Scoped the Unicorn today!

I took Unicorn horse in to be scoped to see if she had ulcers. She did not. It was a very cool procedure to watch thought!

She was sedated (but still standing) and then a tube passed through her nose, down her throat, and into her stomach. The tube ends with a camera, and can also squirt air (to inflate the stomach a little) or water (to wash the food parts from the stomach wall).

I was surprised at how smooth the stomach wall was. Most of it is just a smooth balloon of light pink, with the very bottom being a darker pink (where the acid sits all the time). I had to not feed the horse for 18 hours so that the stomach was empty enough to see the bottom section, and we could see there were no ulcers and no wormies or bots in there.

Having to not feed her for 18 hours was the toughest part of the entire thing; Rob was kind enough to play with her in the arena while I did night feed, and then I had to ignore her pitiful whinnies while I did morning feed. I must say it is very easy to load a horse that thinks she is starving; handful of pellets in a bucket and in she went!

Karen