My horse coliced this morning :(

JoJo_

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Apoligies in advance if this is an essay!

My horse hasnt been well for a few weeks. When I got back from Aberdeenshire looking at new livery yards for her, her chest and front legs were all swallen up and she didnt want to walk. I managed to get her to her stable as she had been out in the field and called the vet out who said it looked like an allergic reaction and gave her steroids, painkillers and antibiotics. I called the vet out a further two times to give her more steroids to get the swelling down.

The last time the vet came out was monday and I also had her have a check of her breathing as the rate was much higher than normal. There had been a cough going around the yard I was on so I think she must have caught it. Was given ventipulen and got the all clear to transport her up to Aberdeenshire. She was on the lorry wednesday morning, arrived thrusday afternoon (stabled overnight just over the scottish border). Tia was off her feed but was eating haylege and spent friday in the field but stabled overnight. Came to see her Saturday morning and she quite a few little grazes on her from rolling in her stable and her chest/front legs had swallen up again! She also was walking with a left bend through her body and wouldnt put her head down to graze or drink. Got my new vet out who gave her strong painkillers, injection of ventipulen, antibiotics and by the afternoon she looked happier and was grazing in hand.

So this morning she had her head over the door and looked ok so I took her out to walk her round the arena as that helps the swelling. Did about 15mins walking and took her back to her stable. She was making awful noises with her breathing and when in the stable she kept looking at her flanks and went to lie down. I got her up and took her back to the arena to get her walking. She broke into a sweat and was making painful noises and again her breathing wasnt right. She got down to roll once and got up again, her tongue and gums were really white too. We stood to wait for the vet and she calmed down a lot. She only passed about 3 very hard poos overnight and did two while walking around the arena but it looked very difficult for her to pass.

The vet gave her painkillers and a muscle relaxant. He is totally baffled as to what is wrong with her! He's going to refer notes to the Edinburgh university tomorrow who will help and might want her to go down for treatment.

I'm soooo worried about her! Its like everything is going wrong all at once. I'm not sure if the colic relates to the breathing problems and swelling. Nobody has any answers and I just hate seeing her so unhappy :( She is eating her haylege and drinking a bit but not as much as she should be.

I'm thinking she may have not been right to travel so far but she did look ok when she arrived.

Sorry for ranting!
 
I'm thinking travelling her might have worsened matters and I'm not surprised the vet's baffled. Has she eaten something disagreeable or got cast in her old stable - or even the new one? You might be looking at three different issues and maybe only two are connected?

Has she come down with a virus on top of an overnight accident in the stable?
 
I'm no expert so this is just thoughts off the top of my head but maybe colic was due to the different drugs she's been on if she's a sensitive type (which she may be if having that sort of allergic reaction - does vet think it's flies or something she's eaten/been exposed to in field?) as sounds like she's had to have quite a lot of drugs? Also by moving to somewhere else she's on different grass and different haylage/hay - it can take horses stomach bacteria a while to adjust to such changes I believe. And maybe just the general stress of a long journey north even with a break? Hope the vets get to the bottom of it for you and she improves. Not nice when you've just moved and trying to settle in somewhere new.
 
We think she may have got cast in her new stable on friday night and that would be why she has the grazes on her. Last night she laid down as she had shavings on her cotton sheet but no new grazes or anything. Her heartrate and temperature was normal yesterday and today.

My old vet said the allergic reaction could be from a sting or a bite or contact with something. Sheep were in with her at the time but its just very strange why it has come up again after moving 500miles.

The breathing worries me alot as it only takes a bit of walking for her to start making struggling noises from her airways.

She has gone from being on hay to haylage. Feed has been the same but she isnt eating it with the powders in it since she moved so the vet had to inject the medication yesterday. He did mention about medication induced colic but he said that it would have come on quicker after being given the meds and she got them about 1pm yesterday and didnt colic till 9am this morning.

Its all very strange.
 
With a bad reaction to a bite or something else and her system producing lots of histamine her airways will have swollen as like happens with us I guess when we have something producing an allergic response so that might account for why her breathing is so effected but you'd think the drugs to deal with that would have eased it all a bit. And like you say odd that it cropped up again after the move - she doesn't have any obvious little lump on her chest or legs where something that's very small but irritant like blackthorn prickle or something might have got under the skin and produced a reaction and is continuing to do so?
 
I never actually thought about her airways may be swollen up too but that would make sense. I guess I just assumed she had caught what was going around the previous yard I was on. I have given her two full hibiscrub baths last week and before she travelled. We couldnt find anything to hint she had been bitten. There is no lump with a head on it or anything.

At the moment she is staying in her stable and the vet said to keep resting her. Fingers crossed she wont colic again.
 
She's not allergic to hibiscrub, is she!?! And watch out for vet giving her steroids. Ask and ask again about risk of laminitis while/due to using them!

Ventipulmin dilates in the bronchioles, so they can snort up any rubbish - but won't help her breathing if her passages in her head are blocked.
 
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