I'm at my wit's end

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micramadam

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This is long so please be patient.
I just don't know what to do anymore. What am I doing wrong?
First a bit of background history on this sick bay ranger!
Horse in question is a 14 yo KWPN mare, Ruby.
This time last year she suffered 5 colic attacks in 2 weeks and ended up in horspital for a week. Ulcers were discovered and treated and her diet and stable management adjusted accordingly. No more attacks till this last week. In 1 week she has had 6 colic attacks. 3 in 12 hours resulting in an emergency dash at 4:30 in the morning to the Veterinary University horspital in Utrecht. This time it was impaction colic which also led to a build up of gas which pushed her bowel out of place and very nearly resulted in surgery. 2 paraffin treatments did the trick in moving the blockage and the gas and the bowel moved back into place by itself. We brought her home last night and all was well. Down to the stables this morning and O.M.G. She has colic again. Vet called and another paraffin treatment, pain killer and muscle relaxant administered. Till now she's fine. going back in 30 mins again to check on her.
We've changed her bedding today to woodshavings as from examination of her droppings it seemed as though she was eating it. This despite the fact she is NEVER without hay. We also thought that she may not have been drinking enough due to the very cold temperatures we've had the last 2 weeks. She normally has running water available but the pipes have been frozen so we put a huge tub of water in her stable and kept it topped up with luke warm water. We have also started to put linseed oil in her food and soak her hay (which she now won't touch) to try to keep things wet and moving. She won't touch the wet hay so I've also added a dry net full. I've also ordered Epsom salts to put in her food to make her drink more.
I don't know what else to do! Is there anything else I can do or is there anything I am doing wrong? At this point I am willing to consider every conceivable thing suggested.m
 
I had a mare that colicked every five minutes - she was a NIGHTMARE. The only way I could manage to get enough liquid into her was to feed her ridiculously sloppy bran mashes every feed time. I mean like soup. Maybe that's worth a try?
 
my boy had an impaction colic last week - ended up having buscopan injection / bute injection and also a stomach drench...

vet said although bran mash now believed to be not so good for horses in this case i should very sloppy bran mash him every two hours.... next day he had 4 sloppy mashes and she also suggested that because it is quite common for horses to reduce their drinking in such cold weather that i also gave the others a sloppy mash once a day.

they are all on simple systems feed and so she suggested that i also add extra (warm) water to their feeds. oh yes they also are having apple & mango squash (it was all i had in!) added to their water!

it was so scary - my first experience of this -

hugs to you and hope your horse is on the mend soon..
 
I have recently been struggling with a horse refusing to drink, long story not relevant, we avoided colic but he is taking almost all his fluids in his feeds, soaked sugar beet, fast fibre, speedi beet and grass nuts, all swimming in as much water as possible, too wet and he would not eat, oil will help move things through, plenty of vegetables, apples to make it taste nice as well as being more water getting in. He also will not eat wet hay, he is on haylage which has a higher moisture content.

I was given lots of suggestions to help get mine drinking, putting sugar beet in the water was the only thing that worked, be careful about giving her salt, if she is not drinking and it does not make her she will dehydrate even more quickly, I have spent much of the last 2 weeks looking into this and this is what has helped my horse although he is still not drinking he is no longer dehydrated with normal droppings being passed.

Good luck
 
Starzaan said:
I had a mare that colicked every five minutes - she was a NIGHTMARE. The only way I could manage to get enough liquid into her was to feed her ridiculously sloppy bran mashes every feed time. I mean like soup. Maybe that's worth a try?
Click to expand...

This^ Bran is a laxative, so may help with the 'blocking up'. I have been advised to feed it by two different vets on two separate occasions for the same horse after a colic episode. Just remember to up the calcium (is that the right way round?) if you feed it long term.
 
My friends mare used to colic all the time. She thought it may have been use to sandy grazing in her old field. She now gets psyllium husk which mixes into a gel and takes sand out of the gut. May be worth a thought?

To get her to drink you could add mint and a little linseed oil to her water.

Sounds like you've tried everything though :(

Hope she gets better soon.
 
Move her to living out - then no bedding to worry about, constant grazing to trickle feed her poor tummy, more moving about which helps the process etc

Molasses in water, sloppy sugar beet and also try a trug with bicarb of soda in as this helps neutralise acidity in the gut.
 
We had a week of the old mare colicing every day, vet not sure why, but thought it may be a blood supply to the gut problem. We gave very wet bran mashes and also very, very wet grass nuts with a good supply of molasses in it, as this also makes stools looser.
 
When did she last see the dentist because if teeth are bad they dont chew properly which could be what you are seeing in her poo and not her bed at all.

Apart from what you are doing which sounds fine, but agree bran or sugar beet sloppy but i would consider dentist and is her worming up to date, discuss with vet seeing she has colic.
 
My lad has not been drinking enough recently. I make him a bucket of sugarbeet juice squash morning and evening.

