Horse getting trapped gas. Help please.

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vanrim

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My horse seems to have a problem with painful trapped gas. She seems to get better after she is loose schooled at trot and canter but is aggressive and almost dangerous until after you get her moving. Does anyone have any suggestions for supplements ? She lives out.
 
How much grass do you have? Mine are heavily supplemented with hay at the mo due to the grass being poor. It could be ulcers if you have very little grazing.
 
I had to keep my maxicob on the barest of pastures because of this. Like yours, I could exercise the trapped wind off on the lunge (with him farting away) if I caught it early. If it got more entrenched, oral bute and buscopan sometimes helped (approved by my vets) otherwise it was a vet call out.

Bare pasture and dry hay was the way to manage my lad. He couldn't cope with any grass bulk at all.
 
Bare ground helps keep them moving around more too, so the guts are rocking and rolling more naturally. A field of grass makes for a very lazy horse. Who hasn't seen them lying in the sun munching around their own feet?
 
Mine gets like this when he gets too much rich grass, stands in the wee position to try and relieve it and gets gassy colic if not monitored. He does lots of lip curling for this for some reason. Basically he was too bloated and couldn't cope with it, these days I try to take him off the grass during the day, for at least 50% of the time.
 
vanrim said:
My horse seems to have a problem with painful trapped gas. She seems to get better after she is loose schooled at trot and canter but is aggressive and almost dangerous until after you get her moving. Does anyone have any suggestions for supplements ? She lives out.
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This used to be the trouble with mine when he was kept on very good grazing (ex dairy farm) and he would always get gassy colic. The vet said to give him three bute in a small feed (for some reason he would always eat this) and then put him on the walker for 20 mins putting him back in the stable to monitor him afterwards, to save me having to call him out everytime - it was literally a weekly thing with him. He was never thrashing around or anything, just clearly full of gas which I found was dispersed with the walker or a quick lunge session. I tried the usual grazing muzzles, - he would pull these off or get his mates to pull them off, and even when he managed to keep them on, he would still manage to sneak enough grass in to cause his belly to swell with grass. In the end it was out for an hour a day gradually increasing the grazing over a period of weeks.

Then one day he had a colic which was totally different to his normal colic. I'd always wet his hay but as I was going on holiday for about a week or so before hand I had started feeding his him dry hay, gradually decreasing the hosing until they were dry. I did this to make things easier for my friend who was kindly looking after him for me and because I had done it gradually thought it would be alright to do. He was fine whilst I was away on holiday, however the weekend I came back he went down with colic. I knew instantly it wasn't his normally colic - so after dragging him to his feet from the floor of the stable I took him into the school, opting not to go on the walker as I felt he just wasn't right. Sure enough he went down in the school on the lunge, so I called the emergency vet who told me he had left dorsal displacement and had likely been caused by eating rich grass and dry hay! Fortunately as is the normal remedy, plenty of lunging ensued and I was lucky enough not to need intervention with injection (which held a huge risk to him due to his 2nd degree heart block) and his spleen shrunk allowing the colon to fall back into the normal position. I always wet my hay well now, when he is in on turnout in the sandpit he has dry hay, but has been doing this for a long time now without any problems. I have asked the vet since if I will always need to give him wet hay and he said it wasn't necessary but I just don't really want to take the risk.

Since moving from the yard in April 2014 he has only had about three episodes of gassy colic, each time remedied by a quick lunge. The vet said if I have a choice, limit time out at grass rather than strip graze. I also put him on pink powder which I give a maintenance amount of daily. I also double the dose of pink powder when he is due to go out on grass.
 
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vanrim said:
No we have plenty of grass and she has been scoped clear for ulcers.
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I imagine your problem could be grass. lots of hay until the grass settles down a bit and also charcoal in her feed will help a lot. Equimins do a charcoal and so do Fine Fettle.
 
Wet hay when not on grass, restrict time allowed on rich spring grass - and feeding charcoal twice daily keeps FLF from gassing too much (and by gum she is a gasser!).
Only had 1 colic from her this yr (well, just 1 that required vet) when I mis-managed her over just one day, leaving her too long on v good grass.
TFF, dreadful Fuzzy-keeper :redface3:
 
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