Colic Experts ? Opinions , comments

Horseback Rider

Horseback Rider

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 September 2009
Messages
448
Location
Near France
Visit site
Rode my horse out for about half an hour last night and seemed fine although only walking as ground is so hard.
Got back to yard and he kept lifting his back leg up to his stomach, put him in the field and he just kept rolling and didn't want a treat ( which he ALWAYS does ).
Got him in walked him round while phoning vet.

Vet came diagnosed spasmodic colic said he was quite gassy gave him an injection of something beginnging with S I think which made him a bit woosy. Left him in then went back up about 10 pm to check on him and he seemed a lot better so went home.

Went up this morning and his bed was completly trashed ( he normally is a really tidy chap) and he was lying down.
Called vet got horse up. Vet came gave him an internal examination and pulled out normal healthy looking droppings, so gave him another shot of the S thing and told me he woudl be better off out walking around so did that.
Went up at lunchtime to check and he seemed fine grazing etc.
Went up tonight and he had been in about 10 minutes and he was lying down although got up when I went in he looked awfull really tucked up unsteady on his feet and seemed to have swollen deep set eyes ??
Called vet and got different vet ( the one I normally have ) and explained to him the story so far he asked why I had turned him out today and I explained it was only the advice of the previous vet !!

Anyway he came out and agreed he was looking rather sorry for himself so decided to tube him and give him a bucket of electrolites he seemed to pick up pretty much straight after this and started eating hay.HE also gave him some penecillin.
Vet said to keep him in and just turn him out for a few hours and little and often feed /hay.

He also took bloods as he thinks the above may be a symptom of something else e.g a virus / kidney touble.

I haven't seen that many cases of colic so wondered what your thoughts where?

Thanks
 
Absolutely no expert on colic at all and, thank god, only ever experienced a relatively minor gassy colic episode in one of my own horses. BUT!!!!! Huge BUT!!!!! It doesn't sound as if your horse has finished with his belly ache problems. I expect it was Buscopan the vets gave your horse. This relaxes the gut and - for minor colics - can bring immediate relief. But your horse seems to get better on Buscopan then deteriorate as its effects wear off. The fact that he's had intermittent colicky pains that haven't been resolved would have me on high alert. Watch him like a hawk. I don't think you've seen the end of it yet. Fingers crossed xxx
 
have you had a belly tap done is he moving still behind as well as could also be colic caused by peritonitis which can be very seriuse so worth getting your vet to do a belly tap
 
He seemed a bit better this morning when I went up but still v quiet and doesn't look v happy.
Spoke to vet at lunch time re blood test and he has a very high white cell count so the bloods have been sent to Liphook to get further info as they can only do basic testing over here.
The vet said it could be peritonitis,kidneys or a virus and the colic was probably a symptom of this.

He seems to have dropped half his body weight in the last few days he is a TB so there wasn't that much to lose in the first place !!

He went up and gave him another sot of penciillin and I was allowed to turn him out for an hour this evening. He just seems so sad and I feel bloody useless and just keep thinking I may have contributed to it somehow??

any way have to ring vet in the morning and let him know how he is. I have to say my vet has been fab throughout all of it
Thanks for mentioning the belly tap but can you explain what it involves ????
 
A tummy tap is where they insert an open top needle (i.e. without the syringe part) into the stomach cavity (under the belly) to try to collect a sample of the fluid that surrounds the guts. Testing this can reveal if there is infection etc. The vet will also look at the colour of the fluid, basically clear fluid is a good sign, cloudy/blood tinged fluid is not good.

It takes my boy a few days to get back to normal after a serious colic attack however, he does not generally need additional drugs in the subsequent days.

Sounds like your lad is quite poorly still and I hope your vet can find the exact cause soon. Is someone helping you keep an eye on him during the day/night as it might be best for him to have a lot of monitoring over the next few days until he picks up.

Fingers crossed for you both.
 
still waiting for blood test results from Liphook but horse seems to have stabilised he is out for about a 4 hours a day and in the rest of the time. He is by no means back to normal as if he was he would object to spending so much time in ? he is eating and drinking lots tho ?

I have been searching through old posts that mention peritonitis as my vet said this could be a possibility, and the prognosis isn't that good ;-(

He has never had colic before so I really dont knwo what it could be ? any ideas ?

I am realy worried that he will relapse and I am meant to be going to the UK on Friday for a week ?? I dont knwo what to do I have someone lookign after him while I am away and there are people on the yard for most of the day who will keep an eye on him
 
Sadly I have lots of experience of recurrent colic on one of my lads. Big TbxID type

He used to get colic every 4-6 weeks - vets not really sure why this was happening - changed pastures etc....

