I'm no Vet, but.....

Last night as I was wrapping my dad's birthday gift, I got a phone call. It was my mom, but when I answered it there was nobody there. Assuming that it was an accidental "pocket" dial, I hung up with a shrug. Not more than a second later and it rang again. Hmmm. I answered the phone and was slammed with my mother's very panicked voice.

"Somethings wrong with Lady!" my mom rapidly blurted into the phone.

I began trying to sort out what she was telling me "What do you mean?"

"I don't know....she's down and she's wheezing, I can't get her up. Oh no, her eyes are rolling into the back of her head...oh my God!!"

Because of the frenzy and absolute panic in my mom's voice, I knew that I wouldn't be able to process the information she was relaying without first calming her down. Her panic was setting off my panic. I knew there were a series of questions I should be asking, like how long she had been down? Is she rolling? Is she seizing? Are her gums pink? Is she lucid? Is she panicked? Aghhh...the thoughts weren't coming though.

"Do you know of an emergency vet?" my mom stammered "Call a vet, I need a vet. Oh my gosh, I think she's dying...I think I'm losing her...."

I hung up on my panicked mom to try and gather my thoughts. I know that sounds crude, but if both of us were running around like a bunch of stampeding hens, nothing would get done to help poor Lady. I phoned the only vet in the area that I knew of off of the top of my racing mind. Our old Vet, Rob Renton. Every horse owner in Michigan knows of Rob, he works around the clock and he is the best. I felt bad phoning him at 8:00, but I didn't know what else to do. I was greeted by a sweet sounding woman who slowly began taking my information.

Does anyone know what it's like to be absolutely in panic mode and to have to slooowwww wayyyy dowwwwn so the person you're speaking to understands what you're trying to say? It's not easy. I fought a growing urge to yell at her to hurry, but instead began to silently sob as I tried to give her directions out to the farm (30 minutes away from the Vet, btw). It seemed like I was giving this sweet woman directions for years, but it must have only been a matter of minutes. I kept imagining my mom alone with Lady. I hate to admit it, but based on my mom's reaction, I pictured a dead horse. It was that bad.

After I hung up with the on-call woman (who was relaying the information to the vet), I phoned my mom back immediately. I dreaded what she had to tell me. My mom answered sounding less panicked. She had gotten Lady up by making alot of noise and yelling and pulling on Lady.

According to my mom, she had pulled up to the barn and went about her usual routine of calling the horses up out of the pasture. Lady is pastured with a Tennessee Walking horse mare, Cash. My mom hollered for the girls, and they came galloping up as usual. As a treat, my mom threw a small handful of grain in each of their buckets. As Lady was eating her treat, Cash came over in an effort to steal Lady's grain. Shortly after that, my mom said that Lady began to cough and wheeze, which is when she began to lay down, roll and then lay flat out with her eyes rolling into the back of her head. That's about the time my mom called me.

In retrospect, I should have gotten that information before calling the vet, but based on my mom's panic, I thought it was life or death. I told the woman on the phone, who turned out to be Dr. Renton's poor mom, that my mom's horse was down, she was wheezing and her eyes were rolling back into her head...whooo booooy!

I concluded (because I'm such the expert) based on my mom's story that it was Choke. Though I've never actually seen a horse with Choke, I have read about it in BLOGS of all things - LOL (you can learn alot through reading blogs, I tell ya). I read off the symptoms to my mom, and she thought that sounded right. I told my mom to not let her eat and to allow her to stand quietly with her head down while she waited for the vet. I knew that Choke could lead to aspiration, which can be fatal.

As my mom and I chatted worriedly about Lady, another thought popped into my mind. HYPP. Remember, we don't know who Lady is. We don't know her heritage other than she is a QH. I brought that to my mom's attention and then quickly Googled it to read off the symptoms. They also fit the bill to a T. The only thing that wasn't occurring were muscle spasms. So, now more worried than ever, my mom waited for the vet to arrive. She promised she'd call when the vet left.

About 30 minutes later, I heard my phone go off.

"Hello?"

WAIT FOR IT, WAIT FOR IT

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

"She choked." My mom sighed into the phone.

Poor Rob, I'm sure based on our frenzied description, he RUSHED out to the farm (30 minutes away) only to discover a perfectly healthy horse. Ah well, it's better to be safe than sorry. Speaking of safe, I am going to create an emergency plan for my mom and Lady. That woman panics!! I know she just loves that horse so.

I for one am incredibly relieved. Rob told my mom that Lady does not look like the typical HYPP horse. He said they tend to have a certain look about them just after an attack (Lady did not have that look) and that most of them are much shorter and more muscled than Lady. To be safe though, he said a test is recommended. Once we receive her lab results, we'll know where to go from there.

WHEW!