The Set Back

John, the barn owner and I brought Lester home on Weds. night, May 23rd. Lester had recovered so well in Auburn and was ready to come home. I had kept him there a few extra days just in case too. We got Less to his temporary home and unloaded him. He was very calm and reasonable about it all and settled in seemingly stressfree. I chose this particular place because I liked how "open" the front of the stall was. He seemed to like it too. After about 45 mins of a little handgrazing and hanging out in the stall eating some hay and drinking water, I gave him his 3 handfulls of Equine Senior and he ate it right up. I then took him for a little walk and grazing tour of the new place. He settled in better than I thought he would. He nosed a couple of the other horses and never squealed or misbehaved. I put him back in his stall around 8pm, gave him a bucket of fresh water and left him with about 3 flakes of hay for the night. He was checked on around 10pm and his bucket of water was refilled, no signs of colic or discomfort. Thursday morning I go to work and get a call about 8:45am that Lester was laying down this morning and he was pawing the ground and off his feed. I give my boss a wave (he was having a meeting) and told him that I HAD to go right then; he waved me on understandingly. While on the way I call the vet's office and get him in route. I think I only arrived about 10 minutes ahead of the vet. Lester was being walked in a familar circle and I was handed his leadrope. He seemed a little interested in grazing, but at the same time he was pawing and wanting to go down. A few times we just stood quietly in the shade. My other vet, Dr. McClendon came this time and checked him over. Lester was still in the VERY early stages of colic. He hadn't even broken a sweat yet and his heart-rate was 44 which is pretty normal. He palpated him and felt that the small intestines were a little distended, not bad, but considering his recent history it worried us a little. Lester got a shot of banamine and was refluxed with the same familiar tube up the nose to the stomach. He refluxed alot from his belly, which wasn't good. But the refluxing and banamine made him feel much better. He was no longer pawing or showing painful signs, but we all agreed that to be on the safe side he should go back down to Auburn. Dr. McClendon said that this wasn't an emergancy to get him back down there, but why take chances when we have come so far...And so the very gracious, John Parker came and picked him up and took him back down there. Driving down there I had plenty of time to think about how I should have adjusted him much much slower than I had:-( I should have played on the safter side of little to no hay- for gosh sakes his name is LESS IS MORE!