life of charmings

love, family, happiness

in casey· family· farmhome· horses· that's life

casey the patient!

well well well, i know one handsome little equine who maaay have given his girl a near heart attack over the weekend! ohh, yes. a heart attack, i think it must’ve been. or something much like it!
sooo, it was saturday. at 4pm. i went to feed casey his skinny-horse-in-the-winter daily grain, and saw that he was lying down in the field… which isn’t always a strange thing, but on this day… well, it was strange! i just felt like it was, and since i’ve been with this guy 16 years now, i am right about these things. but when i got to the gate, he hopped right up and came toward me as usual, so i decided to think nothing more of it… that is until halfway through eating, his legs started to buckle beneath him again and he plopped himself down practically in his food! uh oh. yep. this is strange.

my mind immediately went to colic [which occurs when a horse is having one digestive issue or another, and they start having tummy pain. sometimes it’s not the hugest deal, but sometimes it’s fatal.], and they say when a horse is colicing that you shouldn’t let them lie down. crap! we’ve never had a horse colic before, though, so this was a new thing for me. i’d been warned of the signs all my life, but i’d never actually dealt with any of it. and, i mean, he’s almost 27! so, was it colic? or was it some mysterious other issue? i kept asking him, “case, what is it? does your tummy hurt? can you please please pleeease tell me?” his legs were fine. he didn’t seem lethargic. i was definitely… pretty sure it was colic.

cue brittany’s panic mode! i called my parents to come down with me and maddalena and casey. long story short, he got back up. we took him to the field. he went back down. he got up. pawed at the ground [another sign of colic]. acted weird. tried to kick at his tummy with his back legs. then he went back down. and that time i could not get him up again. that time he was really feeling bad, and he wanted to put his head down and close his eyes. i was really entering freak out mode, and as my mom phoned the vet i started feeling like a really tiny, helpless human next to my big, beautiful, miserable, furry boy, and i just prayed that he would be okay and that we’d get to celebrate his 27th birthday together next week.

at this point we were an hour into the whole situation, and after my mom hung up the phone, we managed to convince casey to get up one more time… and once he was up i was sure as heck not letting him back down! so, i walked him around and around for another good hour to get his tummy moving. [i think the walking was good for me, too, because not panicing was not my thing that day!] we gave him as much water as we could get him to drink and then followed the vet’s orders to put him in a stall and watch him for a while.


gosh, he makes the cutest patient! and he was so thankful for good barn company from the lovedonks and the occasional scurrying kittycat.

well, let’s just say an hour of walking, some horsey sized gulps of water, and six gloriously celebrated horsey poopoos later, that boy was feeling worlds better!! yaaaaay!! we didn’t even have to give him whiskey, as one of the farm’s colic-experienced boarders knew to do! 😉 what. a. relief. so, the verdict? well, apparently he’d become dehydrated. which lead to colic. yep, baby’s first colic, age [almost] 27. wheeeewy.


anyway, we seemed to have dodged the bullet, but we kept him up for the night just to be sure. i even got to check on him obsessively all night long via snazzy video hookup! i absolutely loved seeing him all cozy in there. i even watched my wonderful mommy go in at midnight to check on him!

look at that amazing mama mia in there. ahhhh. i am so thankful for my family. it’s ridiculous how supportive and helpful and encouraging each member of my family is, [honorary scioscias included!]!
God, family, and good digestion. glory, hallelujah, aaamen!

ps. i love you, casey boy!
pps. i snagged the one photo of humans from liza’s instagram! thank you for taking that, liza!

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

in him our hearts rejoice, for we trust his holy name. psalm 33:21