paddy555
Well-Known Member
Could explain what your vet is seeing if she's seeing many not so severe colics/recurring colics. A really wild guess on my part though.
I wrote this on another thread about colic. My vet noticed a lot of colic around this time also. It doesn't all apply but you get the general idea. For mine definitely not worms. My grass isn't rich dairy farm grass but old meadow pastures at 1000ft and other than lime last time it had any fertiliser was over 40 years ago.
I would hate you to lose your horse so can I suggest you very seriously follow your yard's advice and get him off grass as much as possible for the next month. Your yard owner may well know their own grass. . I also know my grass and I have one field I won't put the horses in during Oct. No idea why but I know someone would colic on it, possibly more than one horse.
I cannot give you any scientific reason. The only reason appears to be it is October. Things may be different in the US but this is England.
If I lose horses to colic it is October and the cause is grass. I came very close last year. Only reason he lived was that the vet was a bit late getting here. Cause was grass and only an hour on it. Another of my horses had slight colic that day. Only possible cause grass.
That horse is now off grass for Oct and much of Nov. If he were to go back on I have little doubt he would colic and that could be his death knell.
I have been saying and thinking this for the past 10 years. It was 2012 when one of my horses ended up in horse hospital in mid Oct with, guess what, colic.
He survived without an op. The strangest thing happened when he came home. He had been home exactly a year and the vet hospital rang to see if he was OK. I have no idea why they did as they had forgotten about us till then. He was fine I assured them. A week later you can guess what happened. Still October.
Oct. for me is danger month. My vets who are horse vets also notice a lot of colic then. In fact last year when she came out it was like "not another colic, how many more are we going to get"
I'm sorry if this sounds far fetched, I have no idea why the grass is a problem now, sugar, change of season, something on the grass (fungus type something) just no idea but I know there is a problem for some grass and horses on it.