Panic over but need ideas

[dappyness]

Evening

I think I just want reassurance that I did the right thing and what could have caused the issue

I am not the owner just looking after the pony.
Pony is a 13hh new forest mare around 10 years old. Used mainly as a field ornament and lives out. Feet are slightly over grown and she is over weight.

Arrived at stables at 8am to find pony stood in the corner by the stable shaking / shivering.
Thought she must be cold as we did have a big drop in temperature last night and frost on the ground. I put a medium weight rug on to warm her up. Offered her food ( she very much likes her food) but she refused. Checked for laminitus symptoms and also colic. There were no obvious symptoms. There was 2 droppings that came from her over night by the gate where she stood. I walked her around the carpark hoping she would warm up a bit and to reassure me it wasnt laminitus. 45 mins later she was still shivering so I called the vet for advice. Her gums were pink and her eyes ok. They told me to call if there were any changes.

Around 9.30 i put her back out to the field as the sun was shining and it was warm up there. I umd and arrd if I should take her rug off as I didnt want her to over heat. I did but she just stood there. Not grazing or moving..

As I said - no colic symptoms - pawing of the ground, wanting to roll or looking at her belly.

Went home to get a shower came back and she was still stood in the same place - I gave her a carrot and she ate it

I then left her again to go and get some feed and hayledge from the shop and left her for an hour or so. Came back and she still hadnt moved or pooed.

By now I had pottered around the stables, pooed picked a field and got fairly worried. I listened for gut sounds which were very quiet and far between. It was now 3pm and she still hadn't pooed. I chucked a head collar on her and started to treat her for mild colic and walked her around her field. She was quite reluctant but she is also stubborn. After 10 minutes of walking her gut sounds were much louder. I got her feed bucket and put a tiny handful of chaff in with loads of water to make needy soup and she lapped it up. I know you shouldn't feed a pony with colic but she did have gut sounds and I knew she hadn't drunk all day. Within 20 minutes she went from being stood in a field with her head down felling very sorry for her self to tucking into a tiny bit of soaked hay.

Now the questions are
1. What the hell could have been wrong with her?
2. did i do the right thing.... Never come across this with my big lads; first time for everything.

thanks

 

[maxine1985]

Certainly think you did everything right and couldn't have done much more, the main thing was you monitored her regularly and made the vet aware so had she gone downhill rapidly they would have been ready to respond as quick as possible!

Have seen similar symptoms in mild impaction colics, once you got pony to drink she then most likely softened the impaction herself. Greedy ones can usually get sloppy soup into them to help soften, however most impactions usually require veterinary intervention to tube fluids into them

Glad she's now ok

 

[paddy555]

well done you got through it. Mine, 16hh did similar and I never found the reason. Vet came, administered painkillers. I planned to syringe liquid paraffin and water into him but found that I could mix them with warm water and liquid mollasses and he drank that (about 1 pint of liquid) I gave him that drink every hour and then walked in hand for 10 minutes. I ended up doing that day and night for 2 days before we got any dung. I also gave 2 bute by syringe at a time for the entire time to keep the pain level down.
If it happened again I would do exactly the same but look forward to any better ideas on your thread.
Hope the pony goes on OK.

 

[dappyness]

Thank you so much guys. Its always scary when something happens for the first time.. I wont tell you how I reacted to my first foot abscess 4 years ago. thankfully I'm much calmer now and do think things through a little bit.
Thankfully her owners came back last night and we are now both monitoring her today (my horse is also in the same field). She is still quiet but beginning to show her normal elf.