To evacuate the air from the pouch you will need one small bobby pin (the type with the little rubber tips), and a wee bit of patience. First off, the goal here is to NOT invade the pouch in any way. So, what you want to do it this:
- Grasp the horse, holding him upright in the water, letting his tail wrap around your little and/or ring fingers. Gently grasp the pouch with your index finger and thumb. This will allow you to massage the pouch and work the bubble to the opening.
- Massage the pouch and work the bubble to the opening using a back-and-forth motion of the index finger and thumb, while concentrating on moving north to the opening. Maintain pressure from below to keep the air pocket pressing against the pouch oriface from the inside.
- If you are lucky, you can often evacuate the air without anything else but the massage, however, to use the bobby pin, simply place one of the rubber-coated ends at the pouch oriface, and press the tissue GENTLY to the outside. What you are trying to do is tease the hole open WITHOUT INSERTING THE PIN. If successful, you will see a stream of bubbles come emanating from the pouch and the bubble you are holding will collapse, albeit somewhat slowly.
- Continue applying pressure from the bottom of the pouch up, as if it were a toothpaste tube, and teasing open the pouch until you cannot get any more air out. Note: You may need to apply a fair amount of pressure to the bobby-pin to open the pouch. DO NOT INSERT THE PIN.
This treatment may need to be re-administered a couple of times to properly evacuate all offending gasses.
For more information, please see the Quick Disease Guide.
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