Gassy/spasmodic colic and windsucker, advice please...

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montysmum1

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My newish lad had just colicked :eek:

Vet has been and diagnosed it as gassy/spasmodic and given him an injection of Buscopan (sp?) which will be starting to wear off shortly, so I'm just fretting and need some steadying words and constructive advice as I'm prone to panic :o

He is a windsucker, he lives out 24/7, very well rugged, and is a very calm chap by nature, he is on a large field which has a surprising amount of grass still, but also has ad lib hay, which of course is all he's been able to eat for the last few days due to the snow. He has hard feed 3 times a day, consisting of Alfa a, d&h build up, Micronized linseed, brewers yeast, limestone flour and sugar beet (trying to put on weight as is a recently raced Tb, so needs condition).

This is his first 'colicky' episode, but i've only had him 2 months, and in the first 2 days I noticed how 'grumbly' he is with hard feed hence adding the BY and Limestone, which made a MASSIVE difference.

I did ask the vet if we should go straight for a course of Gastroguard, but she said i am over-reacting slightly :(

Any suggestions of what else I can be doing for him? What are your thoughts re 'Coligone' or something similar?
 
I have one who had colic surgery 18 months ago also a windsucker and has taken the odd gassy episode since then.However, he is on the Happy Tummy Charcoal by the Fine Fettle Company now & has had no attacks since then bar one when it had run out & I forgot to order it! Now he will never go without it.Its especially vital when the rich grass starts to come through as that can cause real gassy episodes.

Not sure exactly of the science bit but it dissolves the gas pockets or something like that. I would maybe try that instead of the limestone flour?

Also the advice I was given with a wind sucker is to keep their diet cereal free as there is a connection between sucking & increased acid levels which can in turn cause ulcers.With him being out 24/7 will help loads too.

Not that I'd advise self medicating unless you are very comfortable in doing so & know the horse & his symptoms well but when the gas attacks happen I feed mine human buscopan tablets crushed & a danilon either in a syringe mixed with water or on a honey piece & he is soon right as rain.
 
Funny Monty one of my liveries were told the same thing



have you thought of a blood test or worming for Tape worm? as they can cause colic


a livery 2 weeks ago had colic spasmodic then last saturday colic again then again on sun and monday and then tonight we walked her round and round for 1 /2 hrs.

I told livery to go get a tape worm paste as the vet said it was either worms or ulcers and wanted her to wait another week for the blood results. I thought:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: another week of waiting and more bouts of colic nah ah.
 
Thank you both for the advice!

I'm feeding the limestone flour as a ph balancer, to help counteract the acidity in his belly, it seems that this episode has coincided with me running oout of that, so i am reluctant to swap it for anything. Do you think that i could feed it with the Happy Tummy charcoal??

I am kicking myself re the cereals, I should know better, and am today looking into alternatives to gradually switch him over to. It wouldn't do my others any harm either to have a more belly friendly diet!

I guess I'm just panicking because in the 15 yrs I've had my own horses, I have never had one colic like this, it's really frightened me :(
 
montysmum1 said:
Thank you both for the advice!

I'm feeding the limestone flour as a ph balancer, to help counteract the acidity in his belly, it seems that this episode has coincided with me running oout of that, so i am reluctant to swap it for anything. Do you think that i could feed it with the Happy Tummy charcoal??

I am kicking myself re the cereals, I should know better, and am today looking into alternatives to gradually switch him over to. It wouldn't do my others any harm either to have a more belly friendly diet!

I guess I'm just panicking because in the 15 yrs I've had my own horses, I have never had one colic like this, it's really frightened me :(
Click to expand...

If you reduce the cereal intake then I wouldn't have thought you would need the limestone to increase the pH. I fed limestone prior to the Happy Tummy but with no affect with it until moved to non cereal based diet and the charcoal. Think if you search Charcoal on here you can read more about it and also the fine fettle company website.

Don't panic.... my colic was the first I had in over 30 years of having horses and once you learn the signs it is all very manageable!
 
I would suggest this as a first step http://www.naf-equine.eu/uk/products/productDetail.jsp?detail_id=biotics
followed by this http://www.naf-equine.eu/uk/products/productDetail.jsp?detail_id=in-the-pink-powder on a maintenance supplement.

You might want to consider this also http://www.naf-equine.eu/uk/products/productDetail.jsp?detail_id=haylage-balancer

I've had my horse for 8 years and for the first 2-3 years he had colic about every 20-30 days, it was a total nightmare, then he started getting gassy colic about once a week/10 days. The vet recommended that I gave him 3-4 bute (weighed in then at around 650 KG) and then put him on the walker for 20 mins followed by a return to his stable to monitor. He said if the colic was bad enough the bute wouldn't have had any affect. Fortunately (although I shouldn't push my luck) he's not had a colic episode that I have been aware of for a good 18 months or so and over the last five years I've only had to call the vet twice, once 18 months ago and once about four years ago when he started getting colicky at a show and was eating soil and grunting (the vet said he was eating the soil in the same way we would have antacid tablets as it has the same effect of the gut and horses do this in the wild)

The cause was undoubtedly the grass as our pasture used to house a fantastic herd of cows and therefore the grazing was very rich. I was told that cows bite the blade of grass closer to the ground than horses and the swards of grass grow back thicker and richer. Plus all the nutrients from their dung - and we had lush quality grass that my WB couldn't quite manage.

Fortunately its all sorted out now. I started feeding Pink Powder and feed two scoops a day, and whether its just luck or the Pink Powder but he's been fine ever since!

He's still on the same grazing but seems to have adjusted himself. I used the Biotics when he had his last attack 18 months ago on vets advice, and then carried on with the Pink Powder. Worth a try.

A muzzle was useless as his mates or he would pull it off all the time, and he'd just gorge and get colic from that, I considered it was better he regulated himself in the end.

I would slso worm for redworm as this is the singlest biggest cause of spasmodic/gassy colic in horses and what my vet suspected at one time my horse had.
 
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I have my wind sucker on coligone, she has ulcers too. She is much happier on cologne and her wind sucking has reduced, she is generally happier and doesn't destroy her stable as much. Have heard of others who use coligone on gassy horses to help reduce the colic threat
 
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