This message is from: sandra church <[email protected]>
This thread brought back memories of a horrid summer morning storm. I had hurriedly fed our two gaited horses in their stalls and I forgot to let them out because I was in a rush to get my daughter to her swimming lesson. By the time we arrived at the pool, a storm had forced the lesson to be canceled so we returned home and I went to the barn to let the horses out. Star was breathing hard and when I got closer to her I could see that part of her tongue was hanging from her mouth. Lightning had struck a tree near the barn and created such a force that hay bales were tossed around in the hay loft and had broken a substantial wooden ladder to the loft. Meanwhile, Star had all but bitten off the end of her tongue so the vet came and sewed it back together! My other horse Beauty appeared to be normal but the next day she was very weak and could barely walk. She had been burned under her belly and her inner thighs were in knots. My vet came again and recommended putting Beauty down but I wanted to give her a chance and she did improve but was never quite the same horse. If I had left the horses outside that morning, they would have probably been killed because they always stood under the tree that was struck by lightning during storms. Being in a hurry and forgetting to turn them out probably saved their lives. I'll never know why the barn did not catch on fire. Five horses were killed in the same storm in my county because they were gathered under a tree that lightning struck that day. I was extremely fortunate. Presently, Loki is retired now at age 20. He had a bad reaction this spring to a tick product and began falling to his knees while being ridden and when the farrier was working on him. He seems happy to hang out & I'm hoping he'll improve enough in the future that I can still drive him some. He thoroughly enjoyed his bath today...it's horribly hot & humid here in Va. I miss our trail rides very very much. Two of my other horses (not fjords) had severe reactions to their West Nile vaccine this spring so I can't understand what went wrong this year but at least they are all alive and slowly improving. Have any of you experienced bad reactions to tick products or vaccines with your horses? Sandra & Loki in Va. _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy is not the old busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL :en-US:WM_HMP:042010_3 Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f
