Poor Lizzie

Well, thank goodness Lizzie was NOT down when I got home.  Whew.  Relief.  

Lizzie this afternoon

But, she wasn't exactly normal either.    As soon as I got home, I put both of them in their paddocks and closed the gates since it looked like it was about to start raining.  Then I went inside to soak their beet pulp and when I went back out, Lizzie wasn't in her stall, as she normally would be, she was just standing there in her paddock looking very strange.

Okay, she's standing.  But she sure doesn't look good, does she?

I went ahead and mixed up their feed and hung their feed buckets in their stalls.  Duke behaved just as he always does - he started scarfing down his food instantly.  But Lizzie? . . . she just kept standing there outside.  

I put some alfalfa pellets out for her (she loves those things) and then I went out and talked to her and eventually led her inside.  I had put a LOT of oil on those pellets.  (Given the amount of oil the vet used when she had colic, I figured it couldn't hurt to put a bunch of it on there.)  Once she realized how oily it was, she did go ahead and eat it.

Then I gave her a small amount of regular feed and beet pulp (no shredded alfalfa in there this time) and she ate a little of that, too, but she didn't look all that excited about it.

Somehow Lizzie's face looks . . . strained or something.   She looks very tense. 

As soon as she got a chance she headed back to the other stall to check for MORE oily alfalfa pellets, but when there weren't any there, she came back to the other stall and finished the regular feed.

It's after 8 now, and I've been going out there checking on her every half hour or so since I got home a little after 4.  So far, every time I check, she's just standing there in her stall breathing heavily - sometimes passing a LOT of gas, but always standing and never acting specifically like her stomach hurts.  

I guess as long as she's standing up, and as long as I can hear her stomach growling I won't panic.  

Now, how many more times I'll need to check on her before I can convince myself that it's okay to go to bed -- now THAT is the $64,000 question.  (Yep - I'm old.  Anyone else remember that show from the 1950's??)  

Anyway . . . back to the barn.   I wish I knew more about how to deal with this kind of thing.

Poor Lizzie.