Colic or something else?

GrassChop

GrassChop

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Worried about my 20yo mare.
I went for a ride yesterday and she was fine, we didn't do much. Lots of walking, a couple of short gallops and a long cool off heading home. Maybe about an hour.
When we got home, she was kicking her belly as I was riding back to the yard, I assumed just a fly as she only did it twice.

Once untacked, she was pawing at the ground in between eating hay which isn't uncommon if she's getting impatient but then she looked like she was about to go down which was unusual. The moment I got her to grass, she went down while I was still leading her to her field and started to sleep which was really really odd, especially considering she wasn't in her own field yet. After about 5 minutes, she half rolled and got back up and seemed okay but tired.

Carried on to her field and once in, she kept walking around with her tail bent and starting to bend her legs to go down several times but didn't, she changed her mind and started sleeping while standing instead. She did go down overall 4 times and just started to sleep, once was mid feed which was a soupy mash with electrolytes which is unheard of for her to leave food but she ate it when I put it in front of her when she was down. She was still eating hay between random sleeping phases too. It's quite unusual for her to stay down with me so close, she usually gets up. This all happened for maybe 45 minutes. When she did go down, she only slept for about 10 minutes. The rest of the time she was either attempting to go down and then changing her mind and sleeping stood up or eating hay.

She seems better today but I'm really concerned what might have happened as it is out of character. She has pooed and peed since. It was like she was exhausted but it's never happened before. She wasn't rolling when down or pawing the ground or breathing heavily so no other usual signs of colic. She wasn't struggling to get down or up either. Just really worried as to what has caused this. :(
 
nagblagger said:
I would have called the vet yesterday. Colic can have many atypical symptoms, but whatever it is, it is abnormal behaviour for your mare.
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I have asked them for their advice and will call them tomorrow. She's been fine today, no random episodes of sleeping or trying to go down. Eating, drinking, pooping all fine.
 
GrassChop said:
I have asked them for their advice and will call them tomorrow. She's been fine today, no random episodes of sleeping or trying to go down. Eating, drinking, pooping all fine.
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Today sounds far more reassuring, and maybe yesterday’s odd behaviour was a short lived, gassy, spasmodic colic which has happily passed.
But that would be atypical behaviour for 99.9% of horses, and worth an examination to rule out anything worse.
Fingers x’d she continues as normal!
 
Just a thought which I hope will not be the case but something to ask the vet about - an old mare I once owned had a mild stroke ( confirmed by vet David Langrish) and was very much like this - odd behaviour of this type during the actual event, and then exhausted afterwards.
 
Does your horse have narcolepsy? Or could it be sleep deprived in some way so not getting quality REM sleep?

The 'attempting to go down' but not actually doing so reminds me of a liveries older horse that she filmed overnight as she was concerned he'd not been lying down during the night as his bed showed no signs and his rugs and tail no longer had shavings clinging to it. The footage showed him attempting to go down but when he bent his knees to drop to the floor he kept stopping. Turned out after examination and xrays that he had arthritic changes in his knees. He had his knees medicated and has been fine since although he's not ridden very much now.

Just a thought.
 
it may have been spasmodic colic who knows but what stood out to me was the short gallops and tiredness. I would get her blood tested as a matter of course and would be looking at AST and CK and I would also blood test for vit e. What you described is quite similar to the start of my vit e deficiency journey non of which made sense when it started. Many have been on restricted grass due to getting fat/lami and some have had little grass due to the drought. If you haven't done so already, I would get her PPID tested whilst the vet is there due to the tiredness part. If it was me I would try and get the vet out asap to blood test in the hope the results reflect what happened (rather than in a weeks time)
 
These were my mares exact symptoms when she had impaction colic. She still Pooed etc and was picking over her hay. but ended up staying at the vets for 5 days until the impaction was clear. I had 3 different people tell me she was fine, including an oncall vet who came out to see her but i know my horse and ignoring them all and taking her to the vet hospital was the best decision i made. Sometimes just knowing your horse isnt right is way more important than the symptoms.

I am glad your horse is doing better today but please do keep a very close eye, they can trun quickly.
 
jojo5 said:
Just a thought which I hope will not be the case but something to ask the vet about - an old mare I once owned had a mild stroke ( confirmed by vet David Langrish) and was very much like this - odd behaviour of this type during the actual event, and then exhausted afterwards.
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Yes I was about to say the same, one of the retirees in the field at my yard kept getting down and up etc and would lay down for short periods…then would be ok. Next day he did the same and the vet was called and he was sadly PTS, they think he’d had a stroke too xx
 
Thank you all.
I have spoken to the vet and sent them the videos. They felt it was mild colic and to keep an eye on her.

The hack was about an hour overall and was mostly quite chilled, we did a lot of walking before and after the short gallops, one of which she nearly gave me whiplash on so she was definitely feeling alright in herself at the time! She didn't show the tiredness until we got back and the symptoms started.

As far as I know, she doesn't have sleep deprivation and still rolls/lays down without issues.

It has been extremely dry this summer so we have had a huge flush of grass following living on dust and I'm kicking myself because it appears that there are, in fact, some acorns that have managed to make it in along the edge of part of her field so I'm going to section that off asap. I didn't notice any in her poo though beforehand. So if it has been that or not, taking away some of the grass at the same time may help anyway.
 
Tiddlypom said:
You only mention walking and galloping, how much gradual warming up in trot and canter did you do with your 20 year old horse?

I’d have had the vet straight out to her.
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It was roughly an hour and a half hack. I don't calculate it and I'd like to think I'm generally not a complete idiot when it comes to making sure they're warmed up enough so I wouldn't walk all the way out, gallop and then walk all the way back; she certainly wouldn't either as she's very forward going... but if I did have to do a rough estimate of the whole hack, we walked for about 20 minutes first before having several bouts of trot maybe in 2 to 5 minute bursts with longer walking spells in between before a steady canter. We then walked for a while with another short trot, more walking and a small uphill canter before going back to a walk for a bit longer. Following on to another short trot and a canter/slow gallop maybe for about 2 minutes max before going into a walk again. Then eventually, we trotted up to first hill and took off in a gallop which lasts all of maybe 1.5 minutes over the span of 0.14 miles according to Google maps then a burst of trot for a few minutes after before walking again. Another trot into a short gallop for probably again about 1.5 minutes before another quick trot and a walk for about another 15 minutes. Followed by a little trot into maybe a 2 minute canter, walk again, trot for maybe 2 minutes and one last gallop that I would say was 60 seconds at most with 2 minute trot and a 20 minute walk home to finish off.
All of it is off road.
Hopefully that clarifies it.
 
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