Emergency vet call on a Saturday

Do you know what it's like to have to run to the dictionary before you call a vet? I couldn't (still don't) remember the word for choke and that is what happened with Mara today.


I was so excited to finally, FINALLY get a chance to ride with that sweet girl Sonja and her Icelandic Arndis that Mara is in love with (like, she comes into heat when she says hello to Arndis). Sonja is the one was took care of me and Mara on that horrible ride with "cell phone talking-while-riding Nadine".

I was having a very nice grooming session with Mara, talking to her and being aware of my breathing and rhythm of getting mud off of her, when I offered her some loose hay - the good stuff - the sweet delicate green 2nd cutting that we'd recently switched them off of in favor of some pretty decent but not delectable 1st cutting. The last three days I'd thrown them hay loose in the field, although most of the time I put their hay in the nets. So, really, nothing had changed much. In fact yesterday I gave Mara mix of the 1st and 2nd cutting, loose (no nets) on the pasture.

She started choking, not coughing, just standing there head low/sideways trying to swallow and failing. Her neck undulating horribly. Nothing came from her nose, but she kept opening and closing her mouth in an attempt to get it down.

I'd only been around choke twice and one time the horse almost died of aspiration of not-fully soaked beet pulp. When they say it's not totally necessary to soak beet pulp, I personally will always soak it.

After finding that German word for choke, I called an on-call vet and he coached me over the phone a bit. He wanted me to offer her a carrot to see what would happen, I guess. I said, "Let me get this straight. My horse is choking and looks to be colicking as well, and you want me to offer her food."

By that point she started standing awkwardly, and her stomach was also flexing in pain in what appeared to be colic. I've only witnessed one colic and you know how that ended.

She kept raising her tail and flexing her stomach, and making exactly the same noise Baasha made, that noise of agony. I couldn't believe I had to go through this again, and alone this time.

He said "Just give her  a carrot to see what she does." So I took the cell phone into the greenhouse, picked one of J's last carrots, washed it in the rain barrel, and told the vet the dimensions in centimeters (poorly), and offered it to Mara. She immediately turned her head away like "Are you crazy? I'm choking here!" and I tried again and Mara took the world's tiniest bite and just held it in her mouth, not even wanting to chew it. Eventually she did.

That vet couldn't come out so I went in the house to call another on-call vet. While I was in the house Mara must have coughed up the problem because there was a pile of foam with two tiny carrot bits in it and nothing else. She also pooped.

Then she was suddenly better. I almost was angry at her, I was so relieved. I shook my finger at her face and said, "You're trying to kill me! You're trying to give me a heart attack, and here is where they'd find my body!" (gesturing to the ground)

I was cuddling the donkey, remembering that she was there with me before.

The vet arrived in 30 minutes and listened to her heart and stomach, and checked her gums and eyelids. She said Mara's stomach is particularly loud and I said she's always that way. Mara did not want her throat touched but the vet kept feeling it.

Then the vet asked me to offer her a handful of grain to see if Mara would eat it. Mara took it in her mouth, chewed, but refused to swallow. Finally she did.

The vet actually walked to the pasture with me to see if it would be ok for Mara to be outside tonight, because I know Mara won't be getting food tonight, and I think she should at least be allowed movement and a few nibbles of grass. The vet ok'd that but right now Mara is staring at the house, wondering why the donkey gets dinner and she doesn't. Every so often she reaches over and tries to bite the donkey, who's cleverly staying out of reach while she eats.

I hugged and hugged Mara, after giving her some TTeam massages and belly lifts. I let her nuzzle me and she really cuddled me back. I hate the uncertainty of not knowing if she's going to have a lifetime of choking issues, or colic issues.

But somehow I think we are  closer tonight than we were this morning.

***UPDATE***
Poor Mara ....things got worse the next day for her. I will write about our Sunday in another blog post.