BY COURTNEY S. DIEHL, DVM
Readers may remember the columns about “march” and “linnea” (easter, the horse and his owner, caroline). easter was an elderly tennessee walking horse, and we could thank him for most of our gray hair: when easter got sick, it was a dramatic event. although he lived on wellsoaked feeds and was carefully managed, a choke could make him gravely ill.
Caroline was usually able to prevent the chokes, but one time Easter had eaten the bedding in his loafi ng shed, and on another horrible occasion, a barn assistant had misunderstood his feeding instructions and given him dry beet pulp pellets, which he’d eaten with relish, causing a lengthy choke that I was certain was going to be the end of him. I’d even drawn up the euthanasia solution, but Easter let me know that it wasn’t his time yet. He was the master at defying death, and I secretly called him Lazarus.