Absence of droppings and other odd behaviour

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Worried1

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This is a little odd but wondered if anyone had any similar experiences...

Background
Finn is a 16-y-o IDXTB, bought 4 years ago from a dealer, he had without doubt fallen on hard times but looked 'well' he was very fat and unfit but shiny coat if a little depressed!

The first winter passed without incident and it was not till the following spring that he displayed the first of the colicy type symptoms.

I have spoken at length to my vet who has been out to him in the worst of his episodes. The next route is to take him in and investigate while he is 'not right'.

What happens...
Finn will without warning stop poohing. He then becomes quite depressed and quiet. Periods of up to 16 hours have passed without any droppings. Sometimes he colics sometimes he doesn't.

His colic episodes range from mild discomfort where we recognise what is going on but someone might not, to full blown rolling, sweating increased resp and pulse etc. His droppings range from slightly too wet, (not quite cow pat but tending to loose their normal round appearance) to rock hard, very dry and like rock.

I can find no trigger, he has coliced in winter, spring, summer and autumn. He has coliced on grass and not being on grass. I always feed him a very high fibre diet, trickle fed as he is a fattie and of course with access to fresh water at all times, I try and ensure he doesn't over heat. He has gone for several months without an epsiode and then we have had just weeks.

The last episode where we called the vet was probably the worst. The vet arrived and following an examination said he was actually shocked when he palpitated the intestine with what he felt. Finn had been rolling and was sweating and in great discomfort, while waiting we had given him bute and was starting to look 'better'. He said that the intestine felt traumatised in line with a blockage which had been passed and he didn't think by looking at him he was going to find that!

His dropping were, when they came rock hard and dry.

We monitored him closely and since then we have passed without incident until this week...

We have gradually seen a reduced amount of droppings. We skip out from 7am-9pm and pooh his field everyday so we know exactly when we are short of poohs! He has been VERY grumpy which is out of character, he has been warm to touch and pulls faces again very unlike him. He has also got LOTS of small lumps appeared and is generally itchy (I realise this might be totally unrelated.)

Nothing has changed, in at night, out during day, same feed, same hay.

His workload varies but he is NEVER overworked, if anything he doesn't do enough ;)

I bought some Global Herbs Clearout to see if this helps but I am worried, this episode is lasting longer and although we haven't had a colic episode yet... I think the next one will be bigger, longer and more serious.

We are not on sand, do not turn out on a sand arena so pretty sure it's not sand related.

He is grey with a few melanomas though - could he possibly have some internally? Does anyone have any similar experiences?

Thanks :)
 
Yes, unfortunately I had an Irish Draught that had these symptoms, though not as often. They were quite far apart, sometimes a year apart. So on the fateful day when he colicked I wasn't too worried. I dosed him with bute and liquid parafin but this time he did not get better and he was referred to Rossdales. Surgery was the only option. It was found that 7 feet of intestine had fallen through a membrane near his diaphragm. It was still healthy and pink and so the surgery went very well as none had to be resectioned. However, on recovery he had lost the use of his hind legs and had to be PTS. Vets said it was due to the weight of him and being on his back for so long, poor boy. But he would have had a successful outcome if it hadn't been for this unfortunate complication.

As I said, the symptoms were a lack of droppings and depression/reluctance to eat, followed by a complete recovery. If I were you I would have your horse referred to avoid a possible emergency situation. Sorry if I have worried you, but obviously something is not right. It sounds as though there is some kind of obstruction in his gut caused by something similar to my boy or by a growth of some kind.
 
There is an acorn tree on the boundary but we have had a tree surgeon in and the hedge cutters so there is virtually no droppage, he has only been in this field for a few weeks this year and where possible we have hoovered them up with the pooh hoover. He shows no interest in them though.

We did think it might be acorns, but this is a new field an none of our other fields have them so not sure it is a factor.
 
Thanks Wagtail, sounds identical and I am sorry to hear you lost you boy.

I have spoken at length to my vets who say there is nothing they can do without a cause. They said they are limited in terms of investigations, they did say an ultrasound or fluid could be drawn off but would probably show nothing, and would be expensive.

I am resigned to the fact I am probably going to lose him too colic but I think with your experience I will give them another call. Can I ask how old he was?
 
I have heard of paddock sweepers/vacuums being connected with grass sickness, i dont know what the connection is but perhaps there may be a connection with your horses colic.
 
Worried1 said:
Thanks Wagtail, sounds identical and I am sorry to hear you lost you boy.

I have spoken at length to my vets who say there is nothing they can do without a cause. They said they are limited in terms of investigations, they did say an ultrasound or fluid could be drawn off but would probably show nothing, and would be expensive.

I am resigned to the fact I am probably going to lose him too colic but I think with your experience I will give them another call. Can I ask how old he was?
Click to expand...

Yes, he was sixteen when we lost him, but his strange episodes had been going on for years. The intestine probably kept righting itself but the last time it happened I think too much of it had fallen through. The weight of it then pulls more intestine through and it gets strangulated. With your boy having melenoma, it may be that there is a growth squashing the intestine somewhere and that this caused a build up (and absence of droppings) untill the pressure manages to finally push it through. My gut feeling is, having not witnessed his episodes, that the blockage will increase in size until it can no longer be passed. Sadly, you then usually have an emergency on your hands. I don't know if anything can be done without opening the horse up to find out the problem. We were told that this was the only option for our boy as it was that, or death. As your boy is not in critical danger, I don't think the vets would want to open him up. If it's a growth, then I would imagine MRI scanning would be the best way of finding it. But I'm no expert.

