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Discussion on Procrastinating is expensive
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Member:
jerre
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Posted on Tuesday, Mar 13, 2007 - 12:34 pm:
If this sounds familiar, I hope someone learns at my expense!
My feeDrOom door opens directly into my loafing shed. It has a safety hook latch. Inside, the grain is in a garbage can with "locking" handles.
In the past "few weeks" my horses have been fiddling with the latch, and my 4yo -- who is a fatty who gets no grain -- has been sticking her head into the feed room and playing with the garbage can. She can knock it around pretty easily and knock the lid locks off and open it up. I've been shooing them off, finishing chores, checking that the latch is secure and going on about the rest of the day.
Sunday I go out to feed and see two big horse butts sticking out of the feeDrOom door. 
Both heads are down in the grain can, which was nearly empty to begin with, but I think they got at least 15 pounds between them. My big 1400#+ mare gets about 5 pounds a day, the filly gets nothing. Who knows who ate how much?
Using the protocol from the article with this thread, I call my vet, who says he's pretty comfortable that they'll be OK, but is happy to come out and oil them if I'm nervous.
I'm nervous, so out he comes. He concurs with my estimate of how much grain is gone, tubes them, tells me not to worry. He was there within two hours of me finding them in the feed room. The horses have no symptoms. He didn't smell any grain activity through the stomach tube.
48 hours later, they're fine. No colic. No hoof heat.
I'm waiting for the bill: Sunday emergency call, two sedations, two oilings ... cheaper than treating founder, but a whole lot more expensive than the chain and screw fasteners (requiring two hands with opposable thumbs) that now secure the feed room.!!
Sidenote: He said in 30 years of practice, my horses are the only ones he's had to sedate to tube, although he often twitches. They were bargy and scared. I just assumed tubing would go better with sedation. Are my horses really worse than all the other horses out there? 
Jerre
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Member:
tuckern
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Posted on Tuesday, Mar 13, 2007 - 1:16 pm:
I know what you mean about seeing two horse butts sticking out the feeDrOom door. Been there, done that! :o) Finally, I do believe I've got all my pens "Roheryn" proof, lol. My mare Roheryn will squeeze herself through a 2 foot opening if she thinks there's food on the other side, and my gelding will happily follow behind her.
Luckily, they've never eaten enough to warrant a vet visit or oiling, and I just made sure to keep a more diligent eye out for colic or founder.
Regarding the comment of sedating to tube, my vet always sedates when he tubes any horse. I have my horses tube wormed once a year, and he sedates them. I think it just makes it easier on both the horse and the handlers.
Nicole
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Member:
cmatexas
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Posted on Tuesday, Mar 13, 2007 - 6:25 pm:
OOoooh - been there, done that, paid the vet bills!!  The day after our aunt bought her gelding, who was the biggest boy short of a draft that I have ever seen, she had to go on a teacher trip, so we volunteered to check on him. The next morning, 12 hours after coming home, he had pushed the ENTIRE corral over, pulled up THREE posts, and eaten an entire bag of oats. :\ He didn't colic, but he pooed more than an elephant!! The vet still laughs at my panicked call to him during church Sunday morning.....
My husband is also halter breaking three fillies for a breeder we know - she had too many, and is helping us "learn" to do this. Week 2 - they climbed the stairs onto the PORCH on the cabin (won't get in the trailer, but will walk on a porch!?!?!) busted through the door, and helped themselves to ALL the feed, including cow cubes. Oh - and felt VERY at home peeing on the saddles, pooing on the furniture, eating the carpet. Don't even ASK what the vet bill was - these babies were more valuable than all ours put together!! Never thought about putting a latch on the stupid door to the cabin! Love to hear when other people's children misbehave, too.
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Member:
vickiann
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Posted on Tuesday, Mar 13, 2007 - 7:17 pm:
JerreR -- good for you for having the Vet quickly. What you describe is potentially an emergency situation. With regard to the sedation for tubing -- if that made it easier and safer, it is money well spent. Thanks for the cautions.
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Member:
jojo15
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Posted on Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007 - 12:28 am:
ditto... just this past year... and wrote about it here, too... yes, my problem isn't procrastination. lazyiness and forgetfullness... to go back out and shut the feed door.
