Claire Channels Colic

The one thing I cannot handle is when my fur family is not feeling well.

Yesterday afternoon, Claire appeared out of the blue to be in discomfort. Given that Claire never gets sick, I panicked. I called my local neighbor, Andrea Maxwell, a member of the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department, and who is an avid horsewoman who has cared for many horses on her property over the seven years I’ve known her. She came right over, observed Claire for a while, listened to her stomach sounds, and thought it may be Colic. Seeing the worry on my face, she suggested calling her vet, Francesca Cerri, at Leclair Equine. Francesca (and her assistant, Keanna) came right over.

Thank God I had three bright women handling things because I was a basket case.

Francesca ran some blood work, listened carefully to Claire’s stomach sounds, explained to me what she was looking for, then, after sedating Claire, in a move I have only witnessed on the BBC series about James Herriot, All Creatures Great And Small, Francesca lubed up her plastic sheathed arm and gently slid it up Claire’s butt. Luckily, Claire colon wasn’t impacted but the Vet did remove some mule muffins. She and Keanna then lavaged Claire, running a hose up her nose and then repeatedly filling and emptying her stomach.

Andrea held Claire with calm and confidence throughout. I was looking pretty frazzled so Francesca kindly sent me to refill the water bucket.

When that was all said and done, Francesca pumped one final dose of electrolytes into Claire. Claire was a trooper throughout.

Francesca completed her work and then asked to see the barn – which she approved as really cute – and then explained that I was to hold off feeding Claire that night and then slowly reintroduce small portions of soaked Alfalfa feed.

Francesca and Keanna showed great compassion and bedside manner throughout, and also were kind enough to not make me feel like Oliver Wendell Douglas from Green Acres.

After a little while of observation, the vet and assistant packed her kit and headed off, promising to follow up on the results of additional blood labs she would run back at the practice.

Francesca was good to her word and later let me know that the tests came back unremarkable and that Claire should be fine.

For the next four hours I sat – in a chair Lisa kindly brought out for me – with Claire’s face cradled in my arms, letting her know how worried we all were, making sure the sedation completely wore off and closely monitoring her for any sign of discomfort. Lisa kept checking on me during the vigil.

While I would rather have found a better reason for doing it, it was nice to spend this much quality time one-on-one chatting with Claire. She spends most of her time now hanging with Honey, so I only get to hang with her when I’m feeding them both or brushing Claire. Sort of like when your children become teenagers.

Finally, after six pm, Honey came over to us, stomped her hoof a few times to let me know her own patience was wearing thin and then after exchanging thoughts/looks with Claire, Claire let me know she was feeling better and went off for a walkabout with Honey. I watched her carefully for another half hour – and saw that she was no longer reflecting any discomfort. I then spent the next four hours checking on her every 20 minutes. All good.

I checked on her again early this morning and saw that she and Honey seemed fine, so I served her a small portion of Alfalfa soaked in Olive Oil outside the new barn while Honey got an equally small portion of fruit inside the barn.

So, I will observe Claire a little more carefully over the next few days, Lisa and Georgie handling the shift while I do my reading in town this afternoon, and then Andrea and Francesca promised to remain available this week while I’m on the East Coast, should anything reoccur.

One more reason I thank God everyday for regularly placing strong, wonderful and talented women in my life. Including during this past firery summer when the McQueen Queens came to my rescue. Angels one and all.

Well, I’m going to head out to check on Claire then I will cuddle the kitties and make my rounds. Then I need to just glance over the books one more time and head off to the Literary Festival.

But I will tell you that the Claire scare knocked me for a loop. I hope to channel some of that emotion into my readings.

You fine, five readers go handle your weekend errands and then do something fun. You never know when the less fun stuff is going to pop into your lives.

And no matter what else we get up to, let us make today a great one.