Terrifying Day

 Today was terrifying! I'm still reeling from this morning. 

I got up and fed ponies. Because it was raining all day starting then, I tossed some hay in their stalls thinking they would maybe want to stay dry. They all had on sheets to stay warm and dry because...  you know, that mid 50's in rain can be super cold or hot and muggy but I figured it would be more of the cold and icky variety. I decided that maybe I should toss some hay outside too so there wasn't any fighting so as I was walking by the top of the patios I saw Dan backing out of his stall. But not normal. He was throwing his head straight up in the air and scrambling.... For a split second I thought Fleck was going after him but Fleck was out in the pasture. Then he scrambled backwards, half reared up, fell over his backside to the side, hit the gate, scrambled on his back for a second and then managed to get himself up. I noticed his right hind was pretty useless during the getting up. Then he swayed there for a minute. Unfortunately Funny came by and she's in raging heat so she's wanting to be on top of him and then when he deters her, she's been squealing and kicking and of course she went towards him. Luckily the fence was between the two of them so I could chase her off. Dan recovered pretty quickly and was walking but was super ataxic... listing to the side and had a head tilt. He then was struggling to lower his head down to eat. And obviously he was confused and hurting. I immediately messaged Dr. Kate and Dr. Kate. Over 30 minutes Dan settled and was not glaringly ataxic and more stable but still unable to lower his head completely. I also noticed he took a big piece of hide off his scalp. Holy moly!!! What the heck happened!?! I ended up giving him 10 mLs banamine IV and then after talking to both Dr. Kate's, I called Dr. Barrows and had her come out and check him out. She gave him some IV DMSO and IV Dex. Then we talked and ... bless her! She told me that based on the history she suspected that he just had an inflammatory response to the CT and myelogram and that once the meds kick in and the inflammation goes away he should go back to his normal. And that it shouldn't change his prognosis or anything. Bless her. I'm so grateful she comes for me every time I have a catastrophe! She saw on my discharge instructions that Dr. Kate had mentioned pred, so she suggested we do that. She gave me a bottle to get started too so I didn't have to wait. Luckily he's already been on omeprazole given the amount of NSAIDs and SAIDs he's been on. Poor dude. And now he smells like garlic!

I watched him for most of the day and he seemed okay. He was moving pretty slow, but normal. No more listing or swaying and his head tilt went away. He was still dragging his hind toes a little bit though. He was also able to drop his head to the ground and graze. I did pull out the water trough and flip it over and made him a table, but... they all came to eat! Doh! 

That night when I went to mess with him, he tried to kick me repeatedly anytime I got near his hind end. What the heck Dan!? You're not a kicker! And he wasn't trying to get me, but he was making it VERY clear that he was NOT in the mood. He was snarly and clicking his teeth too. Ugh. Poor guy. He didn't eat all his food but he did eat his pred tablets with his grain. I checked on him a couple of times and he seemed to be about the same. I haven't seen him poop yet, but he ate, drank and ate hay. And I did see him pee. So hopefully he's not colicky! Although the kicking seemed to be more related to me. BUT... he did kick at his belly a few times and swish his tail, but it seemed more like an annoyance than specifically belly pain. I'm hoping he didn't aggravate (or worse) his stifle or his lower back. 

So yeah...super scary! And traumatizing. I did manage to get a kiss at bed check... and basically sobbed into Fleck's neck. And Funny came up and was sniffing my tears and Lyric was snuggly too. Poor Dan just stood there glaring. But I get it buddy. You had a rough day too.