Day 220

What a day. I left the house at 7 AM and came back at 745 PM. I drove there this morning with only my brother because my mom wasn't feeling to good.

The vet came out today for spring shots and to float teeth. By the time we got there, Jane's horses were already done and we were just in time for the vet to start Brie. I asked him about giving her an arthritis shot, but he didn't have any on hand so he'll have to come back for that. He also took a good look at her and said that she should gain weight. We keep her on the thin side because of her insulin resistance in order to prevent a spike in blood sugar and develop laminitis like she did when she was younger, but the vet recommended changing her from 1.5 lbs of grain and 2 flakes of hay twice a day to 2 lbs of grain and 3 flakes of hay twice a day. We might just do this to get her up to weight and then cut back to 2 flakes again, because every one else is on 2 flakes and it just seems like a lot for her to metabolize.

So everyone got their shots and teeth done. Nina was terrible for the vet. She had pinned my brother and the vet against the wall at one point and the vet had to give her the tranquilizer one handed. We had planned on the farrier showing up right in time to trim them while the tranquilizer was still in effect, but he was running late so I had to go pick up the tranq in the paste back at the vet's office since he didn't have any on hand. By the time we got back, the farrier was there and the vet's tranquilizer was wearing off, so we decided to do Nina first since she was the most recently tranquilized by the vet and gave her an extra dose of paste tranquilizer. 

The farrier got her hooves done. I went to go get Harry out of his stall and noticed that he was shaking. I didn't really think much of it and tried to give him a bit of the paste tranquilizer while he was in the stall, but he wasn't having it, so I brought him out. There I really noticed how badly he was shaking and knew that something was wrong. I called the vet's office and they said not to give him any more tranquilizer and not to do his hooves until the vet got out here again, so I gave the farrier Brie to do. While he was doing Brie, he said that she was also shaking, but not as badly as Harry, so I called the vet's office back and reported that to them. They said that they were on their way.

A different vet came out than the one who gave the shots and looked at Harry and Brie and said it was probably a reaction to the vaccines and that next time we should make note of the amount of tranq and the brand of tranq plus split the vaccines up to prevent this from happening again. She gave them both banamine and gave Harry cortizone (cortisol?) as well because he was extra shaky. They both had some grass and we chatted, then she left and said to watch them for about a half hour and call her back if they did anything strange like roll around excessively or bite at their stomachs, all signs of colic. We decided that the farrier would have to come back for Harry probably next weekend because we didn't want to stress him out anymore for today.

About 15 minutes into watching them after the vet left, Harry started bucking and kicking in his stall, pawing the ground, and rolling around, so I got him up and walked him and called the vet back. She said to keep walking him for about 20 minutes, put him back in the stall, and if he hasn't relaxed to call back and let her know because she'd have to come out again.

I put him back and began to watch him when my brother went to pet Nina and noticed she was shaking too. At this point, I began to wonder if it was a bad batch of vaccines, so I went to look at Taco and Sadie. Taco was shaking a little too, but not Sadie, so I called Jane and told her and she said she would be back out. I called back the vet, told her Harry was looking okay, but reported on Nina and Taco and she said she'd be right out again and that it was probably a bad batch of vaccines.

My brother went to grab some Subways for dinner while I waited for the vet. Before he got back, the vet returned which left only her and I to handle giving banamine to Nina. Nina tried to run us both over in her stall, and then tried to pin the vet against the wall on the cross ties and tried to rear onto me. The vet told me to get a lead rope with a chain and then put the chain between her top gum and her lip and I held it there like a twitch while she gave Nina the banamine and cortizone (cortisol?). By the time we finished with that, my brother and Jane were back and the vet gave the meds to Taco and Sadie as well. No one got grain for dinner and Harry and Nina won't get grain for breakfast because they were the worst tremors out of the bunch.

Jane called a while ago and said that she checked on them and they all seemed fine, thankfully. We won't have to pay for these emergency calls, but I sure hope we never have to go through a bad batch of vaccines ever again!