COLIC OR NOT?

Birker2020

Birker2020

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My 11 year old gelding has been lying down in his stable the last couple of afternoons and I am a bit concerned as this is really unusual behaviour for him. He is quite
prone to spasmodic colic and is given probiotics twice a day in his feeds to try to counteract any colicky problems and ad lib haylage apart from the period when he is brought in to when I get there after work (as he charges around the field to come in to eat otherwise so we have had to stop leaving him haylage in his stable to come into). The only thing I can think I changed in his routine was that I started him on Lucie Stalks on Saturday after feeding him this product a few months before. I introduced it over slowly over 5 feeds, mixing it with the Alfa A that he had been having before it all ran out. I also mixed a very tiny amount of pink powder into his usual probiotic as I want to start him on this again due to financial constraints as it works out a lot cheaper than the one I have been feeding, again mixing it in gradually so his gut becomes accustomed to it – he has had this for many months previously. He is turned out in a paddock on his own for approx 4 hours (to reduce his grass intake). He is currently half way through treatment for bone spavin. He lost quite a bit of condition after having i.v. Tildren and went a little quiet but I rang the vet and he seemed to think it was due to the sedation he had had. He picked up after I increased his haylage and started working him again. He seems happy in himself and although he is not as hungry as usual, he is eating up and is exhibiting no other colicky signs other than lying down. I have the vet coming out tomorrow afternoon (for more injections) so I will ask him what he thinks then but would you put it down to the change in feed? Or do you think it might be possible that his bone spavin is giving him a bit of pain?
 
I had a similar problem with my gelding when he was overdue for his tapewormer a couple of summers ago. His only symptom was lying down in the stable when he came in for his afternoon snooze but I knew he wasn't right.

He was fine once he had had the wormer together with copious amounts of Pink Powder. (He had previously had a very high tapeworm burden and at that time was having to be wormed for it more than the normal twice a year)
 
Thats interesting Rueysmum. However I think I can rule out a possible worm burden as we have a strict worming routine on our yard and they were all wormed about 3 weeks ago - can't remember what with, but he had 1 1/4 wormers syringes.

Like you, I just know its out of charachter. The vet has always suggested if he is colicky give him 3-4 bute and put him on the walker for 20 mins before putting him back in his stable. If he is still colicky ring them. I have always done this and it has saved me a fortune on unnecessary call outs because the colic has dissapeared by using this method. But I don't want to give him unnecessary drugs at the moment when I am not sure that colic is the cause.
 
My chap's first colic problems happened in 2005 when he had 3 spasmodic attacks within 2 weeks. They weren't violent colics, just lying down on way down from field and in stable. He ended up having the tapeworm blood test as we couldn't find a cause. I felt terribly guilty because I had been blithely following the farm's worming policy and he hadn't had a tapewormer in years/ever?

He had a very high burden, as did a couple of the others who were tested, so he was then wormed for tapeworm 3 to 4 times a year. He has stabilised now, but that summer a couple of years ago when he kept lying down during his snooze time was when I was late in giving him one of his doses.

Hope your chap picks up. It's funny how we know our own horses so well. Many people wouldn't worry about a horse lying down in its stable, but you do worry when you know it's out of character.
 
When H colics she lies out flat and groans - it's awful to see - and every time she is seen down in the stable it's a case of running to get a syringe and hoping we have caught her in time - Touch wood we've managed it successfully for three years now but hers was put down to a sugar/starch intollerance and too much grass just sent her gut into over fermentation resulting in gassy hind gut
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I hope you find out what's causing your horse's problems it could be the introduction of the new feed - it's certainly within the right time scale isn't it
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Kate x
 
Yes it could be the new feed, but I am at a loss to know how when there are no other colicky signs he is showing. He has eaten the Lucie Stalks 8 or so hours before showing colicky symptoms (unless the symptoms are only noticed when he is in the stable of course and not in the field). But when I get up after work usually about 5.15pm I tie him up outside his stable and he eats his net, plays with his feed ball, and eats his tea and no other side effects are shown. He does chew on wood when he has the opportunity to do so but this is normally prior to being ridden (I did wonder with the wood chewing could be an indication of gastric ulcers but he has spasmodic gassy colic always so I have ruled that out).
 
