Recovery from colic

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myheartinahoofbeat

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My retired boy, 18 year old TB, had a bad bout of colic last week.He is hardy, has lived out 24/7 for years. Basically I found him lying flat out shivering, dehydrated and distressed last Saturday morning.
Emergency vet came and luckily there was a happy ending.
All his vital signs are good now and his eating and drinking well, he hasn’t lost any weight which I thought he would but he’s just lost his spark after such a traumatic event. Vet doesn’t seem worried but I just wondered if any of you had any experience of this and how long it took for your horse to get back to their old self. I’m hoping when we get over this freezing weather he’ll pick up again.
 
Was it a one vet visit spasmodic colic that responded to painkillers and antispasmodics?

If so, then fully back to normal within 48 hours. They can look very bad with it at the time, though.

Good luck. Everything’s disrupted with the current frozen spell which doesn’t help getting back to a normal routine, does it 😬.
 
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The frozen weather can cause colic often because they don't drink as much so causes all sorts of issues, Arabi has had colic twice both impacted caused by lack of fluids we think because of a virus.

But I'm extra careful in the cold weather and give them warm water to drink and a few warm wet feeds to get some extra fluids in to them.

I would just make sure his warm enough and get water into him as much as you can and hopefully he will be OK in a few weeks.

It knocked Arabi for a while he just didn't look himself I think part of it is a stress anxiety thing with some horses.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Was it a one vet visit spasmodic colic that responded to painkillers and antispasmodics?

If so, then fully back to normal within 48 hours. They can look very bad with it at the time, though.

Good luck. Everything’s disrupted with the current frozen spell which doesn’t help getting back to a normal routine, does it 😬.
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Yes, it was a one visit but he’s allergic to buscopan so couldn’t have any antispasmodics. He also had a heavy nose bleed after the tube came out. Actually he seems a bit brighter today because I’ve put him back out 24/7
 
Pinkvboots said:
The frozen weather can cause colic often because they don't drink as much so causes all sorts of issues, Arabi has had colic twice both impacted caused by lack of fluids we think because of a virus.

But I'm extra careful in the cold weather and give them warm water to drink and a few warm wet feeds to get some extra fluids in to them.

I would just make sure his warm enough and get water into him as much as you can and hopefully he will be OK in a few weeks.

It knocked Arabi for a while he just didn't look himself I think part of it is a stress anxiety thing with some horses.
Click to expand...
Yes, the vet said he was dehydrated so he maybe didn’t drink enough. I’ve been giving him lots of water and he has a rug on when normally he’s happily naked all winter. He’s a cribber so he spends a lot of time doing that instead of drinking!
 
My pony had impaction colic in November 2022 and January 2023. Both of these had quite mild symptoms so he never looked really ill. The day after them both he looked fine and was eating and back out with the two smaller ponies that he grazed with. However, he must have been feeling the effects after the second bout because he lost his place as top dog in the small pack. The second in the pecking order took his chance and pushed mine out of his place at the top. I thought that would be it but after a couple of weeks he reasserted himself and put the smaller pony back in his place.
 
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