Colic after gastroscope, anyone else?

J got jaundice was Ill was three weeks .
Colic is a regular complication of gastroscopes the starving and the sedation it's just asking for trouble .
 
The best thing to do after a gastroscope is to trickle feed hay once they come round from sedation so they are slowly filling their stomachs again. Many people throw piles of food at them and of course they stuff themselves.
 
EKW said:
The best thing to do after a gastroscope is to trickle feed hay once they come round from sedation so they are slowly filling their stomachs again. Many people throw piles of food at them and of course they stuff themselves.
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I think hay is too dry .
I use some form of chop ( usually dried grass )mixed with watery speedibeet
 
The thing is she came round, was offered hay and she wasnt interested so she had pretty much coliced on an empty stomach.

I have a theory that as she had eaten some poo during the fasting (she didn't last time so didn't muzzle), the vet had to pump her stomach up more than last time to see what was going on. So I am thinking it was due to trapped wind, if this makes sense?
 
At our vets they are always offered alfalfa chop mixed with sloppy speedibeet much safer thing to eat than long forage ( hay or haylage ).
You need to be careful with scoping I fasted j as requested and took him down to the vets they where late and to cut a long story short they where behind ,they did my other horse first and when they started J they noticed his gums where yellow , he had at that point been without food for twenty four hours by the time he was scoped and awake it was twenty seven hours , he did not colic , I fed him sloppy handfuls every ten minutes for the first four hours at home but the jaundice took days to settle and he was off colour for three weeks .
I will be much much more careful if I get one done again I will book in for first thing in the morning so they can't get delayed .
I declined to take those two back for rechecking .
 
is the scoping 100% necessary eg for insurance purposes? (just interested, haven't had any experience of this *touches wood*). Is say, the use of Gastroguard and subsequent improvement taken as being diagnostic? Seems a harsh thing to do anyway but particularly with an animal that's already compromised.
 
With some insurers it is necessary. Saying that many people just treat with gastrogard and don't scope. However i wanted to know if it was ulcers before starting £900 of treatment (5 weeks at full dose and then tapered off) and what grade, as well as where they were in the stomach, as that can give you hints as to how long you need to treat for.
I would be reluctant to put her through another one after this time and now she has scoped clear, i hope i never need to think about it!!
 
Interesting thread. I had my ISH scoped as he had high liver enzymes so they wanted to rule out ulcers. He also has a biopsy from the liver. Coliced twice the next day. My thoughts are that it is a gassy colic and I would as golden star said book in for a morning slot and starve the horse myself at home. However, I would aslo do it again for ulcers as you need to know the extent of ulcers and then treat accordingly.
 
Hi yes my horse had colic after scoping he scoped clear in the morning but got gassy/spasmodic colic in the evening. It was Very worrying and at the moment scoping seems like a fashionable answer to solve many issues. My advice would be to seek advice from a vet and explore other possibilities before scoping.
 
Trouble is that ulcer symptoms are very similar to other problems like kissing spine and SI injuries. So to know for sure (if it is or isn't ulcers) you need to scope, but then you may discover (eventually) your horse has ulcers due to underlying pain from a back/SI problem. Ulcers are a pretty big can of worms.
Scoping is probably happening more now but its scoping vs putting straight on gastogard and gastrogard is not cheap so it is better to scope to know what you are dealing with.

Now my girl has scoped clear, i hope i can keep her ulcer free through management. As she is an ex polo pony i think she had developed them during her polo career based on the vets opinion that the ulcers she found had been there for some time.

I honestly do not know if i would put her through another scope. The first time she was fine but this time she was very uncomfortable after.
 
Colic is a risk with scoping both due to the starvation and sedation, but also the air pumped in to expand the stomach. However, I think scoping is an incredibly valuable tool and I don't at all think it is a current 'fad'. In fact I think many more horses should probably be scoped than are.

I know of 3 horses (one of which was mine) who showed completely different symptoms ranging from lack of impulsion (grade 4 ulcers), severe repeated episodes of colic (grade 2) and one instance of broncing when ridden (grade 3). None of these horses were scoped as a first port of call and other avenues of investigation and treatment were pursued and failed. Post scoping and course of Gastroguard all associated symptoms have resolved. Also interesting that the most dramatic symptoms can be caused by fairly low grade ulceration!
 
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