COLIC - your experiences

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moneypit1

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A horse owners nightmare. Even the word makes me shiver. I have only lost one horse to colic but it was so sudden, brutal and final. Minnie was only 8. She was my neighbours horse. The field had been topped the day before and i guess she had eaten the choppings. Minnie was a 16.3hh shire xtb. My friends daughter tacked her up and rode out with us. Within 5 mins she was showing signs of discomfort but we thought she was being naughty. She was trying to stop and sweating. 2 mins later and we knew it was serious. We turned for home, phoning the vet on route. We got to the yard and she dropped to the ground. I swear she was determined to get home. My friends daughter (who ws only 15) jumped off and minnie tried to roll. we managed to get the saddle off and then the vet turned up. She said it was a dire situation. Minnie fought like hell and there was nothing the vet could do to save her. In the end, (which from start to finish was around 30 mins after she turned up) her heart gave out. She was helped by drugs but tbh she was dying. I will never forget the shock I felt, it was so quick. How can you have a horse that appears healthy and then an hour later is dead?
 
So sorry about your experience, that must have been terrible for all concerned. My two sets of experiences are very different:
Our little Welsh A gets spasmodic colic from time to time (once every 1-2 years). Hate him getting it, but vet comes and jabs him and so far he's always been fine straight away. He obviously has a sensitive tum, everything has been checked, just the way he is - I guess like some people get IBS. He's permanently on Bailey's digest plus and also is intermittently on something they give pigs, black ash stuff - sorry don't have name to hand. But this sorts out his runny tum. As I say, there's nothing 'wrong' with him, he still charges around the place, and now 17, had him 10 years and this is just the way he is.
My other experience is my old girlie. When she was 25 she was suddenly struck down with colic. My friend who she was liveried with went out in the morning and my poor girlie could barely stand up. Dripping in sweat. Straight to equine hospital in Liphook. My friend's 78yr old dad literally held her up in the lorry for the 45 min trip there. I was working in London at the time and on the train trying to get there, crying my eyes out as I thought this was it. Got to the hospital as she was about to go under anaesthetic. She could barely hold herself up and it broke my heart to see her - a sensitive mare at the best of times, the only saving grace was the fact that one of the girls who used to work for my friend and had a good relationship with my mare was now an equine nurse and was the only one who could calm her and hold her for the pre-med procedures. When I walked into the pre-operating room, she whinnied at me - I just dissolved. Prognosis was very very poor. But after 5 hours on the table and more than a third gut removed - due to pedunculated lipomas, she pulled through. At 34 she is still with me now.
So please remember, yes colic can be fatal and you do need to watch out for the signs, but many many times it works out ok.
 
After 6 months of boxrest my foundered mare was just about to be ridden again. She was my 'one' if you like :) She presented with spasmodic colic, she seemed uncomfortable but not in agony by any means. She had 3 injections and it returned after each. The vet checked for fluid in the abdomen told me she had organ failure and was dying. Said we could box her to hospital for further tests to confirm, maybe keep her alive a week longer, but her symptoms were only just beginning and would be agony in the end. After 6 months of being locked in a pen I wouldnt put her through anymore, so I got him to pump her full of painkillers and antispasmodics, and then turned her out in a huge lush paddock, to run and play and graze like she used to. It didnt matter what she did, she was dead anyway.Two hours later she was shot. She was very calm, and my friend who insisted on holding her said she was quite aware of what was happening, and accepted it. Probably a sentimental white lie but it helped. Still breaks my heart and seems so unfair. Was a couple years ago now and still not ready for another one. I just want her back
 
I lost my beautiful mare Jess to colic but otherwise thankfully only had minor cases of colic,touching wood! My first pony seemed prone to it but a jab off the vet and she was always ok, my current horse got colic after having heavy sedation to remove a chip of bone from his leg and was fine after a visit from the vet.
Jess had bad ringbone and arthritus, she was 8 yrs old and was a fantastic horse so I was gutted to have to retire her but she was a sweety and she had a home for life. It was wierd as the day after I rode her for the last time, I got to the stables at 6am to find her stood with her rug in shreds arround her neck, her bed was none existant, basically trashed and up the walls, like bankings, with bare concrete showing. Her haynet was there from the night before, what happened to YO checking them late at night???
I called the vet straight away who arrived to confierm colic, she did the usual but Jess didnt respond. Jess was very quiet, she did get down to roll but nothing violent. I walked her around and she even began to pick at grass. I thought she was coming through it but the vet said I had to make the decision to PTS or get her to Leahurst asap.
It wasnt an easy decision but Jess was a terrible traveller, was on bute daily for ringbone and we had already said we would let her have the summer, see how she coped before deciding what to do, also vet reconned she'd been like this most of the night and that it may be too late for surgery, also she was concerned that total box rest would mean she probalby wouldnt walk out of the stable with her legs, so we had her PTS.
 
