Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Last night I headed out as usual to close up the barns about 9:30 p.m. and check on all the large animals.  I am usually conned into feeding more hay to the horses, who manage to convince me they really didn’t get all the dinner they’re entitled to.  I was in Lena’s Barn filling Nikki’s feeder when I heard a ruckus coming from the stall next door.  It was Lonesome George, our old mule.  I hurried over to see him lurching in his stall, then stand with feet stretched out, then lurch forward again.

My first thought was colic, when the intestine seizes up.  We’ve gone through this before with George, and in fact Alayne and I spent our anniversary night with George and the vet two years ago because of a case of colic.  I went into his stall and put my hands on him … and noticed he seemed cold to the touch.  Uh oh. 

I called Alayne, who had started putting the dogs up, and asked her to bring the thermometer and stethoscope.  A few minutes later Alayne rushed in with the equipment.  I took George’s temperature and found he was very low at 94.5.  Normal is about 101.  I couldn’t believe it would be that low and took his temperature three times, with the same result.  His heart rate was 50, when the normal range is 30-40 beats per minute.  His respiration rate was at the high end of normal.  Yet in spite of all this George was interested in eating, and he had good gut sounds. 

Knowing we had a problem, we called Beth and asked her to please finish putting the dogs up for us.  We then called our equine vet, Bill Brown, at home.  None of George’s symptoms were completely consistent with colic, and he seemed — as Bill called it — a "little shocky" because of the low body temperature.  Bill suspected either some internal bleeding (which there is no way to treat) or perhaps we caught the tail end of a mild case of colic … and possibly both. 

Bill finally concluded that the best thing we could do under the circumstances was give George an injection of banamine, a powerful anti-inflammatory.  About this time Beth came over to Lena’s Barn to see if she could give us a hand, and that’s when we took the photo.  Beth is holding George while I give him the injection, and blind Nikki is leaning over from the adjoining stall to see if she can help, too.

Good news:  Early this morning we were relieved to find George back to his usual self, with a normal temperature and his endearing muleish ways.  Whew!

(Click on photo for larger image.)