Colic experiences

[Marigold4]

I have just remembered I did have another that coliced, a few times actually. It was one of my son's pony. He was a greedy little so and so. Pony not my son and would literally eat almost anything if not watched carefully. One of the fields we kept him had a row of houses with their back gardens lining the field. One keen gardener kept throwing his grass cuttings and general vegetable rubbish into the field.

I only found out when the inevitable happened and poor greedy fat little Hardy coliced, quite badly. Thanks to very quick intervention he was ok. But even after speaking to the guy and carefully explaining the danger he still kept dumping stuff in there. Unbelievable how someone could do that to a kids pony, well any animal really.

After yet another colic with the same pony, we gave up that field and have never kept any horse with houses adjacent fence lines again. Some people are just so ignorant and unpleasant even if you politely try to explain that sort of thing to them. No wonder I have become more and more insular and anti social as the years go by.

I've had this situation too. A man whose garden bordered my field kept throwing his grass cuttings in. Asked him not to twice politely and explained why. Third time I bagged up the grass cuttings and put them back over the fence into his garden. He came out of his house shouting and waving his fist and threatening me. Neighbours called him off. Weirdly, I am the villain here, according to the neighbours - for upsetting him! He's moved now but I had to fence off that part of the field while he lived there.

 

[Marigold4]

I have had one case of proper colic. A 3 year old bought from breeder who swore blind she had wormed her properly from a foal. She had 3 episodes of gassy colic, vet called each time, got cast and all a bit scary. Turned out she was riddled with tapeworm. Once treated, she was fine. I backed and sold her a couple of years later and keep in touch. She has not had colic since.

My others have not had colic. I may be deluding myself and it really can happen out of the blue, but think worming and poo picking daily, and ensuring there is always a plentiful supply of clean water is important. Dirty water full of green and bird poo that horses only reluctantly drink is not good enough - they may not be drinking enough if it tastes awful. I empty refill and scrub buckets almost every day - less frequently in winter. I'll probably be struck down by the god of colics now for sounding smug!

 

[Fransurrey]

I've had this situation too. A man whose garden bordered my field kept throwing his grass cuttings in. Asked him not to twice politely and explained why. Third time I bagged up the grass cuttings and put them back over the fence into his garden. He came out of his house shouting and waving his fist and threatening me. Neighbours called him off. Weirdly, I am the villain here, according to the neighbours - for upsetting him! He's moved now but I had to fence off that part of the field while he lived there.

I also had this situation and on one occasion, they dumped broken greenhouse glass over the fence. In a way, this was what solved it, as I threw the glass in all directions over their fence, along with that week's grass cuttings, and never had an issue again. You were kind bagging them up. I was less so.