Praying for a Horse

When I was a little girl, I kept asking God for a horse. It took many years to answer that prayer, but I finally was granted my request at the age of 15 when I got my first horse, a chestnut Quarter Horse gelding named Daytona.

Flash forward decades and I’m praying for a horse again.

It’s a different prayer this time. Instead of, “God, help me to get a horse,” it’s “God, please heal my horse.”

So that bout of colic that happened on Thanksgiving happened again on Sunday. And the vet came out. Knight’s temperature was normal (I took it before the vet arrived and it wasn’t as bad as giving the Banamine injection on Thanksgiving). He had glorious bowel movements, but he kept trying to lie down.

I didn’t witness the lying down behavior. In fact, when I was out Sunday morning, Knight seemed completely normal. I rode him and he was fine. But I got a text later in the afternoon that he was not right.

The vet checked for sand in Knight’s manure and said there was a little but not much. She mentioned he might have ulcers, a stone or something else going on in his gut.

Today (Monday) I received notification that Knight was trying to lie down again. (I saw him at 6 a.m. when I placed a sign on his stall “Please feed only 1/2 of his hay today per vet’s orders.” He seemed happy and normal at 6.)

My vet came back to see Knight, I rushed to get coverage for my one afternoon class. My trainer and vet had a conversation while I was teaching and after talking to my trainer I said I wanted to take him to the ER so he could be under their watchful eyes 24/7.

Long story short, he was scoped and he does have mild ulcers (which I suspected), no stones (which is good), but his intestine had flipped around. I was charging my cell phone in the ER lobby and when the doctor came out to tell me how the exam went, he laid out my cord in a large U shape and then turned it and said this is what happened to his intestine.

As of now (9 p.m. California) he is not going to proceed with surgery, instead Knight has an IV and is receiving about 20 gallons of fluids (not sure exactly what all the fluids are, but good medicine). The vet said about 80% of the time with this treatment the intestine goes back to the normal position.

Best case scenario Knight will be in the hospital for three days (no surgery, fluids work). Worst case is colic surgery and a ten day stay.

The good news is I really, really liked the ER vet. He was personable and explained things in an easy-to-understand way. He spent a long time talking to me and we talked about everything from cribbing (which Knight does and I asked if it could be related) to equine dentists to kitchen sinks.

His illustration was that when your kitchen sink gets clogged, it slows down but still works, but just not like it’s supposed to–until you use Drano. So the IV is like the Drano for Knight’s intestines.

The vet said Knight will tell him if he needs surgery. He said Knight knows what’s wrong, but since he can’t talk, we’ve got to do the figuring out. So tonight I will sleep with my ringer on because I might get a call asking for consent for surgery.

I pray the phone doesn’t ring and I sleep through until my alarm Tuesday morning.

And I pray that Knight will be okay.

Comments: Have you ever prayed for an animal? Thoughts, comments, anecdotes?

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