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Member:
freshman
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Posted on Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007 - 12:55 am:
It's way better to be safe than sorry when you suspect a grain overload. The expense of a vet visit is money well spent no matter how you look at it.
Don't know what kind of bill you are looking at but in my area, an after-hours emergency call is about $125, physical exam about $25, nasogastric intubation +/- $20 per horse, mineral oil about $5/gallon. Sedation would would run about $15-$20 per horse. So I'd expect a bill in the $250-$300 range for something like this, but cost varies quite a bit from area to area, vet to vet.
No horse likes to have a NG tube passed, but some take it worse than others. I find it hard to beleive that your horses were the only ones your vet has ever had to sedate, but who knows. A lot of it depends on the horse, the quality of help that is available, etc. Tall, strong, horse-savy people are the best at restraining horses while the vet passes the tube. Horses that have have been tubed repeatedly in their lives for whatever reason (chronic colic, etc) are usually impossible to tube without sedation. Whatever. I'd rather my horse be sedated than have than have a horrible fight with the tubing that endangers itself, the handlers, bloodies its nose, etc. It's not worth it.
Hope your horses are still doing OK. I think that you made a very smart decision.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007 - 6:01 am:
Wow 30 years and the only ones to be sedated for tubing? I must say he has an unusual population of horses to work on. I wonder what does he do for those horses that explode on the twitch, they are not that uncommon.
Sounds like a good decision Jerre. The big mare would probably have been fine but if they split evenly I would be concerned about 7 lbs of grain in a horse that does not get grain in the diet.
DrO
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Member:
oscarvv
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Posted on Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007 - 7:53 am:
I had a vet give me grief for having to tranq a 2 year old to pass a NG..... 
Glad your horses are OK!
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Member:
erika
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Posted on Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007 - 10:47 am:
Jerre, like everyone else here--been there, done that.
If you think they didn't get too much to be a real emergency and you just want to be sure, you can do what my vet told me to do once. My little Morgan got into the feed room, I don't think he got too much but like Dr.O said, he didn't get daily grain in those days so I was concerned anyway.
The vet told me to use an oral syringe to feed him mineral oil. I don't remember how much, maybe a quart? It was messy and took a while. One person would hold his head up while the other slowly pushed the syringe while he swallowed. The vet said to make sure the oil came out the other end in a few hours. Saved me a big vet bill.
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Member:
jerre
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Posted on Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007 - 12:00 pm:
Thanks for the feedback everyone. And thanks DrO for the perspective on sedation! My horses have been pretty healthy and don't see the vet much -- in fact, although I could do vaccinations myself, I have him out just so they get to know each other a bit.
My vet is a superior equine doctor, but maybe not so much of a "horseman." He's macho, straight-line, get 'er done, type. I think my horses think he's rude!
But, he is highly regarded for his medical skills, AND he'll ALWAYS come out -- night, weekends, and quickly if necessary.
I think it's a lesson that I have to do more to help my horses get used to other types of people.
Jerre
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Member:
jojo15
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Posted on Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007 - 12:54 pm:
I would think sedation was just another way to relax the horse in a highly stressful time. and that is why they do it. and of course to get that tube down with sedation i gather it goes down more smoothly without a fight and chances of tearing the lining.
I hate it when they sedate. I get so nervous, and sit out there with her till she starts moving a bit, where i feel we can stall her till she snaps out of it.
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Member:
jerre
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Posted on Saturday, Apr 7, 2007 - 8:14 pm:
Just to wrap this up: the bill came today. (My vet takes a long time to bill, I don't know whether that's more or less painful!)
Farm call: $40
Emergency: 75
Tranq $46 x2: 92
Oil $47 x2: 94
Banamine $36x2: 72
Total: $373
So, I guess if I could get my horses to accept tubes without a tranquilizer it would have saved me about 100 bucks.
Still, cheaper than founder, but so much more expensive than the $5 worth of hardware that keeps the door closed. And the bungee cord that is an extra barrier to the grain can.
Jerre
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Sunday, Apr 8, 2007 - 9:11 am:
Thanks Jerre R,
Alright everyone let's make this the last time a member reports this: two horse-proof barriers between the horses and where their feed is stored, preferably with one that closes itself.
DrO
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Member:
boomer
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Posted on Tuesday, Apr 10, 2007 - 3:40 pm:
I would require sedation if I were to get tubed. 
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