Colic help please!!!!

noblesteed

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Hi
Just posting for a friend as she's at the farm.
Her 9 yo mare came down colicky on Thursday. She got vet out immediately, he gave internal, pain relief and colic injections. Said no food for a day, just a bit of water. Then bran mash, after a day a little hay.
Anyway she's not getting any better, she had a few poos at first but now she wont eat or drink. SHe put her out for a bit of fresh air and she's just stood head down not eating.
Other than call vet what else?
 

fairyclare

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Get her admitted to an equine hospital for further tests and investigation!

I would not be happy with my horse still being colicky after 3 days.

Not aimed at you OP, just a general observation if you will, but I do wonder why people feel the need to post this sort of question on a forum when the obvious and only answer would be to call the vet and have the horse admitted.
 

TheMule

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This is an emergency, the horse is clearly in a lot of pain. I would also be worried about grass sickness (Atypical myopathy)
 

be positive

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The vet should have added if she had not improved by the next day, Friday, that he needed to come back straight away, colic that rumbles on is never easy to deal with and I don't understand why vets and owners are not more concerned if it does not fully resolve within a few hours, not aimed at you OP but in general it is often not considered to be serious if the horse is not obviously in agony, any issues within the guts can turn serious very quickly and I would have got the vet back yesterday and still be extremely worried if it was my horse.
 

skint1

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I'm really sorry she hasn't improved, I strongly agree with the other posters your friend's horse is in serious need of medical treatment. I wish her the best
 

Tiddlypom

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All the best for your friend's horse.

Usually vets are good at explaining what signs to look for post a colic visit, and encourage you to phone in if you're at all concerned that the recovery isn't going to plan.

The short answer as to what to do whilst waiting for the vet, is to get equine transport lined up on standby if an emergency admission to horsepital may be on the cards.
 

noblesteed

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As you can see form my post is states "OTHER than call the vet what can she do?"
Not 'SHOULD' she call the vet. Obviously she had the vet!
The vet has been in touch and as it was a seemingly mild case he just wanted to check she was eating, drinking and pooing. As she is now doing that, albeit not a huge amount, he said to keep on with what she is doing. I expect he will be out again as she's not right, seems depressed but I have never seen a horse recover from colic (only be euthanised) so I dont' know how they recover. We are all worrying about grass sickness as horse's guts are working but she's not hungry, and looks a bit ill. Another from the same field has come in footy tonight so vet will probably have two to see :(
 

Pinkvboots

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I wouldn't say it's a mild case of anything if the horse is not eating or drinking I would be wanting the vet out again or I would be taking the horse to the local equine hospital now, a mild case of colic lasts for a day after that the horse should be more less back to normal that means eating drinking and doing a normal amount of droppings.
 

Jim bob

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Seriously if my horse wasn't right and back to normal I would be on the phone demanding they come and see him. When my horse just wasn't right and showing mild signs of not been 100% and my vets wouldn't come out I got a 2 vet out at 10pm on a Tuesday night and when he was still down the next morning I phoned them up at 6am that morning!
 

meesha

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Mine has had bouts of gassy colic, comes right within hours, it has been bad enough to call get out and have internal, buscopan etc but within hours horse has been totally fine. If not right within hours (not days) needs further investigation, could be worm burden, obstruction etc
 

ycbm

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This is an emergency, the horse is clearly in a lot of pain. I would also be worried about grass sickness (Atypical myopathy)

You possibly know this and just wrote it a bit wrong, but atypical myopathy is poisoning from hypoglycin A infected sycamore and grass sickness is a botulism type poisoning from grass, they aren't the same thing.
 

Tyssandi

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Hi
Just posting for a friend as she's at the farm.
Her 9 yo mare came down colicky on Thursday. She got vet out immediately, he gave internal, pain relief and colic injections. Said no food for a day, just a bit of water. Then bran mash, after a day a little hay.
Anyway she's not getting any better, she had a few poos at first but now she wont eat or drink. SHe put her out for a bit of fresh air and she's just stood head down not eating.
Other than call vet what else?

The owner should contact the vet again, we lost one to colic in October, then I lost two of mine to colic in the past few years,. After they are starved you need to wait till the poo starts coming out and it will be harder than normal.

Some colics are entrapment when the intestines get trapped in the gut wall, this is fatal unless you get to vet as blood poisoning starts quickly. Also when the stomach muscles fails to work and the stomach fills up with food and not passed on to intestines.


Call vet as still colicky after a day is bad, my livery Tb was colicking in the night, I found him cast and walked him around from 6.50am - 11 .30am. She needs a quick diagnoses the sooner the better.

My pony is now a colic candidate - I have to soak her haylage all the time, no hay, little bran and pink mash to help keep things moving.
 
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hopscotch bandit

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.a friend whose horse used to colic quite regular it turned out was suffering from problems with the rich grass and it was always spasmodic colic that it had so her vet told her to give it a couple of bute in a small feed and put it on the walker for a while and monitor it as the colic would always override the bute if it needed the vet. Saved her a fortune as it was weekly at one point. horse not colicked for 18 months now.In one of the horse event guides at my yard it said that latest findings show that its better not to walk a horse if its displaying colic and its fine to let them roll if they want to so the advice has changed over the years.it was once thought that horses with twisted guts had this due to rolling but this was not the case.As long as they roll somewhere where its not tight like a stable its thought now to be okay to let them roll.agree OP needs vet although this was not the question asked by her.
 

noblesteed

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Hi just an update, horse isn't colicking any more but definitely not herself. Vet's been out a few times and coming today for blood tests as they are now suspecting an internal abcess of some kind :(
 

paddy555

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as it appears now to be a week since the colic and the horse isn't herself I think your friend needs to get her to a vet clinic asap. In the clinic they can do as many blood tests as they need quickly and give her the results straightaway. They also have the equipment to scan the horse and do any other tests. A couple of hours and they may well have an answer plus the fact they can then get her onto the correct medication immediately. A week is a very long time for a horse to be ill. I hope she gets well soon.
 

MuddyTB

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Hi just an update, horse isn't colicking any more but definitely not herself. Vet's been out a few times and coming today for blood tests as they are now suspecting an internal abcess of some kind :(

Was just going to ask if they'd done bloods. A horse at our yard came down with suspected colic on Sunday but ended up not being colic but a bacterial infection, diagnosed by bloods. She was lifeless and not eating or drinking, looked really ill. But a course of antibiotics and bute seem to have sorted her out.

Hope you get some answers and all is ok.
 
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