Old horse/ gassy colic- any supplements?

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Prince33Sp4rkle

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Unicorn Bruce seems to be suffering a bit this spring :( despite being on a tiny paddock, thats mowed golf green short and also being muzzled, he keeps getting mild gassy colic.
Nothing too bad just gets up and down a bit and looks uncomfortable. It generally passes after an hour or so and as long as he keeps producing droppings we keep a close eye on him, walk him round if possible, and it seems to resolve its self.

I can't imagine he's eating a large volume of grass so be must just be getting more sensitive to it in his old age?

He gets double netted hay at night and that never affects him.

He COULD come in a bit earlier but are there any supplements that would help anyway?

(Obviously if this continues to happen on even further reduced grass the vet will have to check him out but I'm 99% sure it's grass gas!)
 
i feed pink powder to mine esp after eating new grass,i think the short grass is actually worse for them re sugars. try that in the maximum dose to start with as good for digestive upset..
 
We have been recommended feeding an Actimel (yes, yoghurt) in his food night and morning. We started doing this a week before moving on to the fresher pasture (was still on grass but obviously had been on it through the winter and its efforts to grow were a little harder). It seems to have done the trick thus far. Touch wood. In essence just boosting the prebiotics. Would have thought that Brewers Yeast could serve equally well.
 
All about the pro/prebiotics, I just feed Dengie healthy tummy as it already has protexin in among some other calming herbs, keeps my gas and stomach stress/getting tucked up prone haffy happy inside!
 
Activated charcoal is definitely worth a Google. I have used it in the past with very impressive results.
 
Charcoal was recommended to me after my lad had a bout of gas colic. None since, though of course I'll never know if it was this that made the difference. Animals use it naturally in the wild to counteract toxins etc.

I chose Happy Tummy which is natural and not activated. It can be used at maintenance/preventive levels (1/3 of the listed dose on the tub - this dose is for when there is a known existing problem). It's granular, clean, odourless and tasteless (I tried it!), even our fussy eater at the yard takes it. Last week we needed re-stocking and someone bought Equimins activated charcoal to try as it works out cheaper (cannot me given long term though). It's powdery, blows up into a cloud, makes a bloomin' mess of anything it comes into contact with, and 50% of the horses wouldn't touch it. Replaced the Happy Tummy and no problems with any of them. Will be sticking with it. http://www.finefettlefeed.com/equine.asp
 
I would highly recommend Protexin - I use the quick fix version when worming my pony and when she first goes into the summer field, and the normal version all year round at a low dose. It's really helped my elderly mare who has had similar problems to the ones you mention
 
I feel your pain. I had the pony gassy colic last Saturday and my horse on the Tuesday. The pony had removed her muzzle so I know for a fact she would have gorged her heart out but it is very unlike William to do that. They had been on the paddock since the 10th April but they got colic just after the rain. They both have brewers yeast etc so I have come to the conclusion that with the mild wet winter we had the grass is surprisingly rich. I have had to restrict them to 4 hour turnout for the time being.
 
He does get the crappy stuff the two TBs won't eat bless him.

Will look at the charcoal as that's been mentioned a few times now.

Would he be better strip grazed and allowed small strips of longer grass? I thought that would lead to gorging and bloating? He can eat like a machine, even muzzled! It seems to be volume related a bit as was worse when the whole paddock was longer and ok today ( was mowed super short again yesterday so harder to grab much in one go) He's a slim healthy weight and showing zero signs of LGL. Etc????

Thanks :)
 
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With my old girl it was definitely volume related, even a small increase in volume made her gas up. I would stick to the super short grass so he cannot get much down (and feed charcoal). Good luck, they can be such a worry!!
 
thanks :)

will see how he goes this week as the grass is now as short as we can get it. He was definately having to work harder to get it when i was out poo picking earlier.
if he's better all week will just have to get dad to mow it down weekly to keep it that length.

will order some charcoal today too i think as all the reading ive done on it seems to indicate it would be good for gassy problems!!!!
 
Sounds like a good plan :)

You may find that once on the charcoal which will absorb the excess gas that he is able to tolerate slightly longer grass thus saving your dad time on the mower!!
 
My girl has a tendancy to be a bit gassy and uncomfortable, especially when the grass comes through. I started her on Protexin acid ease back in March and so far not a single hint of trouble this spring, even when she switched to 12h overnight turnout.
 
OP - you could have just described one of mine in your post!!!!!

I use Coligone at the first sign of trouble, a 50 ml dose usually keeps it at bay, but if it does hang around a bit (P is a bit of a diva) then a second dose cures him completely. So I would definitely recommend it.

Best place to buy that I've managed to find is ebay. It's about a tenner for a one dose syringe full, but I buy a small bottle (can't remember the size, think it's 500 ml) for about £15. That lasts for quite a while and you don't have to worry about a sudden attack and not having any in the cupboard. A 50 ml syringe from the local country store cost about £1.
 
The company I buy my herbs from for the horses (www.equinatural.co.uk) posted the update below recently, might be of interest.

Fennel – An Effective Appetite Suppressant

With the grass significantly pushing through now, I’m already hearing from worried clients regarding laminitis risk.

A great tip is to add fennel to feed. Apart from it being an effective, palatable stomach soother and a natural parasite fighter (we use fennel in our GutRelief and our natural wormers, WormClear and WormClearPlus), studies show that fennel may assist in suppressing appetite as well as stimulating metabolism.

The Thuringian State Institute of Agriculture in Germany has shown that fennel can help drastically reduce food cravings and hence diminish food consumption. It's also thought that fennel consumption can cause fat deposits in the blood to be more efficiently decomposed in order to be used as an energy source. Apparently, even simply inhaling fennel's essential oil helps to digest food!

It's also useful to help treat or improve the physical symptoms of upset tums such as sloppy poo and flatulence. My Murphy is Mr Sensitive Tum - he can generate enough gas to power a hot-air balloon - so anything that helps reduce gas in Murphy’s gut is good in my book. From spring onwards, I'm permanently on poo watch with Murf, and so far, he's producing healthy, reasonable solid stools, a far cry from his gravy-bum of previous years.

Fennel is definitely recommended to add to any weight loss or weight controlling program, so really useful to add a spoonful in feed for sensitive tums and lami-prone horses, especially as those young green shoots are too yummy to resist now!
 
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