Sand Colic - Horse touch and go atm.

Illusion100

Illusion100

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A fellow livery had Vet out this morning, who diagnosed sand colic and treated for such.

Horses field has poor grazing and is very sandy. Owner advised YO of Vet diagnosis and asked for another field temporarily to let current field recover. YO refused as does not believe sand colic exists or that horses would eat sand whatsoever *sigh*

So offered a portion of my field for the interim and arranged with another lovely friend to meet colic horse owner and myself tonight to help section off my field.

When we arrived this evening horse was down again in its field. Got it up and moving but it went down a further 5 times with owner. Vet out again, same diagnosis. Before Vet left they advised if horse had another episode within the next 12 hours things would not look good.

Before Vet left they advised if it happened again during night or morning options were

a) Take horse to vet clinic for life saving treatment

b) PTS

Now, owner has no equine transport and as you can imagine was distraught that the horse may be PTS because of that. Spoke to another lovely friend who immediately offered their services and horse was transported straightaway to vet clinic. I loaded the horse, followed to vets and unloaded, popped in stable as owner so concerned about horse going down on concrete, (no pressure there then! ;))

Now all we can do is hope the horse makes it through the night, makes a full recovery and can be returned and put in my field for a while where there is much more grass and far less sand. Poor horse but hopefully the owner can now rest a bit easier knowing the horse is exactly where it needs to be for constant monitoring and any necessary treatment.

Keep fingers crossed everyone! :(
 
Fingers crossed here!

Well done to every-one who rallied round.

If that were my horse, I'd be looking for another yard if the horse recovers.

I'm sure I've read on here about something you can feed to counteract the sand that they can ingest on bare paddocks. Can't remember what it was though!
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Fingers crossed here!

Well done to every-one who rallied round.

If that were my horse, I'd be looking for another yard if the horse recovers.

I'm sure I've read on here about something you can feed to counteract the sand that they can ingest on bare paddocks. Can't remember what it was though!
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Have some wonderful friends, very very lucky.

Horse is on Psyllium husks which bind to the sand to help remove it but it wouldn't eat. After horse came round from sedation I managed to get horse to eat the recommended dose before we transported it so hopefully that will have done some good.

Around 40% of liverys are looking for new yard, including me, everywhere decent is taken with long waiting lists. Very frustrating!
 
I lost my mare to colic three years ago and one of the possible causes was sand. Had horses on the same field for ten years prior to this and still have herd of shetlands on same pasture. Colic is one of those horrible indiscriminate perils. Everything crossed for your friends horse. Horrible horrible illness.
 
I'm sending vibes for your friends horse. I am also hoping you and she can find somewhere new for livery as I think your YO's attitude is abhorrent. Thank goodness for friends in situations like these. Some we have known for years, some we meet through the shared love and desire to help horses...thank goodness for kind hearts xxx
 
Illusion100 said:
A fellow livery had Vet out this morning, who diagnosed sand colic and treated for such.

Horses field has poor grazing and is very sandy. Owner advised YO of Vet diagnosis and asked for another field temporarily to let current field recover. YO refused as does not believe sand colic exists or that horses would eat sand whatsoever *sigh*

So offered a portion of my field for the interim and arranged with another lovely friend to meet colic horse owner and myself tonight to help section off my field.

When we arrived this evening horse was down again in its field. Got it up and moving but it went down a further 5 times with owner. Vet out again, same diagnosis. Before Vet left they advised if horse had another episode within the next 12 hours things would not look good.

Before Vet left they advised if it happened again during night or morning options were

a) Take horse to vet clinic for life saving treatment

b) PTS

Now, owner has no equine transport and as you can imagine was distraught that the horse may be PTS because of that. Spoke to another lovely friend who immediately offered their services and horse was transported straightaway to vet clinic. I loaded the horse, followed to vets and unloaded, popped in stable as owner so concerned about horse going down on concrete, (no pressure there then! ;))

Now all we can do is hope the horse makes it through the night, makes a full recovery and can be returned and put in my field for a while where there is much more grass and far less sand. Poor horse but hopefully the owner can now rest a bit easier knowing the horse is exactly where it needs to be for constant monitoring and any necessary treatment.

Keep fingers crossed everyone! :(
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I'm curious what are the symptoms of sand colic are they different to other colics? Hope the horse will be ok..
 
