My friend called me the two weeks ago in a total state of panic.  She lives up north where winter has been down-right ugly.

It seems her horse had been acting blah for a couple of days.  Not really eating right, not drinking enough water, not interested in who was around him, and walking as if he’d been out drinking all night.  The inevitable question came – “what’s wrong with him?”  Hello!  I’m thirteen hundred miles away.  So I go through the normal set of questions back at her.

• Did you take his temperature?      Answer – no.  Don’t know where the thermometer is.  It’s cold out and I’m not going back down the barn.  I felt under his blanket and he didn’t feel hot.
• Did you check his gums for color and refill time?    Answer – no.
• Did you check his eyes?     Answer – no.
• Is he dehydrated?     Answer – I don’t know.
• Is he urinating and what color is it?  Answer – Yeah, his stall is wet.
• Is he passing manure and is it wet or dry?  (Before freezing into poopcycles of course.)  Answer – frozen.

So once again she asks – “what do you think is wrong?”  He wobbles when he walks.  He just stands there with his head down, and he doesn’t even acknowledge that I’m there.  Maybe he had a stroke.”

I told her it could be neurological, but first you need to go down the check list.  It could be a stroke, but you need to rule out the simple things.  Those questions I asked her, would be exactly what a vet is going to ask you when you call them.  Other things, in other circumstances would be any blood, heat or swelling.  You are not going to check for a neurological problem, by yourself, on a sheet of ice.  I told her to call her vet.

By the way, the vet came the next morning and the horse had a 103 temp.  When she told me this I asked her, well what is the first thing you’re going to do next time?  She said, find my thermometer, and take his temperature first.  I told her she would have had a better nights sleep if she had, instead of being up all night worrying about what was going on.  The vet told her it could be Lyme disease, but the first thing they were going to deal with was the temperature.  Now it hasn’t been warm enough for ticks in about five months.  When my horses had Lyme, up north, I knew it in a short period of time.  They weren’t acting like themselves or performing as usual.  I asked her if she noticed anything different.  She told me she had, but just chalked it up to him getting older and arthritic.  He is retired, and she hasn’t ridden him in years, but……….

The vet said he is totally blind in one eye and only has a small window of sight in the other.  After three IV’s of heavy-duty antibiotics, and a $400.00 bill, he’s been having some days that he is eating and acting better, but a couple of days after the antibiotics he was pawing at the door and acting quite aggressive.  Very strange to me.

Again the question – “what do you think?”  My advise – call the vet, I have no idea what to tell you.  I’ve dealt with a lot, but I am not a vet by any means, and I haven’t seen this horse in years. (Didn’t know him that well back then either.)

So when something just isn’t right, go through the check list, and if someone asks you what do you think?  Just say, I think I’d call the vet.

Side note – I’ve spoken to her, and he seems to be back to normal.

Keep first things first, and go from there.