Colic - Sweating

guisbrogal

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My friend recently lost her horse due to colic but she is totally thrown by the fact that he was not sweated up despite wearing two thick rugs (He was a poor doer and really felt the cold).

Do horses always get sweaty when they have colic? He had obviously rolled a lot as there were kick marks all up the back of his stable and his bed was mangled...therefore any reason why he might not sweat?
 

Dolcé

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how sad, your poor friend. My mare didn't sweat up when she had it but was only quite mild and she was outside during summer, so not much help Im afraid. What an awful thing to have to deal with.
 

Box_Of_Frogs

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Pain affects different horses differently hun, same as it does with humans. There's a whole raft of warning symptoms that should set the alarm bells ringing such as turning repeatedly to look at the flanks, rapid breathing, odd grunts and groans, fast pulse, rolling without having a shake afterwards, not eating, straining to poo but nothing happening, sweating and that odd thing that you can't quite put your finger n but an owner knows when her horse isn't right. Not all these symptoms are seen in every case.

Don't understand how your friend knew he didn't sweat? Did she see the kick marks and mangled bed but decide it couldn't be colic because he wasn't sweating?
 

guisbrogal

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He was absolutley fine when she left on the previous evening and then when she went back the following morning he was poorly. She knew instantly that he was ill, honestly they had the most amazing connection with one another and she knew before he did when anything was wrong with him. However at first I think she thought he had just been cast and was upset with himself as he was bone dry and not at all sweaty looking.

I think it threw her that he had eaten and poo'ed too but was obviously not right. She said the only visible signs that something was really wrong was that he had his head very low and was blowing. I think she is just so devastated she is trying to make sure she did all she could for him, which I have assured her she did. She was a fabulous mum to him and went through a huge amount of heart ache with him over the years. He was only 14 though so of course she hoped to have him for a long time yet.
 

guisbrogal

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Then hopefully some of these responses will ease her mind a little
smile.gif


Thanks!
 

vetsbestfriend

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Can also depend on the type of colic and the acuteness of the pain with that colic episode. Horses can have different pain thresholds as well. When my boy had some of his intestine stuck between the spleen and the left kidney, he sweated up very badly. With impaction type colics he also tends to get warm but amazingly enough when he had a multiple twisted gut (surgical case) caused by a gas build up, he really did not sweat up at all. With my boy the colic attacks come on very rapidly i.e. he can have been absolutely fine literally one minute and the next lying down in agony. I get no warning what so ever, not even that he 'looks' a bit off colour/quiet, tucked up, off his food etc, that is the most scary thing.

Obviously your friend must be devasted to have lost her horse. Hugs for her.
 

Box_Of_Frogs

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Awww hun - so sad for your friend. Please, please pass this story on to her as I hope it might help her find understanding and some degree of peace:

Before my current horse Sunny, I had a wonderful Highland x called Sullivan. He came from a trekking centre where he was the safest pony they had and he used to carry American tourists round at the end of the day to round up the cattle on the working farm and they thought they were cowboys and loved him and had wonderful safe rides. I had him for 4 years and he was truly a part of me. So safe for a nervous rider and such a character. But he was diagnosed with the most severe case of DJD the vets had ever seen and he had to be pts when I couldn't control his pain any more. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed, asking why - when all he had ever done was make people happy and keep them safe. Was that his reward for all the pleasure he gave to so many people? My friend looked quietly at me and said "Barb - his reward was he was with you when the end came". Even writing it makes me cry but it gives me comfort too. Sullivan came to me so I could be with him and help him at the end. I think your friend's horse needed to be with his very best and most trusted person when the end came for him. Please tell her that and give her a hug from all of us who have ever lost a treasured horse xxx
 

soupdragon71

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ONE OF MY HORSES HAD A COLIC ATTACK - HE WAS ON BOX REST AND HAD BECOME A BIT DEPRESSED. IT WAS COLD SO I THINK HE'D STOPPED DRINKING (AUTOMATIC WATER FEEDERS SO CAN'T TELL!). HE DIDN'T SEEM ANY DIFFERENT - HE IS A DOSY BEAST (EVEN THOUGH A TB). ALL I NOTICED WAS HE WAS LYING DOWN MORE THAN NORMAL. THERE WAS NO SWEATING (DESPITE WEARING A HEAVY STABLE RUG), OR THRASHING ABOUT, OR KICKING, OR SWISHING OF THE TAIL. I CALLED THE VET OUT BECAUSE I REALISED HE WAS DEHYDRATED AND THINGS WEREN'T QUITE RIGHT. IT TURNED OUT HE HAD A MSSIVE IMPACTION WHICH TOOK DAYS (AND LITRES OF FLUID AND WALKING IN HAND) TO RELEASE.

