Rolling Dog Farm Blog

If it seems like there have been a lot of veterinary blog posts recently … well, it feels like that’s all I’ve been doing these past two weeks, taking animals to one of our vet clinics.  Today I took another full trailer-load to see Dr. Erin Taylor at Blue Mountain Veterinary Hospital in Missoula. 

First up was Luna, our blind mare.  On Tuesday night, as I was
walking out to close up the barns about 10 p.m., I heard a lot of
choking and coughing coming from Beauty’s Barn.  I raced over and found
Luna choking in her stall.  I called Alayne, who was over at
Widget’s House letting the dogs out one last time before bed, and asked
her to come over to the barn as soon as she could.  Then I called
Erin, who was still up because of a colic case.  She directed me to
give Luna injections of acepromazine and banamine, monitor her for an
hour, and then call her back.  The drugs got Luna relaxed, the choking
stopped, and we finally went to bed.  On Wednesday she was fine.

But this morning, she was coughing a bit and had some yellow/greenish gunk
come up, so I decided it was time for Erin to look at her.  In the photo at the top of this post, Erin is looking through an endoscope into Luna’s trachea and esophagus.  Dr. Angela Langer is guiding the endoscope into Luna, while vet tech Courtney is holding Luna’s head.

Here’s another view of the same thing, taken a few minutes later:

There were no obstructions in Luna’s trachea or esophagus, although on her physical exam Erin noticed Luna’s neck was thickened.  She suspects that maybe some trauma was involved — Luna perhaps getting kicked by her pasture buddy blind Hannah.  These two girls do squabble from time to time, and the hooves sometimes fly.  If that happened on Tuesday and she got whacked in the neck, it might have predisposed her to choking.  For now we are going to treat Luna with antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and keep a close eye on her.

Also in to see Erin were:

— Roy the old mule, who was in to get an appetite stimulant shot.  Roy isn’t eating enough, and will often still have grain and hay in his feeder the following morning after being in his stall all night.  There’s not another equine on the ranch who has any food left in their feeders the next day.  We are also going to be treating him for a presumed ulcer, and the medication for that (GastroGard) is arriving tomorrow.  That’s a 28-day course of daily treatment.  Roy is now officially the world’s most expensive old mule, although we love every dollar I mean every minute we have him.  Here’s Erin giving Roy the shot, while Courtney holds him:

— Domino, one of our blind Appaloosas, who was in for a penis/sheath exam.  He had been kicking at his belly a couple of days ago, and he didn’t have colic.  The last time this started happening we discovered he had a sheath infection, necrotic penile tissue, and maggots crawling around inside.  Egads.  Today we learned that he was starting to get red and inflamed again.  Erin thinks he isn’t dropping his penis enough when he pees, and he splashes urine around inside his sheath … which then causes urine scalding, damaged tissue, and the whole icky cycle.  So we have a special compounded cream to apply.  (Guess who gets to do that.)  To make sure I don’t get confused, Erin helpfully wrote on the lid of the jar, "For Domino’s P.P."  I decided you didn’t really need to see photos of the penis exam.  (You’re welcome.)

— Crazy Horse, our only sighted Appaloosa, an old boy who was in for a
lameness exam. He was, of course, much better today than the past two
days — it’s amazing what a trip to the doctor can do for you — so Erin and I chose not to give him another course of steroids
in his joints right now.  His last treatment was in October, and we only want to
use steroids when you really, really need to.

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And that was today.  On Friday, either Alayne or I will head to Helena to pick up blind Dusty and blind Babe, who I dropped off on Wednesday for eye work with Dr. Brenda Culver.