Death by twisted gut

[Redsara]

I found a horse in distress the other morning and unfortunately the outcome, after whitnessing two hours of the horse in agony, it was put down. I have never seen a horse die of colic/twisted gut and I am traumatised. There was nothing different in its management so why, on that night, did it happen?
I am now paranoid that my horse will get it and want to ensure I do everything possible to prevent it. Please advise

 

[windand rain]

sadly this is a fact of life for horse owners You do your very best and sometimes it isnt possible to avoid it. Best care is to live out as much as possible, get as much exercise as possible, dont change feeds make sure water is available at all times and plenty forage is available. Beyond that it is in the lap of the gods
I am so sorry you were subjected to this and the fear is so immediate but with good care and doing your best you can do no more. I hope you can learn to live with the trauma and can still see your horse in a positive way

 

[Shysmum]

Sounds horrific. I have learnt so much from this site - try searching through old threads for some advice on prevention.

I think a lot of people don't realise that horses are designed to graze for 16 - 18 hours a day (vet told me last week), and that they need to trickle feed forage continuously. The saying,feed little and often is a good one.

Since Shy's scrape with colic, I am soaking his hay, and using two tiny holed haynets for one haynet. I've also hung it from the rafters in his stable, so he has to work at getting the hay - this was suggested by the vet and is working really well. He only gets a scoop of balancer on top.

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

One of my horses had a twisted gut, I've never seen a horse in so much pain and it was absolute touch and go as to whether he'd survive. He did, amazingly enough, but I do absolutely sympathise with you, it's one of the most distressing things to witness.

My vet at the time said that it happens because horses are badly designed internally, they've got miles (!) of gut with too much room to flop around, and there's too many chambers...for want of a better word...for the gut to flop into and start twisting on itself.

Sadly there appears to be nothing you can do to prevent it, as Windandrain says it's in the lap of the gods, but please don't stress about it, you'll end up with a tummy ache yourself!

 

[StarlightMagic]

A horse at my yard died last Saturday, she had a twisted gut but happened out hunting and the adrenaline masked the pain. Until she stopped when she had a cardiac arrest. I am now terrified of this happening to my horse so know where you are coming from! Unfortunately its one of those things that you cant predict.

 

[fattylumpkin]

That must've been awful thoughts to you Redsara, I hope you never have to see it again!

 

[Copperpot]

I lost one to twisted gut. Was horrible. I still don't know how / why it happened. Just unlucky I guess 😥

 

[angelish]

i lost one to a twisted gut
i kept thinking why mine but it just happens sometimes , there was no reason she was fine the day before, incredibly naughty and full of beans , then dead by 6am the following morning
she was 15

 

[hellspells]

I lost my 6yr old last January to a twisted gut. It was a horrific 36 hrs trying to nurse him through.

I think as said above you are in the hands of the Gods on this one as he was a very bright, healthy horse in the time I had him.

 

[risky business]

Sometimes things just happen, you don't know why or how..

I came down the yard one evening to bring in to find my horse acting strange, within an hour she throwing herself to the ground to roll, sweating and barely able to stand. She finally collapsed when the vet turned up and managed to get her more comfortable. She went in for surgery and they found her colon had twisted 180 degrees.

That was about 5 years ago and she went on to live a normal life (still is). She'd never had colic before that day and hasn't since.

I have no idea what happened that day as the day went the same as any other.. No feed change, no field change went out the same time that morning and was due in the same time that night I found her?

 

[merrymeasure]

I lost my boy Murphy to a twisted gut. He was fine the night before, by morning he was too far gone.It was the most distressing thing to find my lovely boy in such a state, all I could do for him was to put him out of his misery.I felt so bad, I felt I had let him down, not being there when he needed me most, but it was just one of those awful things that happen, that you cannot foresee. I had already lost one to colic 18months before, so I have to admit I'm more paranoid about it now than I was before.Its an awful, awful thing

 

[Orangehorse]

I think that the most common cause of death in horses is colic. There are some causes that are completely unpredictable and it just happens, e.g. there is tumour inside that would be impossible to detect.
As horse owners it is the thing we all dread and the only thing we can do is to look after them as well as possible and follow all the rules regarding feed, water. But sometimes it just happens regardless.

 

[Bazzel]

I lost my horse of a lifetime to it, it is just so awful. I absolutely love my horses, but I 'hate their guts'. Seems so unfair and such a stupid internal design, but that's the way it is thoughts are with you x

 

[Merrymoles]

I lost my boy at 19 to the same. Only consolation was that he wasn't thrashing around with pain but it was still absolutely devastating. He had never colicked before, despite being a stress head.

 

[DJ]

If you thought about it too much you`d drive yourself mad. It really is one of those things you need to try and put to the back of your mind other wise you will simply worry yourself sick over it x

 

[Montyforever]

Its just one of those things that can happen no matter what you do don't stress yourself out over it, my mare had a serious colic luckily didn't end up in surgery but the cause was her liver struggling with toxins. Its usually caused by something else, rather than coming out of the blue!

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I found a horse in distress the other morning and unfortunately the outcome, after whitnessing two hours of the horse in agony, it was put down. I have never seen a horse die of colic/twisted gut and I am traumatised. There was nothing different in its management so why, on that night, did it happen?
I am now paranoid that my horse will get it and want to ensure I do everything possible to prevent it. Please advise

How horrid for you, my pony was put down due to the intestine being caught in the gut. Unfortunately there was nothing we could do, sometimes you cannot.
There is lots you can do to prevent colic of any kind.

