Two needles were inserted on either side of his spine. Acupuncture needles are thin and somewhat springy and flexible, almost a filament. In this case, the vet opted to thread the acupuncture needles through 20 gauge needles- the kind you normally see attached to a syringe for drawing blood or giving a vaccination. You know the type.
They went in straight. They came out like this.
You're looking at the needles upside down. The thin top part is the acupuncture needle that would have pointed into Junior's body. Below that, where it thickens, is the 20 gauge needle. The clear plastic syringe-type portion just above Cabbage's finger would have sat on top of Junior's skin.
What this photo says to me is that this horse is really sick. His muscles, insides, energy, chakras and whatever else comprises Junior is, well, all F'd up.
Duh.
Ok, so it's stating the obvious that the horse who is fighting for his life in (literally) a sudden death cage match with colic, is really sick. But it's shocking to see how his body twisted those needles.
Within about 20 seconds of when the needles were removed, Junior passed some more diarrhea. A few minutes later he became more painful, which was expected following the treatment. He was given painkiller and was calmed again.
This morning Junior had more feces in his rectum, but the impaction palpated the same. How is that possible? Basically, the horse's intestines are so large, and our ability to palpate them is limited to the (stay with me here) length of an arm and the length of the rectum, along with the way the intestines coil and snake their way through the horse's huge abdominal cavity. We just can't feel it all. He may be breaking up the impaction in parts we can't feel, and passing it from the front forward. Let's hope so. We like poop.
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