Saturday morning loomed bright and sunny but Meins did not seem so. He just stood in one corner of the small pasture with his head down and would not even look in my direction. Normally when he sees me first thing in the morning he will nip and chase Paha and the two of them get to squealing, snorting, bucking, farting raucous fun then immediately (about 10 min) come to the gate. I jiggled the gate latch and he then turned and started toward me. Because the sun was just coming up it caught the bottom of his lip which was oozing bubbly drool and his facial expression was drawn. I keep a halter and lead right by the gate so I grabbed him and brought him up to the garage to take his temp and as soon as it beeped ready I pulled it out, hit his tail and dropped it on the cement floor. So not only did I not catch the reading, I broke the therm! Sigh!. Called a friend to see if she was home to give assistance if necessary but she was out of town. So I put a call into the vet who called back within 5 min. and was an hour away but headed my way.
So in the meantime we went over to the round pen and when I released him he just stood there which was starting to scare me. Got a bucket of water because I had not seen him drink yet and put it next to him and I went and sat on the mounting block to keep an eye on him. He came near me and just plopped down stretched out flat and went to sleep. His breathing was deep and normal and he wasn't in any kind of stress so I let him be.
Have you ever seen a horse go into REM sleep and then dream? It's so awesome! He was doing little horsey nickers, running, twitching his ears and mouthing. I then started to tear up because I had waited so long for this wonderful creature I could not stand to see him hurting.
Shortly after noon the vet called to let me know he was 5 min out so I brought Meins back up to the garage and Dr. Moore pulled in. He retook his vitals, and his temp was up (102.3) so we went to work looking, feeling, flushing, floating and then scoping his nasal cavity to see what's up. No pun intended. Boy their heads are heavy after sedation! The back of his tongue was swollen but could find nothing else.
Since he was sweating really bad I pulled out his fleece cooler so he would not get a chill then led him back out to the round pen to finish waking up. After ten minutes he was walking the circle and looking over the fence at Paha eating hay and getting very agitated that he had none. With in a few more min he was like his old devilish self, so around 4 pm he was ready to go back to pestering his brother.
So we have a slightly altered routine in the morning with the meds but he has been his ornery self which is why I love him so much.
I am so very grateful and appreciative to my husband for putting up with me and my critters and to my vet for not blowing me off as a silly, neurotic horse person and for my trainer who taught me more than just learning to ride again. And also for those few FB friends who understand what it's like to get back into horses at this stage of our lives. We may not be those carefree, cautionless, don't give a damn, kids anymore, but do not interfere with our passion, however seemingly silly , cause we know what we want and need to do and we'll run right over you to make it right! Right? Right!
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