The obvious

eating bedding
change of diet
work hard after feeding
giving water after feed
bad food
too much food
routine change
cold water
poisonous plants
bolting down feed
sugar beet
rancid food
new hay
to much sugar
twisted gut
sand in feed
allowing horse to much water when exercising
dry food.
There are remedies natural and medical to help.

The important when you suspect colic

Act fast - keep the horse moving - don't let him lie down- call the vet-

 

[windand rain]

I would agree with most of the above apart from the keep moving it has been long since proven that it only exhausts the horse and makes them difficult to treat

 

[Spring Feather]

I think with twisted gut, you know right away that this is no ordinary colic. I lost my beautiful and very much loved mare to twisted gut last year and it was the most horrific death I've ever witnessed (and I've seen plenty of horse deaths). I knew straight away that it was a twist. Unfortunately for my mare, the vet pin pointed exactly where the twist was and there was no option but to have her PTS. Colic is exceptionally rare on my farm. All horses live out 24/7/365 with adlib hay in front of them all year long. We have heated water in the winter and their routine never changes from day to day. It's just one of those sadly unfortunate things which often have no answer. I was, and still am, very distraught about the loss of my mare. Twisted gut is a hard thing to come to terms with, but it happens. Horses intestinal make up is so badly designed that it's not surprising really that they are sensitive to issues there, but it doesn't make it any easier to accept.

 

[Buddy'sMum]

sugar beet

How does sugar beet cause colic?

 

[LittleGinger]

OP, what a dreadful thing to witness. You poor thing, and poor horse and owner.

Ginger twisted his gut about 5 years ago - it was totally out of the blue, and the vet said it may have occurred when he rolled after being turned out - he always used to roll right over from one side to the other a few times. He'd walked out of the stable at 8am with no symptoms, a normal bed/empty haynet and ears forward at the thought of going out. By 9am he was clearly in agony and crying for help at the field gate. It was every bit as horrific as the posters above have described. After an operation to remove the 26ft of twisted/dying intestine he did pull through, but I know we were incredibly lucky and I am still so grateful to the amazing team at Leahurst. There is, to my knowledge, nothing we could have done to prevent it and I had plenty of time to go over that morning and the days before on the drive to the hospital /during the op. In the 25 years I've been around horses, I've known many get colic but only two with torsion colic (my little ginger lad and one other, who sadly died).

 

[Serenity087]

I lost a horse to twisted gut. I did everything to make sure my horse was well cared for. And those around her.

I saw one of the yard horses laying in the field and went into colic mode, called the YO out, walked her to a stable for the vet. Turned out she had a collapsed fetlock and died two weeks later.

Two weeks after that, my apparently fit and well horse dropped dead in her stable overnight.

TBH, of the three, be glad the horse was in pain, it gives you some comfort to know they're free of it. Carrie had a tumour, nothing, no one, could have saved her.

But I am STILL tormented by the trauma of finding my horse dead at breakfast time. No reason whatsoever. Just gone, at 14 years of age.

Sucks

 

[BBP]

I'm not sure if this helps or not but I just found out my neighbour (human) coliced two weeks ago. He said there was absolutely no prior warning, he hadn't done anything differently, he just collapsed in his house. Hours later and he had had half his intestine removed as it was so knotted up.

I'm only saying this because whilst you need to know what may trigger colic, you also need to remember that if it does happen you may have done nothing wrong at all. So sorry to all of you who have lost horses to it.

 

[Redsara]

Thank you to everyone who has shared painful memories, advised and reassured. I feel better now that sometimes this just happens and it is not our fault in any way.

 

[Aspire]

When I was in my early twenties a friends father who was a farmer said to me, " the trouble with livestock is it easily becomes dead stock". He said that as an admonishment after I had turned down a blank cheque for a homebred youngster after winning a strong class at a big County show. At the time I thought he was a miserable kill joy. Sadly I learnt the lesson the hard way less than 12 months later I lost my youngster in a freak accident. I have lost more than my share since then. I have had wobblers (2), a massive reaction to procaine penicillin which caused a mare to seizure and break a leg, complete liver failure (he was a rescue horse who had 7 good years with us but the unseen damage of his early years made it's mark) a laminitic reaction to steroids for a skin allergy which was so severe my mare had to be pts,repeated SI issues the root cause of which was bi lateral hind limb navicular, I have also had a double torsion colic with a successful surgical outcome ( she was just about to come back into work after that when she cut her hock down to the bone arguing with a neighbours gelding. She kicked through my post and rail but my neighbour had a strand of wire her side and she peeled her leg like a banana).
So am I paranoid? A little. To be honest you can only do your best. Follow feeding rules. Make changes slowly. Try and have safe turnout. The rest is pretty much luck. Just enjoy everyday you get to spend with your horse and remember, "each day is a gift that's why we call it the present."

 

[Copperpot]

How does sugar beet cause colic?

I think she means if they manage to eat some un soaked sugar beet?

I did nothing different with my horse. Left him at mid day in the field (he lived out) and got a call at work at 6pm from my friend to say vet was on the way. By the time I got to him at 8pm he looked awful. But at least I made it back for the end. I questioned and questioned myself over everything I'd done that day. And I couldn't find an answer. I did blame myself for a long time but I now realise these things just happen sometimes.