It is time consuming draining the sugerbeet through a collander but it does the trick. Nice properly formed moist poo.
 
Have just come back from the stables and she is quite calm and content. She drank while I was there and she is quite happy munching on the dry hay and her bowel is working!
Besides adding the linseed oil to her food we are also making at as wet as possible. I' ve also being giving her a couple of carrots every time I check on her.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I' ll investigate where I can get bran over here and I'll definitely try the tip about apple juice in the water.
@tigertail - yes it would be great if she could be out 24/7 but 1) that is not possible over here and 2) it's so flat there is no shelter from the weather. I have to make the best of the facilities that I can and must praise the YO as he is doing everything possible to help me.
Back down in 2 hrs. Let's hope she's still ok.
Teeth are done regulary every 6 months and vets at horspital said she had beautiful teeth. Will also try the sugar beet water.
 
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I think I'd put her on a good vit/min suplement. She could be lacking in something and seeking it in the shavings.

Have you had her bloods tested?
 
Bloods tested on Tuesday and all good. She has a mineral lick in her food bowl though i will look into an allround supplement. Any suggestions?
I've only just moved her onto shavings today to see if this stops the eating of the bedding.
 
how about rubber matting and no bedding at all and put some apples in her water bucket I find my horse drinks the water so the apples so to the bottom and he can get them.
 
It's a nightmare with colic I have one that is prone to colic
Been in and out of vets !!, I struggle with mine not drinking when it is cold so I add warm water to feeds , warm water to haylage so it is steamed and juice in water , hope all
Is ok and your mare stays settled x
 
Re horses not drinking. . . I've had horses that really did not drink well when the water was cold. It is less common in colder countries, where they get used to it, but even then, you can get some that don't like it. I found offering warm water regularly is the easiest solution, even if just by going around with a kettle and pouring some hot in each bucket.
 
We had one tb who went through a spell of repeatedly colicking tho not as bad as yours. We changed hay suplier incidentally and he stopped colicking - it seems to have bee connected to the hay even tho the hay was good quality and smelled really nice. The other thing we have found helps is a pre & pro biotic
 
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Interesting though that she had this problem the same time last year, and again the same time this year, so I would really go over your management routine with a fine tooth comb and try to figure out anything that is different at this time of year to the rest of the year?

Is she stabled for longer?
Does she have company at all times?
Has she got visual/physical contact with other horses when she is stabled?
Have you changed her feeding regime because it is colder weather now?
Are you rugging her differently?
Have the routines of horses around her changed, so that she may be finding something more stressful than normal (e.g. if others are getting turned out before her/fed when she isn't/etc, etc)
Does she have any sort of environmental enrichment in her stable? Have a look online for ideas of what you can do, but you could scatter food, make frozen blocks of carrot/apple/etc for her to knaw on, hang up vegetables to play with/chew on, etc, etc.

Have you had her her whole life or just for a year? Is she the sort of horse who gets stressed easily or not really?

Good luck with everything. Hope she gets better soon. Sorry for all the questions, but they are where I would start to try to figure out some sort of trigger factor. :)
 
Is she spending any time out at the moment? There has been a huge increase in colic cases recently due to horses being kept in for longer and longer periods of time. The way a horse moves around a field stretches and massages the gut and therefore assists gut movement.

Thankfully all the white stuff has disappeared now down here so we can get back to normal!
 
What a day! What a weekend. I'm emotionally exhausted. :(
Checked her 8pm last night - all was well. Checked again at 11pm - again all ok. Checked again at 3:45 - colic! Vet straight out. Painkiller and muscle relaxant administered. No blockage. Normal bowel sounds. Ok for rest of the night and until 16:30 today and then the worst colic attack I've seen till now.:(:(
She didn't want to stand up, would try to lie down even in the snow and ice. Vet out immediately. Everything checked. No blockage, no gas. She was drinking ok and her bowel was also moving ok. So, off again for the journey to the university veterinary hospital in Utrecht. Vets confirmed there again, no visible reason for colic but upon internal examination, it seems that there is a slight thickening in the appendix. Now they are thinking of an infarct but can't really do anything yet?? They are waiting for the next colic attack so she is on full rations and now it's a waiting game. Painkillers etc should wear off at around midnight so I'm expecting a phone call in the middle of the night. At least she is now in the right place and lots of experienced vets around when required.
This will be a restless night for me. Worried sick. There is something wrong internally we just need to find out what.
 
goodness what a terrible couple of days for you..

will be thinking of you and Ruby tonight and hope that the vets manage to sort her

stay strong and i know it will be hard but try to get some sleep / rest

take care
 
What about stopping hay and giving her a hay replacer such as fast fiber?

There was a thread on here somewhere with a horse who had to have at least one colic surgery and they couldn't feed him hay or he colicked.
 
PM Egerden Farm Stud. She has just been through nightmares with a displacement colic that was treated succesfully with drugs.
 
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