Crystal Home at Last!

Well, it has been a long and difficult couple of days, not only for Crystal, but also for the CHANGE board and Crystal's foster parents. As you can read below, Crystal was able to go to UC Davis to have laser surgery to remove melanomas on her tail region thanks to a generous private donation from Bev Palm. This act of gratitude motivated Dr. Michael O'Connor or Sonoma Marin Veterinary Service to donate money for a second trip up to UC Davis. Dr. O'Connor has also overseen Crystal's rehabilitation free of charge.

Yesterday, Crystal was trailered up to UC Davis to be seen by Dr. Melinda MacDonald for laser treatment. Dr. MacDonald did an amazing job, and kept costs incredibly low to help the program. Unfortunately, later that day, Crystal began to show signs of colic.

Strictly defined, “colic” is described as any episode of abdominal pain. About 95% of the time in horses, the abdominal pain is coming from the gastrointestinal tract. There are many types of gastrointestinal colic. The most common is impaction colic. With impaction colic, feces get lodged at a tight turn in the large colon. The feces cannot proceed forward, and the result of the back up is distention and pain in the gut. Colic is life threatening in horses because they are unable to vomit. Because they cannot vomit, they cannot relieve the pressure of the backed up digesta. The potential result of this inability to relieve the distention is rupture of the gut inside the body. COLIC IS ALWAYS AN EMERGENCY.

Early signs of colic include some, but not necessarily all of the following:

1. Horse will not eat
2. Horse is laying down
3. Horse is quiet or lethargic and does not seem like himself
4. Horse is standing alone away from others and is reluctant to move
5. Horse turns its head around and looks at its stomach.
6. Horse has not defecated within the past few hours
7. Horse stands in a “rocking horse” posture and appears to be stretching out its abdominal muscles.

Signs of advanced colic include:

1. Horse is getting up and laying down incessantly
2. Horse is rolling and thrashing on the ground violently
3. Horse has shivers and muscle twitching all over its body
4. Horse is sweating excessively
5. Horse is pawing at the ground violently and repeatedly
6. Horse is biting at its abdomen

You can probably imagine how all of our stomachs fell when we got the call... Crystal was down and laying flat out in her stall. Dr. MacDonald admitted Crystal into the ICU and treated her aggressively with fluid therapy and IV medication. She had ups and downs throughout last night, and at moments things looked like they were going to be ok. But this morning, she was still showing signs of pain.

After dozens of phone calls back and forth, criss-crossed and sideways, the CHANGE Board decided that it would be best to let UC Davis keep Crystal for the day today and then plan to pick her up tonight if she was comfortable. Luckily, Crystal made good progress throughout the day today and was able to make the trailer ride home.

Late tonight, I met Crystal back at her foster home as she got off the trailer. She looked exhausted and could not stop yawning when she got into her stall. I made everyone leave the stall and shut off all the lights to give her some peace and quiet! Her loving foster mom is going to check on her all night tonight and feed her handfuls of green grass every 2 hours! What dedication!! We are not out of the woods yet, but we are headed in the right direction.

We are all so relieved that Crystal is home again... and I think that she is the most relieved of all!