Impaction colic help

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Dizzydancer

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New Horse has had second impaction colic in as many weeks. It seems to coincide with the weather dropping temp suddenly, so I'm assuming it's due to decreased drinking.
I am however wondering if she is cold and this could be contributing? I think old owners kept her quite rugged up so maybe I'm not keeping her warm enough when temp changes- anyone know if this could be a cause? I guess if cold then she will hold herself tucked up and maybe more at risk??
Starting her on readymash now to make sure her feed are wet and also wetting haylage to ensure water input that way too.
 
Lots of wet feed putting warm water in the water can encourage them to drink on very cold days, soaking hay also gets extra water into them and can help stop an impaction.
 
Dizzydancer said:
New Horse has had second impaction colic in as many weeks. It seems to coincide with the weather dropping temp suddenly, so I'm assuming it's due to decreased drinking.
I am however wondering if she is cold and this could be contributing? I think old owners kept her quite rugged up so maybe I'm not keeping her warm enough when temp changes- anyone know if this could be a cause? I guess if cold then she will hold herself tucked up and maybe more at risk??
Starting her on readymash now to make sure her feed are wet and also wetting haylage to ensure water input that way too.
Click to expand...

My pony had another colic attack on Friday - I am pretty sure it was down to the hay bricks which were soaked and given the night before. They can very well get colic for lack of drinking so soak feeds well, but there are so many factors too which can cause a individual to colic. I wont post all but you can read previous help on H&H.
http://horse-care-and-advice.weebly.com/c.html

I am going to try this for my ponio http://keyflowfeeds.com/horse-feeds/pink-mash/
 
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Thanks guys! She Is back out in field now, vet was happy with her on second visit and doesn't want her staying in as that won't help her so wet hay and wet feeds, small amount of salt and out everyday or worked/walked out twice a day if in for bad weather is the current plan!
 
based on experience getting cold doesn't help. Worth putting an extra rug on. For mine who gets a bit keen on impacted colic due to insufficient drinking I give him half a bucket of warm molassed water morning, one lunchtime and one evening. That is just a small drop of liquid molasses. Probably not the best thing to feed a horse but a lot better than impacted colic and the molasses makes him very keen to drink it.
 
Thanks- do you use sugar beet water or do you use just actual molasses dropped in.
I have upped her rug weight as she doesn't feel as warm as she did when I first had her so I think it maybe a link for her and also if she is cold she defo won't drink properly
 
Sloppy feeds help to get water into them when its cold, if they feel cold the attraction of drinking cold water drops to zero. My oldies are well rugged (not so much today as its sunny) and are getting big tub trugs full of sloppy soaked sugar beet and fast fibre to make sure they eat enough and drink enough. P has three scoops of Hi-Fi lite as well mixed into his (he doesn't have the sugar beet) fast fibre as he's decided that last year's hay crop is rubbish and he can't be bothered to waste his time eating it! (Yes, he has had a dental check and all is fine - he's just being fussy after seeing his old mate getting goodies in a bucket).
 
I have a horse that has bouts impaction colic.
The thing that made the biggest difference for us for withdrawing all hay and feeding only haylage .
We feed no chop at all have signs about in case anyone forgets we feed bran instead mixed with oats and speedi beet and linseed he also has a bran friendly balancer .
We monitor his droppings all the time we match the numbers to horse on the same roultine as his .
We feed plenty of salt to keep him drinking and we check what he drinks all the time
He drinks well btw but at the first sign of droppings getting harder or reducing in number we feed him Epsom salts with his bran this has reduced attacks right down .
We give mashes and Epsom salts after sedation because he's had several bouts after sedation .
ATM for instance he's on Epsom salts every day as the grass is pretty meagre .
But if using Epsom salts you need to consider they can dehydrate a horse whose not drinking well.
If C does anything that bothers us he goes on lots of small mashes daily at one point he was getting six but we had that down to one but have gone back to two after a minor hiccup ten days ago .I think that was linked to the grass in the paddocks beginning to get sparse so we upped the mash to two a day and reduced the hours of turnout .
C started with all this after breaking a rib.
 
Thanks, that's really helpful!
GS why don't you feed chop out of interest? I thought alfalfa is good for colic type horses?
She seems to struggle with change in routine- she seems to need to have daily turnout or exercise as both times it's been when she has been in for a day without working due to bad weather or farrier appointment etc so now we won't let that happen
 
Dizzydancer said:
Thanks- do you use sugar beet water or do you use just actual molasses dropped in.
I have upped her rug weight as she doesn't feel as warm as she did when I first had her so I think it maybe a link for her and also if she is cold she defo won't drink properly
Click to expand...

I just pour a small amount of liquid molasses into a bucket and add warm water. I feed alfalfa but in the form of soaked dengie pellets with copra also soaked. When it is cold I soak it quite dry and then add a little warm water to his breakfast as well. I give soaked hay.

Mine used to get impacted colic frequently but I don't seem to have had a problem since I increased the salt. He gets 2 x 20ml scoops per day. Before then his droppings were very small and hard. Since the salt increase they are normal and much softer.
 
Dizzydancer said:
Thanks, that's really helpful!
GS why don't you feed chop out of interest? I thought alfalfa is good for colic type horses?
She seems to struggle with change in routine- she seems to need to have daily turnout or exercise as both times it's been when she has been in for a day without working due to bad weather or farrier appointment etc so now we won't let that happen
Click to expand...

We don't feed chop because feeding it increases the amount of bouts we get .
Not feeding hay made the biggest difference and finding that feeding bran helped really saw us turn a corner .
Mine also likes to work and have turn out daily if we can't do this we give an extra bran mash and add Epsom Salts .
But dropping watching is really key never letting them get dry and smaller as soon as I see any sign of change I up the mashes and give Epsom salts .
 
Thanks GS that's interesting! I am
now going to be on dropping watch and paranoid about water!
She actually consumed 3/4 trug water last night compared to sometimes only drinking an inch or so, I'm hoping that's the salt maybe doing its job and that in itself should help!
Fingers crossed she continues to improve!!
 
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