Shilasdair said:
I've just brought my girl home from colic surgery - 8 weeks box rest, then a further 8 weeks paddock rest await her, if she makes it.
Wish me luck.
S :D
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my sisters gelding had surgery for impaction colic and he managed to do 3 wks box rest and 9 wks paddock rest and has fully recovered, good luck im sure your girl will be fine.
 
i caught my chap VERY early so thankfully nothing more than a visit from the vets, few injections and sat the night with him. But he made a full recovery and was ridden 3 days later. He was just a bit off colour. That is literally it. But after having him 4yrs i knew something was right. Had to force mum to call the vets, as she wasnt convinced there was anything wrong.. but i won her over. Vet came out and said, very early stages of colic, fab that youve caught it so early, should make a full recovery.. and did :) such a horrible experience though and my heart goes out to anyone whos had to go through it :(
 
tango1 said:
my sisters gelding had surgery for impaction colic and he managed to do 3 wks box rest and 9 wks paddock rest and has fully recovered, good luck im sure your girl will be fine.
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Thanks for the luck - I can't decide if I'm unlucky that my girl had colic surgery, or lucky that we caught it in time, enabling the vets to operate.
S :D
 
Sorry to all of you who've had bad colic experiences :(:( and hope Shils that yours makes a good recovery.

George got colic last spring, I turned him out for 1 hour without his muzzle on as I thought it would do no harm it only being an hour, how wrong I was :( By the next day he had developed colic, had been out for a ride (he seemed fine) but did walk home very fast and within 10mins he was very poorly.

Got the vet straightaway, and in the meantime George got cast in his stable :( but thankfully righted himself. So did end up walking him, the vet gave him anti spasmodics and painkillers and we checked him through the night - thank god he was fine and after a week off (when he spent a lot of time sleeping) he was as right as rain :)

I am now so careful about the grass as I know what a pig he is, and he also has a probiotic for the first 10 days out on the spring grass.

I hope I never have a terrible experience, mine although minor was scary enough.
 
My IDxTB unfortunately regularly gets colic. He has had the intestine stuck between the spleen and the left kidney twice, spasmodic colics, gas colics, impaction colics and the worst was a multiple twisted gut requiring surgery 2 years ago.

Each time I have had no warning at all, literally fine one minute and then within half an hour - bang, lying down, trying to roll etc. Nothing generally changes in his routine and he is on a high fibre diets with supplements. Vets/myself have only found a specific cause for the colics a few of the times. They say that he is just a colic prone horse. in between attacks he is happy, healthy and enjoys his life.

Whenever anyone from the yard rings me my first words are 'What's wrong'. With each attack, you just don't know how serious it is or whether it will be time to make that decision.

We have had 3 horses at the yard during the 10 years I have been there who literally only displayed mild colic symptons and then within a very short time period (one of them also half an hour) had become so severe that they were not even strong enough to be travelled to an equine hospital.

Shils - also best wishes from me that your mare makes a full recovery.
 
The first was a horse who had been with me for just under 2 weeks, i arrived at the yard in the morning, he was very quiet, stood at the back of stable, rang vet took a couple of hours to arrive, he started to get more uncomfy, so walked him in heavy rain and thunder...thanks weather! vet arrived suspected spasmodic colic gave injections, horse started improving after 30 mins, was back to normal after a couple of hours, vet rang later just to check how he was doing.

The second was during my second day at new job, the mare was not herself, y/o rang vet, they came out, and gave jabs did not seem too concerned, said to carry on with her normal routine, checked her regulary all seemed fine. Came back to the yard as normal, she was down in field, but happily got up for us and was the first to the gate. She then went down hill very fast, vet were rung they took a hour, due to where they are based, she went down in the stable and got cast, we managed to get her over and up, and walked her, she was wantedo go down soo badly her quarters would drop, she tried so hard for us all 17hhs of her, vet arrived and wanted to do a internal, could not manage it though as she just wanted to drop, when she did she rolled so violently, it broke our hearts to see the amount of pain she was in, vet managed to sedate her and she was the pts sleep by injection. How awful that day was i look at it as a learning experience as i never seen a horse pts untill then, and did not think i would be strong enough, but seeing the mare in that amout of pain, it was easy to see it was the right thing, and just wish the vet could of been there sooner.
 
well luckily i have not witness colic but cannot be said the same for a girl on my yard, she is only 13 she had one horse cloud who she was going to buy unexpectdly died, she then had a wild brood mare but sadly the foal died (not from colic, was too big and did not survive) she then had an exracer called kelly who very unexpectldly got colic had vet out eveything was going as planned decided it wasnt as bad as cloud and could even go back out in the field but sadly died the next day. :( some people just really do have bad luck :/
 
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