My geriatric old man Jack doesn't do well in extreme temperatures. Wednesday night, I noticed his breathing was a little labored, so I chalked it up to our heat wave and texted DH to make sure to bring them in as early as possible (they're on night turnout, and then stalled with fans during the day). DH called me in a panic Thursday morning because when he brought the horses in, Jack was only marginally sweaty while the other two were pretty soaked (and its usually the other way around). He hosed and scraped him and parked him in front of a fan, and then added two additional fans to his normal stall arrangements.
After a crash internet course on possible solutions for anhidrosis, I stopped and grabbed some Guiness Stout on my way home last night. When I added it to his dinner, he turned up his nose at it (because of course he did). I did finally get most of it into him, and he got another cold hose and scrape -- then a mist of rubbing alcohol/water to speed the evaporation and hopefully jump start the cooling. He is eating and drinking (and the resulting pooping and peeing) like normal, not dehydrated, and not running a temp. He already gets salt in his daily ration, but I'm adding some electrolytes. His behavior is fairly unchanged, just the labored breathing.
After obsessing over him for an hour or two last night, I finally just turned him out for the night. He went right to grazing, so obviously he's not at death's door or anything, I'm just paranoid. We'll be stuck in this sweltering weather through Sunday, so he will be obsessively managed for the next few days, but he did seem better this evening so hopefully we're on the right track.
But clearly all of this sapped any energy I had to write anything fun. So here you go. Boring post about me obsessing over my horses' health. Fairly par for the course actually! I guess I can rustle up the energy to find you at least one decent picture.
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| Jack and Cody, my childhood dog. Also a really interesting red dye job. |
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| Back when I was skinny! haha |
I don't know if this article is actually helpful or not (I haven't read it yet) but I just saw it on Facebook. http://practicalhorsemanmag.com/article/managing-anhidrosis-in-horses-11531
ReplyDeleteYeah I came across that one yesterday! Lots of really good tips. He seemed MUCH improved when I checked on him before I left for work this morning so hopefully we caught it quickly enough that we can get him sorted out without prolonged discomfort. I hate the weather here, ugh.
DeleteAw poor Jack! That's definitely scary but it sounds like you've got a good handle on it!!
ReplyDeleteLast night was the first night his breathing was pretty much normal! The heat is finally supposed to break tomorrow, so that can't get here soon enough.
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