I hope the outcome is a good one.
 
Sorry to hear you are having problems with colic, I have one who regularly colics too (last time on Sunday morning!).

The Clearout is a great product and will help keeping droppings moving through.

Have your vets metioned it could possibly be IBD (Irritable Bowel Disease)? Only mention this as one year my boy had a few colic episodes and so my vet suggested doing a rectal biopsy. The results showed that he had IBD and was put on a course of low dose steroids. This could tie in as well with the lumps/swellings your horse has too and the alternation between hard and softer poops.

The procedure is very quick and results only take a few days to come through. It can highlight the very simple things through to the major things.

I know how worrying it is having a horse prone to colic, I really hope your vets can help you with your horse.
 
Thank you Wagtail. It does sound worryingly similar.
Vetsbestfriend no one has mentioned it except my dad! But when he jokingly mentioned I wasn't sure if horses could suffer. All things I can to my vet about. Thank you x
 
I have had two that have had successful colic surgery,one before I got him,both continued to mildly colic throughout their lives.Could yours have had previous surgery?
Two things that helped with both as they were similar in symptoms to yours.

1] feeding only soft meadow hay,the pony could not tolerate anything at all stalky and this was easily recognised and dealt with,he never had colic once after this was seen to be the cause.

2] When feeling a bit low they did not drink as much as usual,at a time when they really need more fluids,the horse would take daily very sloppy sugar beet water this seemed to help and is useful to get more water in them.

I would try giving yours one or two very wet feeds as well as water each day,it may help if he is getting an impaction.
 
No evidence of surgery. I soak his feed and his hay especially when we are in strange episode as I am very conscious of him passing dry, hard droppings.

Hay is something I hadn't thought about. Thank you x
 
Our neighbours grey pony was prone to Colic .. He was a wind sucker and his was usually caused by trapped wind which could be alleviated by walking him round.
He also had the odd melanoma, one if which was felt internally during a colic. When it was first found it didn't cause an obstruction, bug a couple of years later it was decided to operate before it became a problem.
Once it was removed his episodes of colic reduced, and the vets thinks the lump may have caused him significant discomfort stopping him from pooing until he really had to.
He still had the odd episode until a final attack that they think happened after he was tucked up last thing, and by the time he was found in the morning there was nothing they could do but PTS.
Google Colic and Lipoma... These are internal fatty lumps on stalks that can cause colic in older horses.
Hope you get to the bottom of things soon... I'd be tempted to get referred to a Specialist though
 
Sorry forgot to add... Yes horses can get internal melanomas. Sorry for posting a sorry outcome, the pony was in his early/mid twenties when they lost him.
At 16 I think your horse is still young enough to get to the bottom of and treat
 
Sounds to me like he has some internal disorganisation going on whereby his intestines are getting trapped or wrapped around something. I would be very seriously considering opening him up if he has another bad episode a it's not really fair on him to keep colicing and it is likely that if whatever the problem is is resolved, he may not colic again. ButI appreciate it is a big step and if he's not at the point where the vet says-open him up, it is hard to say lets go ahead anyway.
Fingers crossed he doesn't colic.
 
A friends horse horse had lipoma, which I can't ever rule out but their 'symptom' are very different so I think it's more a moveable blockage. Meaning the gut is comprimised at times. We do a late night check and in the days he is not right I make Mr Worried check again around midnight. I worry that if anything happens we might muss our window of opportunity.
I have the vet coming today so am going to ask if we can look at some other options.
Thanks everyone.
 
It could be ulcers or previous worm damage.
I had a mare that coliced a lot. she was scoped and had mild ulcers, I used gastroguard and it cleared it up.

It also worth feeding a lot of oil as this tends to soften the droppings.
 
I knew a horse with a lipoma on the side/top of his intestine which (they summised after surgery) used to flop over and partially obstruct the flow, leading to a colicky episode, then presumably flop back when he rolled. He did eventualy colic very badly and they removed the tumour and the necrotised tissue, stitched him all back together and his was fine afterwards. He was also grey so of course lipoma was not our first thought. . .

Another horse I knew had " colic like episodes" and turned out to have liver disease. He had been a top level jumper so there was the suspicion it was drug related but that's just a theory.

Another with similar symptoms was a very unpredictable drinker. Anything in her water, different tasting water etc. and she wouldn't drink. I will say she was more prone in winter though, as would not drink if there was even a speck of ice in her water.

I presume they have done a full rectal when he's not having an episode? I don't know what the ultrasound options are these days but it's worth a conversation. Even if it is a melanoma (I think the feeling is many grey horses have them internally even when they don't have obvious external ones) there are options there, too.
 
I'm afraid I would suspect the melanomas as well. I had a grey whom I bought with tiny, tiny melanomas under the tail and over 8 years they grew and grew (vet once said for each melanoma you see externally, imagine four internally) and caused him loads of problems.
 
You mentioned that he was lumpy & itchy - have you noticed this on previous occasions?
Some years ago I used to have a livery who had several incidences of colic & also had bouts of urticaria. He was referred to Liphook vets for investigation but they didn't really find anything. He was eventually allergy tested & found to be allergic to a wide variation of common feedstuffs, particularly molasses & even many grasses found in pasture & hay. When he was 100% he could cope with this, but if something knocked his immune system slightly it seemed to set off an allergic response.
By cutting out the things which he was tested as being more sensitive to we were able to control the episodes.
Just a thought but might be worth exploring?
 
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