Feeding post colic?

[Jingleballs]

My horse has recently been treated for colic - he showed very, very mild symptoms last Sunday but was still passing droppings so we took away his hay and by the morning he seemed much better. He went downhill again during the week and after 2 vet visits he was disagnosed with a pelvic flexture impaction (he wasn't showing typical colic symptoms according to vet) He's been tubed twice to clear the blockage and also had numerous other blood tests, belly taps to identify the cause but nothing has shown up.

He seems fine now and after being pretty much starved Thursday and Friday I was told the by Saturday he could get a few hours turnout and a very small hay net and that by today he should go back to his normal routine.

Now before the colic he'd been turned out all day and fed 2 feeds of hifi, power & performance and speedibeet - he also had 1 hay net and 1 haylage net at night.

To me it seems like a big jump from being fed pretty much bugger all to going back to his normal routine so I've been gradually increasing his feed. He had a tiny handful of haylage last night and I might introduce the speedibeet back tonight.

I am however totally paranoid now - we have no cause for the colic but I'm now worried that by putting him back on haylage and hard feeds he'll colic again - probably totally irrational but I wondered if anyone had similar experience - did you put them quickly back onto their usual feeding routine or did you take your time building them up to it?

I'm probably just worrying over nothing but he'd never had any colic issues before and the fact that we don't have a root cause just worries me more!

Sorry for the rambling thread!

 

[teddyt]

I would speak to your vet. They know the horse and you can ask them specifically for his case.

Generally though hard feed should be introduced very gradually. Speedibeet is good for the gut and is obviousy wet, so less chance of impaction.

Could the horse have eaten straw? Impaction can also be due to insufficient water intake.

 

[TGM]

When my father's horse had an impaction colic, we were advised by the vets to feed very soft, leafy hay to minimise it happening again. I also wonder whether the very coarse, part straw chaffs, such are HiFi are perhaps not the best thing to feed in such circumstances, but that is purely supposition on my part, based on the advice we received about hay. As said above, best person to advise is your vet.

 

[vetsbestfriend]

Sorry your boy has been poorly.

My vets have always advised me to feed very sloppy feeds post impaction colic episodes and to dampen (not soak) hay before feeding. This will help keep the gut well hydrated.

You are doing the right thing gradually building up his rations, usually I do this over several days back up to normal portions.

Could be a number of things that caused the impaction as others have mentioned. Another cause can be not drinking as much water as normal and/or not getting exercised or receiving less turn out than normal.

Have a chat with your vet about the best way to handle returning him to normal routine and if they feel you should take any preventative measures going forwards as they obviously know his history.

Best of luck.