Tufty Has Colic Again

This morning was another one of those mornings when I arrived at the yard and something wasn't right...Tufty didn't look right at all.  The weather has gone from being spring to autumnal again and she was a bit chilly.  Some warm rugs helped her to warm up but she still wasn't right.  She ate some grass very half-heartedly and didn't touch the soaked grass pellets at all.  She started lying down for short periods and she was in some pain.  It's nearly a month since she was ill and she's put on a good amount of weight since then and been so sprightly - we had thought we were doing so well.

Wendy the vet had read up on Tufty's notes before she came out.  Tufty's symptoms were quite similar to before - no temperature, heart rate not too elevated (40 beats a minutes so within normal parameters) and gut sounds on both sides.  She's still quite interactive when she's not well.  The vets think that Tufty might have a lipoma that can get twisted around the intestine - it causes pain when it twists and then once it's untwisted she goes back to normal again. Apparently it's quite common in older ponies.  If that is what it is, she might just have random periods when she gets belly ache and then goes back to normal again when it untwists.  Tufty had Buscupan and Findyne (anti-inflammatory and pain killer) straight into the vein in her neck.  Within about 30 seconds she was back to enthusiastically eating her grass pellets and feeling normal again.

Tufty's been out in Jenny's garden all afternoon eating grass and getting gentle exercise.  She has a buffet style dinner in the stable tonight with plenty of options - soaked hay, hand-picked grass, and soaked grass pellets with chaff.  Jenny's kept Tufty provisioned the last couple of hours so now we'll have to see how Tufty feels tomorrow.

A big thank you to Margaret for coming over to help...she actually ended up doing all the mucking out for me.  Sara came later to help too.  Margaret also kindly gave a donation to help pay for Tufty's vet bill from last month.  We are very grateful to Jonathan Wood Vets in Crediton who have provided us with an excellent service and have kept prices affordable too.

Healing thoughts again for Tufty please!

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