He Was Relaxed But Exhausted...

I was up most of the night as Johnny took a turn for the worst at about 2am and although my livery yard owner dosed him with painkillers and we tried to get him more comfortable, by 7am we knew that we needed another visit from the vet as he had got himself cast in his stable, meaning that he had gone down to roll but got stuck and couldn't get up again and was really hot and distressed.

It was a different vet this time and she diagnosed impaction colic as she had found a large blockage in his guts that was causing alot of pain and if left untreated could be fatal. She gave him a 'drench' where she basically pumped two buckets of water and liquid parafin though his nose and into his stomach to losen everything and some painkillers. He seemed to perk up but by late afternoon he was again showing a lot of pain and distress so the vet came back out to repeat the process of the morning. 

That seemed to settle him again but to be sure the vet came out at 11pm and repeated it all again. By the 4am check Johnny seemed to have relaxed, but was exhausted, rather like the rest of us.

I did manage to get home for the odd hour during the day and was grateful to see the autumn colour on the leaves in the woods as I drove down into the village.