Alfa causes gassy guts in many horses, worth considering that? And the feed gong through his guts and causing symptoms a few hours later would fit in with that maybe? I have had horses that got spasmodic colic afer turnout, always fine when they came in, colicky by 10.30pm.

I no longer feed Alfa apart from as HiFi which doesn't seem to cause the problems straight Alfa does.
 
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Yes it could be the new feed, but I am at a loss to know how when there are no other colicky signs he is showing. He has eaten the Lucie Stalks 8 or so hours before showing colicky symptoms (unless the symptoms are only noticed when he is in the stable of course and not in the field). But when I get up after work usually about 5.15pm I tie him up outside his stable and he eats his net, plays with his feed ball, and eats his tea and no other side effects are shown. He does chew on wood when he has the opportunity to do so but this is normally prior to being ridden (I did wonder with the wood chewing could be an indication of gastric ulcers but he has spasmodic gassy colic always so I have ruled that out).

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How can you rule out gastric ulcers? Gassy spasmodic colic can be a sign of GUs and like you say so can wood chewing - Also - if your horse is being fed and then put in the stable and "goes down" this is exactly what my mare did - basically it was put down to the hard feed pushing through the undigested feed already in the stomach causing an imbalance of bacteria in the hind gut...
Kate x
 
Once you rule out any veterinary emergency, I'd seriously consider putting your boy on a maintenance dose of Coligone. It is recommended by vets for stressy horses and soothes the gut. It's palatable and well worth the money. Helped Sunny when he had an episode of gassy colic which was entirely my stupid fault after turning the greedy piglet out onto new spring pasture straight from bare winter nibbles.
 
AN UPDATE: Went to the yard last night and he was standing up! Hooray. I will mention it to the vet tonight as two days of lying down in 8 months on this particular routine of not lying down is significant. I have always fed plenty of ad lib haylage and he has never been left for hours without something to chew on, he is not naturally a stressy horse either and never crib bites or windsucks he just nibbles wood when I do up his girth or when I first walk into the menage to shut the gate and he grabs the side of the school and starts chewing it, which is why I ruled out gastric ulcers. I have a fellow livery on the yard whose horse has been operated on for them and after discussing it with her for hours don't believe my horse has them but will speak to my vet tonight when he comes to inject Bails hocks anyway. Thank you for all your replies and suggestions.
 
Applecart - I would be very interested to hear what your vet says! My horse was doing more or less exactly the same thing early on this week. She always lies down in the afternoon for a nap but in the last couple of days has been lying down in the evening which is very unusual and didn't seem in any rush to get up. In all other ways she appears absolutely fine - eating and looking very bright and perky. I was panicing about colic too. The last few days she hasn't been lying down so I really don't know why it was! I too am worried about gastric ulcers as she is stabled more than ideal and nibbles wood in a similar way that your horse does, but its really tricky to know what to do as she doesn't show any other symptoms! She also has AlfaA!!
 
Hi Supanova. Spoke to the vet when he came out on Friday and he didn't seem to really comment on the unusual lying down much, even though I stressed it was really out of character for him to do so. He did think it could have been a change to his diet feeding him Lucie Stalks after being on Alfa A for a while, but I don't think he really saw it as an issue as he was fine when he visited so it looks like I will never get to the bottom of it! Oh well he seemed okay Thursday and Friday night when he was bought in, no lying down. What a relief. Then someone showed me a cute photo of him lying down in the stable that they had kindly took on their mobile phone - lying down in his stable at 11am Saturday morning! WHAT! Again, really unusual. So I am going to keep a really close eye on him, but he is eating up absolutley fine, now other signs of colic, guess he might be a little tired with the milder weather maybe. Or the fact that his legs may be a little stiffer and the deep wet mud in his paddock isn't helping.
 
Thanks Applecart. My mare has stopped her lying down now and seems absolutely fine - in fact too fine (she bucked me off yesterday)!! She was definitely not quite right early on in the week though. I agree with you re the weather as I was thinking that it could be that making them feel a bit odd! However, I also took her off Alfa-A on Friday to see if that had any impact and she has been very perky ever since. Although obviously this doesn't quite tally with yours!

Hope yours is ok! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Try not to worry too much though as from what you said he seems fine in all other ways and obviously vet wasn't too concerned.
 
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