PStarfish said:
I lost my mare to colic three years ago and one of the possible causes was sand. Had horses on the same field for ten years prior to this and still have herd of shetlands on same pasture. Colic is one of those horrible indiscriminate perils. Everything crossed for your friends horse. Horrible horrible illness.
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I'm sorry to hear about that. It is an awful condition.
 
_GG_ said:
I'm sending vibes for your friends horse. I am also hoping you and she can find somewhere new for livery as I think your YO's attitude is abhorrent. Thank goodness for friends in situations like these. Some we have known for years, some we meet through the shared love and desire to help horses...thank goodness for kind hearts xxx
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Without the greatly appreciated help of generous friends the horse could well have been dead by now. Something the YO's didn't seem concerned about. Hopefully spaces will come up and we can move. Not sure if it will be to same yard, which would be a shame as most of us really get along and always there to help each other out. A valuable thing indeed!
 
WinkingWillow said:
I'm curious what are the symptoms of sand colic are they different to other colics? Hope the horse will be ok..
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Very similar symptoms to any other colic I think, however this horse was passing looser sandy poos and felt 'gritty' during rectal exams which gave a much more definitive diagnosis. Sand colic can develop over time until it peaks. It irritates the intestines and causes inflammation to the digestive tract and can cause 'IBS' in horses along with colic.

It is recommended to feed Psyllium husks if your horse grazes in sandy soil. However the horse had been in great form until a few days ago, then under the weather, then colic set in.
 
WinkingWillow said:
I'm curious what are the symptoms of sand colic are they different to other colics? Hope the horse will be ok..
Click to expand...

I live in the capital of sand colic - Western Australia.
Sand colic can look much like spasmodic or gas colic. Pain tends to come and go (it is when the gut contracts down on the sand moving through the system that the pain occurs) but the pain tends at that time to be much more severe than in gas colic. So you have a horse that throws itself on the ground in apparent agony one minute followed by looking fine the next. A definitive diagnosis of sand colic is difficult but over here we treat any spasmodic colic as sand colic. Some vets say they can hear sand moving through the gut (sounds like waves on a beach) but I have never been able to convince myself of that. In the UK history would be an important part of the diagnosis (grazing sandy pastures, drinking from running water over sand).
We don't know anywhere near enough about it to be honest.. Some horses can have heaps of sand on board, but never colic, while others will colic with half a cupful of sand in them. It seems in most cases to be an accumulation of sand over time (sand is heavy of course so will settle out in the intestine and normal food and fluids just slide over the top of it) combined with "something" (change in diet) that causes that sand to start to move through the system. When of course it basically scratches away at the inside of the gut.
Treatment here is generally with liquid paraffin (to lubricate everything and reduce the pain associated with the sand moving) and Epsom salts (a purgative - stirs everything up and gets the sand moving). Some vets drench with psyllium to bind up and move the sand but it is a higher risk procedure.
Feeding psyllium can help reduce the accumulation of sand in the gut in at risk horses. Others will drench once or twice a year with oil and Epsom salts (my personal choice with my own horses).
Fingers crossed for this horse. FREQUENT drenching with either oil or psyllium until sand ceases coming through in the poos, plus pain relief, is the approach generally adopted here, but the owner needs to be aware that there could be a LOT of sand in there and he might be at the vets for some time (I have had cases where sand continues to pass for a week).
 
Odd that the YO "doesn't believe" in sand colic, when it is a well known hazard. Maybe not so common in the UK as in Australia and the USA. My sister in the USA fed an additive as a preventative measure.

Hope the horse is OK and will recover.
 
Vet has said horse can come home. Did not colic again during night or early again this morning when drugs wore off, which was the concern. Is eating the supplement that binds/removes sand and is much perkier.

Picking horse up tonight. Advise is to keep horse on supplement or move yards.

Orangehorse, YO's refuse to acknowledge any sort of responsibility for anything. They aren't really involved with running liverys, they just take money and fob off any issues.

It's good in a way as we can do as we please with our horses, muck out/ride/turn out whenever etc but welfare/health and safety of horses and owners is very far down their list of priorities.
 
Didn't want to lurk and leave.

So terribly sorry that this has happened and that after looking promising it's all gone downhill. Sending vibes full of hopefullness and hugs to all concerned, especially the poor horse.
 
Oh bless you. Hoping with all I can that the horse comes right. You sound like an amazing person to have around, especially at a time like this. Huge hugs to all.
 
Fingers crossed for you. We've only had one at our yard in 25yrs. He was operated on and survived. Back in full work and fed psyllium once a month for a week. Touch wood nothing else in 4yrs now.
 
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