Acute Colitis/ Colitis x Any Experience

Niraf

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I had a horse that had colitis x. Not sure about the cause of it but apparently the gut works in reverse, instead of putting nutrients out through the cell walls, it absorbs nutrients from the blood and the life literally drains out of the horse. My horse made a full recovery, was on a 24 hour drip lying flat in his stable for about 4 days and then made slow return to complete health.
 

neddynesbitt

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Firstly I am so very sorry to hear your sad news :( RIP little mare

My lad became ill very suddenly on new years day, he had been completely normal on new years eve. It looked like he had stopped eating his hay having eaten about half his net. He deteriorated very quickly & was not eating or drinking. He was shaking & shivering also.

He is normally very bolshy & opinionated & that was my first worry that he was very quiet so I knew instantly he wasn't right. The vet (as she doesn't know him) didn't think he was too bad at first but I just KNEW :(

He was sedated to take his temperature as even so ill he would still have kicked the vet, as soon as she injected him, he had a very severe reaction & was gasping for air & nearly collapsing. His temperature was 42 & the vet said that & the sedative mixed caused the reaction.

He spent 10 days in intensive care on drips etc & did make a recovery BUT 2 weeks ago, he colicked 2 nights running after he was wormed & changed fields (YO insisted he was wormed on same day he moved fields :()

It is like living on a rollercoaster as he is so sensative now & they never found the cause of his colitis. He was on the same grazing & hard feed/hay as others in the yard & they luckily were all ok.

As morbid as it sounds, I can never relax as I have an awful feeling that one day it could happen again. The vets can't say either way as they don't know what caused it :(

I feel so sorry for you, it is the most horrendous thing to happen.

Big hugs to you xx
 

Chestnutmare

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Firstly I am so sorry to hear of your loss and I completely understand your situation it happened to me last year.

My boy suddenly went downhill showed signs of colic and collapsed in his stable, he was off his food and hay...that is one of the signs I knew and he just wasn't himself at all withdrew himself deeply, hard to explain, vet came out treated him with some codeine tablets etc, but nothing worked his temp went up to 40 odd and heart rate rocketded to 108 :O and he stayed with me still, he was admitted to Intensive care where he gradually got worse and after a week I called time his eye lost his sparkle, the drip re-hydtrated him well but still off food and everything, the vets tried everything they could to save my lad and my god I would have paid the earth to keep him going.

He had severe colitis and bleed into his abdomen the rest of his body had swollen up to the size of a 18hh horse he was only 15.1hh bless him.

Don't think vets every really know what happens or to treat it properly but rest assured you are not alone with this, I wish I could have answers to so many questions.....

Please feel free to Pm should you wish to chat further...big hugs x
 

Tnavas

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So sorry to hear of your loss ((((HUGS))))

My boy Huggy came in from the paddock with a dirty tail - nothing really unusual for him - I washed it off, put him in his stable and gave him his breakfast - he turned his nose up at it - a very bad sign. Then came a stream of foul smelling dung, I looked at his gums and they were almost black in colour. Called the vet who was there in minutes. His prognosis - he may not live! 19½ litres of intravenous fluids later and the vet visiting every hour we pulled him through. It was a very close call - I was lucky I'd come up to the paddock early and that the vet was so close by and we caught it so early.

The day before Huggy had been fine - had worked well, done a couple of lessons and went back out with his dinner which he ate with no fussing. Shows how fast the colitis can come on. He had been on Founderguard for two weeks - vets reaction to that information can not be printed! He had already lost other horses to similar symptoms who had been on the mix. In hind sight I'd worked at a stud a few years earlier who had had a similar experience with horses going down with unexplained colitis and they had all been on Founderguard too.
 
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