WHAT SCARED ME THE MOST WAS THE FACT THAT HE GAVE ME NO CLEAR INDICATIONS THAT THINGS WERE WRONG. IT'S REALLY DIFFICULT WITH THE QUIET ONES. LUCKILY HE'S NEVER HAD ANOTHER ATTACK - I THINK IT WAS PURELY BOX REST THAT DID IT FOR HIM AS HE'S NOT A STRESSY TYPE.

IT IS A VERY SCARY THING BECAUSE THEY DO SEEM TO GIVE UP, AND YOU DO FEEL HELPLESS. I HAD A FEW SLEEPLESS NIGHTS - UP EVERY COUPLE OF HOURS TO WALK HIM IN THE HOPE HE WOULD POO!
 

Mike007

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So sad. Your friend is going through the soul searching everybody faces in these circumstances.But we cant stand over our horses 24/7,and Colic is the worst nightmare. I lost my first horse, at ponyclub camp,with some of the most knowlegable horsemen and women in the county there. Immediate diagnosis and veterinary treatment,yet completely unsavable. This was 30 years ago and veterinary science has progressed,but colic remains a deadly deceitful killer.I am sure your friend has nothing to blame her self for.Any caring owner winds up asking themselves what could I have done differently , why did I not notice,why couldnt I protect my beloved horse from this.
 

guisbrogal

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Folks you all have me in tears here. Thank you so much for your replies and I will make sure I pass them on to her. Having lost my own mare from a heart attack (or presumed heart atack, she died very suddenly in the field with no outward marks) in July I understand her need for answers. Although I have tried to tell her that sometimes there are no answers and as i did you can almost make yourself ill trying to find them.

I think she is afraid that he was cast and caused himself an injury by thrashing about as the vet said his large intestine was ruptured. Hopefully the vet will put her mind at ease when she speaks to him and she will be able to start to accept that sometimes horrid things happen no matter how caring you are
crazy.gif


Thanks again though
xx
 

CAYLA

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I lost my old boy to colic 3 weeks ago.......it broke my heart and I still blame myself because I fed him a different brand of cool mix 2 days before
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I had checked him the night before, all well................the next day my sister rang to say someone said he was down and had been thrashing in the morning as she lives near his fiels.
When I went , my heart sank, he never got up to come to the gate in his bad tempered way to greet me for his food
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He was lying down, he looked miserable and had brambles and twigs in his mane and tail.......I opened his mouth to check for redness and circles and he got up onto his feet, he was cold and wet, he would never wear a rug so he had been lying out in the rain(not unusual as he hated going into his stable, even though always open)
He passed urine and faeces(small amount when he stood up, he looked dazed but not in pain, I dried him down with straw and we put a rug on him, he was shivering and cold to touch, but his temp was normal, I walked him in the stable and he was ok, looked like he wanted to eat but could not and jsut looked depressed, I checked him on the hour, when the vet left, at 9pm he was depressed but still ok, had not gone down and was not flank watching, his temp was normal and there was gut noise.
when I went at 10pm , he was rolling , sweating(steam was rising like smoke), I took his rug off and he was thrashing and rolling...........it was the single most horrible thing I have ever had to watch in my entire life, I was hysterical(the vet arrived within 20 mins and he was put to sleep, he was 30, he was in pain and I could not watch him suffer, I had owned him for 20 years since I was a little girl and it tore my heart out
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, more so the way he went, I expect an old horse to die but to go down hill so fast and be in so much pain was somehting that will remain with me for the rest of my life, I lay on him till his heart stopped beating and said my goodbyes, I was emotionally exhausted, and was literally screaming at my mam to "end it and make him gone" as I could not bare to see him like that, he was such a hardy pony
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(she placed the catheter in him ready for the vet(as she is a nurse) because I was so hysterical and the he was thrashing so we had to be quick, it took the vet about 1 second to put him out of his pain.
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