colic symptoms when in season

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klwelch88

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I have an 18yo mare who has never had a foal. Noticably in the last few years she gets very uncomortable when in season. She will become unattentive, stand awkwardly usually with a hind leg stretched back as far as possible, look tooked up and will sometimes swing her head around to her tummy. Vet has been out the first couple of times it happened and put it down to low level spasmodid colic. Now when we see her looking uncomfortable we give her a bute and walk her out for a bit and after an hour or so she settles down and will be completely fine then on until next month. Has anyone else heard of a mare getting colicy sympotoms (though obviously not actually a problem in the digestive system) directly linked to seasons before? And has anyone found a way to prevent it? I was wondering if there may be anything in the fact she is getting older now and hasn't had a foal. Maybe her biological clock is ticking and so prehaps a hormone balancer/moody mare supplement may help next year... Any thoughts?
 
Try her with a little Agnus Castus - it helps to regulate hormones etc. and is or can be beneficial to moody mares, those in discomfort and those suffering from cushings disease amongst other things. My mare used to be total nightmare around her season and very girthy. A few times I'd wondered if she had ulcers. Tried this and we haven't looked back. Had to introduce it slowly to her though as I think it has quite a strong taste. Even now I only give her 1 level teaspoon a day but it's enough to make a massive difference.
 
My mare did exactly this earlier this year. She's ten and has had a foal. I called vet as she'd never had it before and after an anti spasmodic and some gentle walking she was fine. She'd had lami for first time a couple of months earlier and the vet thought it might have been the combination of her first season of the year and a flush of grass when it went from cold and rain to hot sun in 24 hours. She was muzzled. We reduced her turn out and built it back up slowly and if we suspected the grass was flush again we kept her in.
Touch wood she's been fine since and other than being a bit grouchy and hideously tarty she's not had it again with her subsequent seasons.
Eta - she was tested twice for cushings and doesn't have it.
 
My mare suffered with this too. I used to call it Oh Dear Week because I spent all my time saying Oh Dear! in a sympathetic way. It has to be said that she hammed it up a fair bit and while she didn't have an audience it strangely wasn't so bad :) I used to find that if she was stabled a walk out in hand and a bite of grass did the trick. Just once though she was really bad and actually lay down in the field so I called the vet who kindly diverted from his house straight to us instead of going to the surgery first and 2 minutes before he arrived the wicked old devil got off the floor and was completely cured. I think the cramps they suffer are much like period pains so although occasionally I did go around the corner and laugh my head off at her performance, I did know how she felt so always avoided any sitting trot and mostly did things she found fun - ie no schooling in the manege. Interestingly, she had oestrus cycles throughout the year and her hormones were a major problem to us both as they were responsible for her epilepsy. I also noticed that she did the press bottom, squeal and kick the wall routine if she was very stressed so if she was stabled against her will and you should have seen what she did to the inside of a metal-lined horsebox when being taken to horspital about her epilepsy.
 
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