colic

[Majors Minor]

My horse colicked pretty bad two nights ago. The vet has lived at my place for the last two days, giving shots and oil and I don't know what else. I stayed with him in the paddock the first night. He wanted in his stall, but she was afraid he would cast.I have never seen colic,which is pretty surprising for as long as I have been around horses, nor do I ever want to again. At the worst of it I was tempted to have him put down. he was not in pain last night( probably from the drugs)I did not stay last night my husband got up and checked on him every two hours and we had another horse (his buddy) out with him. He seems like he is making an improvement this morning.
He jumped out of the paddock (I put him in that paddock because he was so sick and that paddock is unused because it is wire and only 3 and 1/2 feet tall.)and was found laying in the hay field with the cat of all things. We brought him back up to the barn and he was able to pass stool and urine. He ate a little grass and is now drinking (which he did not do yesterday) The vet is due back out today to check on him, but I had to go to work today. My husband is with him today.
I have always kept my horses on a fairly strict feeding schedule. We grow our own hay, so it is not like they have to change. I feed Purina strategy, weightbuilder(He is a stall walker and it helps keep his weight) rice bran oil and garlic (for the flies)
The ONLY thing that I changed was three days before he coliced was his bedding. I switch to the wood pellets. I was stripping his stall every two-three days and thought it might keep longer with the pellets. I am thinking he either ingested the dust off of the pellets, or ate some. My vet also told me she had pulled his records and he had colic surgery when he was a 2 year old at the university. (That would have been nice to know earlier)
My question is should I put him on some sort of supplement If he recovers? My vet said we should just wait and see what happens, it is up to him at this point to pull himself out of it, but I am just beside myself right now. I feel helpless and feel like I should have thought about the bedding but I honestly did not think about it hurting him.
I just do not want this to happen again. So when he recovers ( I am being very hopeful) Is there a supplement that anyone uses that works. I looked online, but there seems to be a lot of controversy over the supplements.

Sorry for this being so rambly and long. I am just really upset and worried.

[samantha]

I'm so sorry you are having to go through this Huge jingles for your boy!

[Smay]

He MAY have ingested the bedding pellets, thinking they were FOOD pellets? I wonder if he did and they formed a blockage, which he eventually passed and recovered from... I haven't heard of that happening, but since it's the only thing that's changed in his regimen... I can't believe he escaped from his paddock then went to lay down in the hayfield with the CAT! Ask the vet what he/she thinks about the pellets. Also, call OSU and see if you can access his old records from his first colic and see what caused it... if they know. If he's prone to impaction or had a stone or whatever, that would be a good clue.

[kristineandtai]

I had a horse that had colic surgery. they told me horses should eat all day hay and less sugers in thier diet. I dont feed [pellets either as they are very dry and the horse needs to drink a ton of water, which they dont always do.
good luck

[Luci]

I haven't had a lot of experience with colic, but it's so scary when it happens. The horse I was leasing was having colic issues, but it was tied into his ulcer problems. I hope he is doing better and comes through this well.

[dustydoodle]

Jul 31, 2008 20:45:35 GMT -5 kristineandtai said:

I had a horse that had colic surgery. they told me horses should eat all day hay and less sugers in thier diet. I dont feed pellets either as they are very dry and the horse needs to drink a ton of water, which they dont always do.
good luck

I'm not sure if this would help anyone else, but I soak our horse's feed...I just mix everything together, cover it with water, and let it stand for a couple minutes before feeding.

This way not only is the choke/colic risk reduced, they can't pick around certain supplemnts etc., that they don't 'want' to eat.
They are also getting more water in their diet, which is a must for our OTTB Dusty, because she 'forgets' to drink.