Then removed all bagged feeds and grains - and didn't get another colic. Like a new horse.

Maybe think about keeping him on a very basic grain free diet for a while.

Horses aren't really designed to get a bolus of rich grains, starch mulasses and sugars, (with anti-fungal and mould ihibiting chemicals added)!.
 
He is much better today, I turned him out yetserday morning and he spent about 10 minuted galloping & bucking round the paddock and has gone back to neighing every time you come on the yard !

However he has a bit of skin in the exact same place either side of his eyes that is just peeling off ?? I have no idea if it's been caused by the colic or the drugs they have given him or if it's completely unrelated ??

I should be hearing from my vet today if he has the blood test results back from Liphook am hoping it was just a virus ??


Brucea

What do you feed your horse on ?

Mine has Mollichaff & calm & condition beign a TB weight is an issue with him and our grazing isn't the best but he likes the yard and seems very settled ?

I have to confess I ahve thought about feeding him unmanufactured feeds but wouldn't know where to start ??
 
Colic can be caused by so many things- its a generic term for digestive system dysfunction. It can be acute and chronic.
Calm and condition is about 19% starch and mollichaff is very high in sugar. Neither are great for horses in large quantities and you can feed much lower starch/sugar diets and still maintain weight.

Base the diet on fibre- thats what the horse is designed to digest. then extra calories can be given by oil. So for example ad lib hay (even in the field) with hard feed to supplement such as unmollassed sugar beet, topspec cool conditioning cubes, alfalfa, alfalfa with oil or grass nuts. I have TBs on just alfalfa and unmollassed SB that do very well. Brewers yeast can also be used to help the gut digest fibre.

Fingers crossed your chap is recovering
 
thundersprite said:
have you had a belly tap done is he moving still behind as well as could also be colic caused by peritonitis which can be very seriuse so worth getting your vet to do a belly tap
Click to expand...

My friends horse had this which manifested itself as colic. I wonder if that's what the blood test was for.
 
Hmmm tricky one - Colic is just a term referring to any manifestation of pain in the horse's gut so can cover a huge range of different conditions.

We have a TB who would exhibit intermittent colic symptoms on a fairly regular basis. We spoke to the vet about the possibility of this being caused by gastric ulcers and he agreed this could be the cause in our case. We put him on a course of Ranitidine and his feed is now supplemented with 'Happy Tummy'. Touch wood he hasn't had an episode for a few months now. Long may it last!

There are so many causes behind colic symptoms, good luck in finding yours and I hope he feels better soon!
 
Hi, my horse started with spasmodic colic on wed 25th Aug, he is 19 and i've owned him for 15.5yrs so know each other pretty well. He has been living out 24/7 on 1/2 acre with access to stable, full vacc/wormed etc.
By the Thurs evening I was unhappy as dragging on, no droppings overnight wed/thur but still had good appetite. Called vet, heart & respiratory rates up. Temp normal, confirmed spasmodic and gave buscapane and bute inj, also did internal and pulled droppings out. I stayed up through the night with him and called vet back at 5am as very worried as he looked very tired and scared, she repeated previous night treatment and thought had started to compact so tubed with water and liquid parafin. Two hours later I transferred him to Rossdales in Newmarket as I was drained and decided to travel the 2hrs while he was still strong enough. They took bloods, droppings and did stomach tap, re-tubed etc. His results showed high worm count, despite me regularly worming and having worm counts done! They are seeing a high number of cases and think that the hard ground, followed by a lot of rain have drawn out dormant parasites from the ground to the grass and cause of his age now his gut coouldn't cope. He's had a course of panacur and now equest and is on the mend.

Just because you worm your horse don't assume it won't happen to you like I thought as weather conditions can play a part and change the environment for the pesky parasites.

Lucky for us the outcome was good :-)
 
How is your boy doing now? How did his results go?

My horse has had 2 bouts of spasmodic colic not long after I got him and he had a bout of colic 2 months ago due to his intestine trouble he is currently being investigated for.
 
my mare had a belly tap and it turned out she had a liver problem but its very straight foward
also another cause of ongoing colics could be ulcers so poss worth looking in to that as well
 
He is much better now and have been riding him again!
Vet is coming out on Monday for another set of bloods.

I am still struggling to get him to put weight & condition on as I don't want to change his feed in any way atm for fear that it will cause another episode??
 
I would really look at tapeworm as a possibility. Even if he has been wormed for tapes ask your vet to do the blood test.
Tapeworms are at the bottom of a lot of colics.

Make sure you have wormed against encysted redworm too. These are the immature ones which don't lay eggs so would not show in a worm count.
I hope he is better soon, they are a worry.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top