Colic..

[Heidi1]

After some advice really, YO has a 2 year old ID Colt, who over the last few months has had a few bouts of gaseous colic, vet suggested that she worm him which she did, but he had another bout this weekend just gone, has anybody has this with there horse, he does get stressed when mares are around, he has covered a few this year, but sometime these bouts happen when he is not stressed, he is on a youngstock mix and showing chaff, has good quality hay and haylage, but is on limited turnout due to not enough grazing away from mares, get roughly half a day out on shared paddock, rotates with two other stallions, would you change any of this, all advice would be greatly appreciated..... Thankies.....

 

[Nari]

I've had this problem with my ID gelding, eventually he ended up having colic surgery so I'd really try to get to the bottom of it if I was your YO.

What did she worm for? Tapes are often linked with colic.

Jim was scoped & found to have ulcers. I can't say for sure that they were a factor but I've had far fewer colicy episodes since they were treated.

I watch his grazing carefully, particularly when the grass is growing well. He also seems to cope better in some fields than others, I assume because of different types of grass.

I keep him on a daily dose of Coligone Liquid which I swear helps. If he sounds gassy I'll give him more & walk him round. I also keep a couple of syringes of EquiSpaz to hand, my vet recommends it & if given early it helps.

Keeping him calm & in a routine helps too, in his case colic & stress are definately linked.

 

[Heidi1]

Nari..........thank you for your reply, I'll forward it on to YO, she did worm for Tapes, but is also going to do a worm count and the vet is going to do bloods too, just to rule as much out as possible, I didn't think about ulcers, I use Coligone on one of my mares, wind sucks, and swear by it. Once again thank you...

 

[doris2008]

Yes I had this with my TB gelding a few years ago. He would bloat up enormously and then suffer a bout of spasmodic colic. Every time he responded well to the first dose of buscopan and vet wasn't needed again. They were always quite dramatic episodes (he is a red headed tb ) and he would throw himself down and groan and kick etc.
He was scoped and specialist found little to see, lining was clean of ulcers. The only thing they noticed was that he appeared to be retaining some food - it wasn't leaving the stomach as quickly as they would expect. Ie after 12 hours starvation there would still be a little evidence of food in his tum.
The only valid reason they came up with was that he had had a period of box rest. They figured that due to the lack of activity his metabolism had slowed down.
Grass aggrivated the problem. He was only able to have very limited turnout without gassing up. Eventually the decision was made that he either goes in for surgery and see what they find. Which would have led to much more box rest and possibly no conclusion or to bite the bullet and kick him out!
So every day I upped his turnout by 1/2 an hour until eventually he was able to go out all day.
Even now I have to be careful reintroducing lush grass.
He has also become sensitive to certain wormers eg Equest/Pramox. I only worm when necessary now with a worm count and use things like Panacur 5 day which has a different actvive ingredient.

I would also SWEAR by NAF Pink Powder. He has this every day & is a great pre/pro biotic and fab for horses with digestive issues. It can be upped to concentrate levels during stressful periods.

He was also given 5 day doses of pre/pro biotics by the vet at his worst.

 

[Spinal Tap]

Is there much clover in the turnout? This can gas them up very easily if they are prone to it. I swear by using a muzzle these days, I cut the hole out so the horse can get enough grass to stop them from getting stressed but it will slow them down enough to stop them pigging out and/or trying to eat roots & mud which can be problematic where colic is concerned. Pink powder is great, there is also a herbal tincture called fumitory which has antispasmodic properties. A few drops on the inside of the horse's lip can help relax the gut