Tuesday 13 September

Yesterday afternoon we had one of those occassions that everyone involved with horses dread. Omaruru was hit badly with a bout of colic. Luckily this episode began about midday, when the girls were on the yard and picked up the signs very quickly. Ed 'the vet' came out straight away, and with speed always being of the essence in these cases referred Omar to Rossdales in Newmarket. Stuart took him straight there, where after further examination the vet there, Tim Greet, rang to say that he strongly advised surgery as soon as possible. He said there was a chance that the problem could be rectified with medication and manipulation, but that the longer these methods were attempted would decrease the chances of successful subsequent surgery, needless to say I gave the go ahead immediately. There then followed a very tense 5 hour wait until, at 8.30 last night Mr Greet phoned to say that Omar was back up on his feet after his op, and was pain free (no colic). The good news is that he did not have to remove any gut, but what he found when he entered the abdomen was a very significant tangle that he had to sort out and manipulate. In these cases blood supply is often restricted to part of the intestine resulting in paralysis or death of that part of the organ, but at least that does not seem to be the case with Omar. He will now spend a critical 72 hours on intensive care, where he will receive very strong antibiotics and fluids etc. But no hard food. This will be introduced after day 3 and gradually stepped up. Omar is by no means out of the woods yet, but he has overcome the first hurdle, and hopefully he will be back with us soon. Tim Greet at Rossdales did state very strongly that it was only the actions of Stuart and the team at Fences Farm, and Ed Brett, our vet that prevented the situation from being very much more serious. It was the girls prompt identification of the problem, and Ed's speed of refferal that meant that Omar arrived at Rossdales quickly before the problem became significantly more serious. Thanks very much to everyone, we really do appreciate what you do - now so more than ever!!!