This weekend, one of our boarders “Santana” a 25 year old Andalusian mare tried to kill herself. She literally slit her throat on a fence and in attempting to get free she impaled her throat on a t-post and ripped the carotid, jugular, trachea and vagal nerve on the left side of her throat. How she lived through it - I have no idea. She should have bled out or choked on her own blood.
After immediately calling the vet - on Sunday - Father’s Day no less - we pumped her full of banamine and after about 30 minutes she decided to head for the barn. She had also gashed up her medial, ventral (inside, upper) left leg as well as given herself scrapes and cuts over much of her legs and stifles. Bear in mind that at this point, her jugular vein was hanging out of her neck and we could hear more air going in and out of the side of her neck than of her mouth/nostrils. This is one tough old girl.
After a stop at the clinic for more staples and suture - Dr. McMillan made it to the ranch about an hour later and got started on repair what damage he could. After 3 - 4 hours of surgery the trachea was stitched back together, the vein and artery tied off (Thank Goodness she has one of each on each side) and with addition of some steroids, 9 liters of IV fluids and antibiotics she was ready to go in a stall. His biggest fear was that the nerve damage might lead to a lack of peristalsis and she would colic (if she didn’t die first from blood loss or a clot to the brain).
The area that she damaged on the front leg also corresponded to Lung 6 - and she had badly scraped up the lower leg including most of the Large Intestine points. So energy to these sister meridians was greatly compromised.
BioScan Photopuncture on ST 36
After 2 days of 24/7 close watch care Santana had yet to pee or poop. She drank a little Sunday evening and Monday morning but wouldn’t eat and had no gut sounds whatsoever. We were giving her regular probiotics, Amazon Herbs and liquid oxygen and doing acupressure to stimulate digestion - but nothing. So this morning, after the first dose of Banamine, (and her first pee - yeah!) we got out the Biolights and began opening the Large Intestine meridian, stimulating ST36 (probiotic point for peristalsis) and the kidney meridian. Within minutes we had gut sounds! After a short while Santana began to drink - steadily off and on till the vet arrived about 3:30.
After his amazement that she was still standing and that the swelling had reduced well - Dr. McMillan gave Santana some additional pain meds (better ones than I can use) and we decided to give her an enema. He confirmed that she had about 50% gut sounds and since we had lost one vagal nerve, that was a good as he would expect this soon after her trauma.
Once the water had time to work on her, we cleaned her colon out by hand (with the help of a long glove and lots and lots of lubricant) and then replenished the gut flora by putting some Dyna-Pro probiotic back into the colon. With her being intially so dehydrated she just couldn’t move the dried up poop blocking the colon. Once back in her stall and out of the drug induced haze Santana began slowly eating!
My hope is that the additional water that she received through the enema - along with the fact that after the lights she had gut sounds and began drinking is an indication that by tomorrow she will be pooping and peeing on her own. But we will keep using the lights on the acupuncture points to help her through the healing process.
The next step will be to use the lights along with light water massage to reduce the edema in her neck and leg. Then we will add in blue green algae and more lights to help her regenerate her nerve function. Meanwhile - I will start working on understanding the message in this for me. These horses are my greatest teachers and this damage is to her throat chakra. What am I not expressing?
Keep you posted -
Kay Aubrey-Chimene, RMT
BioNutritional Consultant
Grand Adventure Ranch
Equine Wellness Center
www.grandadventuresranch.com