Colic: Instances increasing with age

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Sugar Plum

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My horse had colic on Monday, he always seems to choose the weekend or a public holiday! In the last year and a half, he has had colic 4 times, with no obvious causes. Vet suggested that he now has a weakness and will keep getting bouts of colic as he gets older (currently 18). Anyone experiencing the same thing? I haven't been aware that horses can develop a weakness for colic once that have had a few and as they get older. I always thought it had to have a physical reason, like after being scoped for ulcers, change of feed, spring grass etc
 
What sort of colic is he getting? Impaction colics become more common with age as older horses tend not to chew their forage as efficiently.
 
There might be things you can do to lessen the risk- if it’s impaction based, think about types of feed, making sure mash type feeds are very wet. Thinking about pre and probiotics for healthy digestive transit- something like the equibiome test might be helpful if gut balance may be a cause? If it’s gassy colic, perhaps thinking about restricting grazing/ muzzling/ bringing in each day off the grass?
 
TGM said:
What sort of colic is he getting? Impaction colics become more common with age as older horses tend not to chew their forage as efficiently.
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Agreed- checking out the horses dental situation might be prudent.

Assuming the horse hasn’t had colic surgery? This can Pre-dispose them to repeat problems a vet told me.
 
Sometimes they have something growing inside causing the colic. That would only be detected by PM. Sometimes it can be the teeth. Or, lack of drinking.

When my Rigs had colic in 2021, I nursed him through, and would have done again, but we agreed that if it happened a third time, we would presume there was something internal. His teeth are good and done every 6 months.
 
Homey had 4 colics in the last year of his life each one was progressively worse. One was so bad that I thought he was not going to make and I walked him every hour through the night the vet came 3 times and thankfully he made it.

After the really bad night YO suggested we scope for ulcers and it was at this point we found he had a gastric impaction as his stomach was not empty after 48 hours of starving. He was ultrasounded and nothing obvious growing inside him and then he was admitted to hospital and tubed with coke twice a day. We agreed that if after a week his stomach was not clear he would be PTS. Thankfully on day 6 it was finally empty and vet could see a glandular ulcer. Vet also took biopsy for cultivation.

Apart from the ulcer there was no obvious reason for the impaction so he was sent home on a very strict diet for a month with no long forage and treatment for his ulcer.

Unfortunately when he returned to the hospital 5 weeks later for his review after starving him overnight the vet could see food backed up into his oesophagus and it was agreed that for some reason his stomach was not working properly anymore and he had severe delayed gastric emptying. At this point the vet said there was nothing more that could be done for him recommended PTS as his stomach would be at risk of rupture. So he came home and then a few days later he was PTS as it was a ticking time bomb in terms of when he would colic and with the risk of a painful death from stomach rupturing during the night I had to let him go whilst he still looked amazing. The vet thinks that the nerves had stopped working properly. He was 20. Gastric impactions are very rare it was the first one they had seen in the hospital and without scoping for ulcers would not have been picked up on and I would probably have lost him to really bad colic or stomach rupture so in some ways I was glad I could let him go before he got to that point and had a few days to say goodbye. I do wonder if gastric impactions are more common but just not picked up because the horse ends up being PTS due to stomach rupture or severe colic without scoping.

We have lost a couple of other horses on the yard to colic one had a strangulating lipoema at 24 and the other not sure what the problem was but he was operated on at about 12 and fine for a couple of years then had another bad colic and was PTS.

My friend recently lost her pony at 18 to colic on the operation table.
 
My horse has had a few instances of colic with no obvious cause over the the last 3 years. Nothing in the 6 years before

Not as often, maybe, once every 6 to 9 months. It's very mild, not impaction you would have to know him well. The last time main symptom was he didn't eat his breakfast and lay down though not rolling. He stretched once. It doesn't resolve without a vet's visit and always at weekend or bank holiday, the extra one this month is really stressing me out. Within 30 minutes of an injection, it's as if nothing has happened and he's complaining about lack of food.

There's no common factor, time of year, grass v hay v haylage or feed. Teeth done every 6 months, worming programne, vets have no idea.
 
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Without wanting to panic people until the really bad one a shot of buscapan and pain relief plus no food for a while seemed to the trick. But the condition Homey had was very rare and the other instances may just have been spasmodic.
 
I lost my mare almost a year ago, she was 12. Had mild colic symptoms every so often but they increased in frequency. Scoping found a gastric impaction at the entrance to her stomach. Vet suspected delayed gastric emptying as the cause. Had her PTS after a field accident and colic episode. Hospital visit showed another gastric impaction. This happened shortly before SO1 lost Homey to the same thing. I would advise a scope if you have ruled everything else out.

Flicka's symptoms were being off her food and just looking mopey. Buscopan and bute, hour later she would be fine.

I hope you get to the bottom of it.
 
My boy had never had colic once in 17 years, as soon as he hit 21 he's got gas colic every spring. Fine through summer, autumn and winter, I strip graze, use a probiotic and give colikare.
 
I would get teeth checked and worth running bloods for worm burden with colic as well.

Arabi had 2 bouts of impaction colic quite close and we did bloods vet said he may have had a virus and just not drank enough, so it can sometimes be something that simple.
 
My previous horse had quite a few mild colics over the last 2 years of his life he wasn't old rising 15 when I lost him. Unfortunately it did turn out to be internal tumours.
 
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