The Coors Cure for Colic, or Dos Equis for Equines

I received the following email from Steve Wilmeth today:

We spent a suspenseful last evening with a colicking Popolote. 

He has never shown a hint of trying to colic but there we were with high respiration, no good hind gut sounds, a bit of sweat, and trying to lay down. He had been shod three days ago and he had been gimpy since on his front feet and I was thinking he was just in pain. He had loped out toward the irrigated pasture, though,  when I turned the horses out to graze, but he was heard nickering and  back up at the arena and when I found him he was trying to lay down 

I was immediately on edge. I gave him an injection of banomine immediately and walked him. I called Skip and he was found smiling and sitting on a stool in Pagosa Springs and useless to the current predicament. A call to another vet was not helpful. ...So, I called Pepe to make sure he didn't think it was a shoeing and front feet problem and he came over. We looked at Pop and Pepe asked me if I wanted to try what the Castro's would do in this situation Well, Yea! So to the ice box we went to get a six pack of beer and Pop started getting single swallow drenches until all the beer was gone ... in this case only four bottles. Interestingly, we started noticing he was swallowing the beer more agreeably and was even leaning against the pourer rather than trying to pull away. 

We watched him for a while before Pepe had to leave (to go practice for an upcoming Chareada) but his respiration was down, he had dropped his donger and he was interested in the feed bin. I texted Pepe when he stretched to pee and then he proceeded to push his favored mare (that had rejoined the proceedings from the pasture and who was, by the way, very interested in how Pop smelled with beer on his breath) out of the way and commenced working on the feed bin. Before sunup this morning he nickered at me when i stuck my head out to see if he was still on his feet. 

"Hey,Ace, we could use a little feed out here!" he was suggesting. "Sooner than later if you don't mind ..."

So, the story line is keep some beer on hand if your vet friend happens to be sitting on a stool in Pagosa Springs for your next colic session. Our only adjustment will be Pop won't get the good beer ... he will get the cheap stuff. (These Castro boys are riding 20-30 horses all the time and learned this trick from a horse vet from Mexico and Pepe swears by it) I do too!