Hiccoughing Horse!

Persephone

Persephone

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Has anybody else ever come across one of these?

My horse has had a few mild bouts of colic since I have had her. Nothing serious or that a shot of Buscopan won't sort out, but it is becoming a regular occurrence.

Now I know horses can't burp, but I swear mine does and now it has also been witnessed by two separate (specialist equine) vets!

Sorry to be gross but last time she was colicky she actually burped in the vets face (nice
crazy.gif
) and he said he could smell stomach contents.

I always now if she has a touch of colic because she will burp on the way in from the field. It is extremely odd and I am so glad it has been witnessed now. They must have thought I was a total idiot until then.

She is on the books to have a gastroscopy? at the surgery soon, as there is some suspicion that she may have an ulcer.

Until then, has anyone else had any experience of anything like this.

The vets now refer to her as the hiccoughing horse and say they have never known anything like it.

She can't be the only one surely!!
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Mine does it, he's 11 months, it gives me something to worry about. Obviously I've googled it and found loads of hideous stuff but the vet was here ten minutes ago and I asked him. He said "You're the second person this week to ask that, I wouldn't worry about it."
In the future, I'm going to try making him drink backwards from a glass...
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I've just googled this:

Hiccough in horse: Spasmodic involuntary contraction of the diaphragm that results in uncontrolled breathing in of air; called also singultus. The peculiar noise of hiccups is produced by a beginning inspiration that is suddenly checked by closure of the glottis. Commonly seen in puppies. An unusual occurrence in horses affected by electrolyte imbalances, especially hypocalcemia. The clinical effect is hiccup with each cardiac cycle, often present on only one side of the diaphragm. See also synchronous diaphragmatic flutter.

So yes, there you go, horses can apparently hiccough.
 
No, fortunately. I've been looking into the hypocalcemia thing re the hiccups - he sometimes seems a little colicy and I did wonder if it's a stomach and stress thing, although he's not a stresshead as a general rule and tends to do it halfway through or just after his tea.
Seems to happen when he's had one of his monster growth spurts (like, s*it you've GROWN since this morning) Think I might order some of that Coligone - afterall, can't do any harm. Can it?
 
I've also read vet reports saying that when horses hiccup it's always related to something like heart arrythmia (sp?). However, I'm certain that's nonsense. My horse has been hiccuping for the last 13 years, since he was 3 years old. He consistently does it when he's tense because he's impatient or cross about something (he is something of a prima donna). He doesn't do it for fear-type tension, only when he's being hissy about something, which happens regularly because he's a stroppy little git.
 
Mine has had hiccups twice and both times it was when i was supplementing him with magnesium. I stopped the mag and there have been no more hiccups.

I have also heard one horse burp. It came from right down at the base of her neck and I heard it rumble all the way up her neck and then out of her mouth, 'Twas quite funny.
 
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