated.

I gave her a 10cc oral dose of Banamine. It usually takes about five to ten minutes for us to see a response from it. Now we play the waiting game...

More to come...

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She's up! We're back on our feet again. I walked away from her stall for about 30 seconds to grab something out of the tack room and heard two loud bangs. I run back to her stall and she's standing up. Shaky, but upright.

At first, she was quite sore on her front legs, especially her right one. She took a few hobbling steps towards her hay rack, which I have never seen her do before. However, the more she moved, the more comfortable she appeared.

Thinking it was a muscle tightness issue, I took her for a short walk down the driveway. She started at a 4/5 lameness to a 1/5 lameness by the time we reached the bottom of the driveway (about 150 feet). When asked to turn, she looked to be about a 2.5/5, and then when she was walking straight again was about 1/5.

At this point, my brain is spent and I don't know what to think. It could be just a lameness - arthritis, ringbone, etc. I'm also thinking a circulation problem, muscle problems, eh the list goes on...

I will keep checking her through the night. No news is good news...


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