What the Storm Brought

It got cold. And unfortunately, I forgot to unhook the hot water heater in the barn. That meant I had to schlep buckets of hot water from the house (definitely a workout!).

Shane and I went out and did everything we could before the snow hit. We worked our tails off and it looked way better.

Then the storm came!

The ground was covered by the afternoon, but it wasn't as deep as last time.

Regardless, we stayed inside. Volleyball was cancelled and we had a quiet day with lots of electronics and Carrie making faces at the bunny (I may be in trouble if she sees this picture, but it's too cute not to share in my opinion!).

The snow changed to sleet, rain, and freezing rain as time went on.

The next morning, it was clear something was different when we let Loki out for his morning pee/lap. He stayed on top of the snow rather than sinking in.

He wanted back in quick!

Loki's not afraid to go out on his own, but he'd rather be with his humans. 

I noticed something was off with Ernie looking out the window during breakfast. He kept "parking out." At one point, I thought he peed and then tried to roll in it. I asked Carrie what he was doing and wanter her to take a look. 

That turned into, "Caffeine later! Chores now."

Ernie plopped down again as we were heading to the barn. He showed signs of colic.

The rolling and the parking out were all signs of discomfort. We pulled him into a stall while Carrie called the vet.

I started on morning chores and Carrie went into colic protocols. Step 1 was to get Ernie moving. She handwalked him in the arena at first, but eventually hopped up bareback when she tired (She was only on day 2 of her pneumonia antibiotics!).

I walked/slid up the driveway to open the gate for the vet before taking a turn walking Ernie (on foot, thank you very much).

The vet arrived and confirmed colic. She felt a blockage and lots of gas when she examined Ernie.

Ernie didn't seem like he was in extreme discomfort or immediate danger. The vet gave us instructions and planned to check in tomorrow to see if the colic resolved successfully or if further intervention would be required.

Shane was highly oblivious while we were in the cold. I told him about the colic and he was concerned for all of 10 seconds before mentally moving on. He rediscovered Yoshi's Island on the SNES emulator and was all in! He'd seen some spoof videos on YouTube and what's old became new.

On the other hand, Carrie spent the whole day worried. We checked on Ernie constantly and set him up in the arena to overnight. 

Ernie's lack of interest in drinking was a big concern. He'd refused to drink anything while stalled. Lack of liquid is as much of a recipe for constipation for horses as it is for humans. Carrie tried cold water, hot water, water stuffed full of hay.....but Ernie proved the old adage about bringing a horse to water. 

We set an alarm to wake up midway through the night before turning in for bed and prayed for poop.