Mona, a 10-year-old Irish Draught mare, is back in regular work, fully recovered from what began as a routine-sounding colic call that escalated into emergency abdominal surgery and a second gastrointestinal scare within days.
Owner Leslie Ralston-Rakow got her beloved mare regular veterinary care when Mona first started showing colic signs. But despite appropriate veterinary care, her pain returned in the wee hours of the morning.
Ralston-Rakow couldn’t do anything but watch. It was nearly 4 a.m. in late January, with temperatures in the single digits, and Mona was down in her stall, anxious and in pain.
“I felt powerless to help her as she suffered,” Ralston-Rakow said. “All I could do was get her to the right people who could help, even if it was at 4 a.m. in the middle of a brutal cold snap.”
That call sent Mona to the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, one of three animal care facilities run by the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. What followed was a weeklong fight against a colon impaction that twisted into a life-threatening displacement, and a slow but successful recovery.
Roanoke Equestrian 