colic - need advice

[Peaches Lee]

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Do you have any Banamine? Is it possible to haul her to a clinic? I used to have a horse that would colic when the temp would drop, I'd give him a little Banamine and he would snap right out of it, hopefully your case is just as mild. Good luck!

 

[lynnR]

I wish it was that simple. There is only the one vets practice in Shetland and the one flight between now and 6th January, which is tomorrow morning, is full with islanders coming back from Xmas with family. And with all this wind forecast there may not be a boat either.

I'm very reluctant to use pain meds as it will give a false picture of what the situation is, I never use them myself either. What pain meds can I give her if I go for it anyway?

Would having a cold make a pony more prone to getting colic? My 3 caught a cold a few days after I introduced my newest filly, Roxi, into the group. I had her quarantined for 3.5 weeks and showed no symptoms of anything.

 

[Peaches Lee]

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OK, so you're not in the US. I'm not sure what your equine pain meds would be called over there brand wise, but what you'd be looking for is Flunixin Meglumine. It is possible that a cold could make them more prone to colic. If I was in your situation, I would personally administer the pain meds since your vet won't make it out until after New Year's (which is incredibly long to wait for a colic, i.e. your horse could be dead by then--sorry to be blunt). The pain meds might even eliminate the colic entirely. Good luck, I hope this works out for you.

 

[lynnR]

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Thank you.

 

[Avalon1984]

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Thank you.

Lynn, so sorry to hear about your situation. Please don’t compare using pain meds in horses vs using pain meds in humans. The reason you want to use pain meds in the horse is to ease it’s pain and prevent it from rolling due to pain, which can cause the horse to twist its intestines. If you ever were really bloated, you will know how incredibly painful that can be. Trying to have it toughen out the pain is not a good plan if you are dealing with a colic, it can make things worse very quickly. #1 concern for you should be pain management and hydration. Are you also keeping a close eye on its temperature, heart rate, breathing , etc? I have a gelding that colics every single year at the onset of the first frost. Some vets say it is because they drink less and dry up but I am not so sure because he drinks just fine. Horses are weird like that. Hope your horse will make it through that bout.

 

[lynnR]

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I never thought of that, thanks. She seems as if she's on the mend, no pain when touched, no lying down since 8pm last night and has produced some dung. I put on my survival suit and spent the night sitting, watching her. My young gelding was being such a doll with her. She was using him as a rubbing post and he just stood there letting it happen. He's shares top pony status with my older gelding so isn't usually very friendly with the 2 fillies. I called the vet this morning and he said that I could start giving her small amounts of hay often throughout the day, keeping an eye on how she feels before giving each lot. I described my set up and behaviours of my 4 ponies and he thought that the colic was due to Illona eating a lot of hay and not drinking enough. I thought that this may have been the reason because there have been strong winds here (up to hurricane force) and I don't think they moved from their sheltered spot.

 

[Peaches Lee]

Glad to hear she's doing better...

 

[babyblue2]

I'm glad to hear she is doing better. In my area the two biggest things that several vets have told me to cause colic are worms and dehydration. Bad food or two much will cause it as well, but when its colic with no changes in diet, climate or exercise level its usually one of those.

 

[effie]

Hi, I grew up on a farm with horses that were hardly ever in a stall and were treated like horses -not pets-no offense to anyone here--raised 20plus horses and foals and never had one colic. so, when my daughters stud coliced in his stall a few years ago and she googled everything and did the banamne shots every few hours and got no results the mom in me kicked in and I said if this was a child you would give them an enema. so I googled enemas and colic and got a quarter horse forum in TX with some answers-i joined the forum and ended up calling a hardened ol gal that was a TX quarter horse breeder that swore by enemas She said she gave her horses an enema as soon as she noticed any signs and hadn't had one colic in years. So, the daughter and I started and gave him enemas all night-warm water mixed with mineral oil. I had gven up hope as this had gone on for a few days leading up to this. The next day it warmed a little outside(had been single digits all week) to around 40 -I told the daughter to turn him out while we went to get a horse trailer to take him to the vet. When we got back we could see where he had lain in the sun and pooped. He pooped again when we loaded him. He was still very sick and terribly dehydrated--the vet double bagged him with fluids and kept him for 3 more days. BUT, the thing the vet said when he sat down with my daughter and I was that the enemas saved him because he did absorb alot of the water thru his system much like working out can dehydrate you by taking water out of your muscle tissue. His absorbed it.. He even gave him another one. The horse absorbed alot of the water we put in him even though alot came back out. Good luck with the horse-it can be heartwrenching. Temps changes can bring this on--they don't like to drink really cold water-the week this happend with ours there was a cold snap on the east coast and horse dropped like flies with colic. It was a horror story everywhere--we were lucky.

 

[Avalon1984]

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That was a great story, thank you. Who would have thought the enema actually hydrated him but it makes perfect sense! We have had a few colics with the big guys (sometimes I wonder if they are more prone to colic due to their size) and mostly we get a hold of them within 4-5hrs and they heal just fine. The last one taught us that even when you get a vet asap doesn't always mean they make it. It was heartbreaking.