need help with old horse, please....

[Guinea Goonie]

You need to go to the vet and get a portion of Bute. It sounds like your horse had a episode of Colic. You Probably got lucky this last time and he worked his way through it. Horses WILL eat themselves to the point of no return, especially grain. They really need a steady diet of hay all the time, plenty of water and small portions of grain and really if they are eating lots of hay you can get away with no grain.

If your horse starts to bite his side, flick his tail, have runny poop, roll and NOT eat, it is colic. They will sweat in extreme cases too. Listen for gut sounds, this is important.

 

[Florida chick]

Call the VET! An old horse, with these symptoms needs treatment. Its not ok to wait it out. I would get Kaopectate into him and Gatorade and HELP!
FYI BUTE does NOT work on colic it can make it worse. The horse would need Banamine for pain managment.

 

[skirbo]

Must second the never giving bute for colic or even suspected colic. They sell banamine in a paste now for those of you who can't give shots.

Sarah

 

[patandchickens]

I'm glad your guy seems to be feeling better, but it would be real smart to have the vet out anyhow and check that there are no more serious consequences (like laminitis, which you may not notice) and to check his overall health.

PLEASE store your grain BEHIND AN ALWAYS-LOCKED DOOR, though, k? As you have noticed

horses can get into totes and trashcans and so forth. They cannot however open a strong double-latched (with horseproof latches) door. So many horses die or have their feet permanently ruined by getting into grain...

Also, a horse really needs to eat more often than twice a day, especially when he is such a senior citizen. Horses' guts were designed to process feed more or less constantly, and it is very hard on their bodies to eat only twice a day. As they get older, it becomes even more of an issue.

Best of luck, and congrats on getting him to 35

,

Pat

 

[what was i thinking]

my vet suggested twice a day. he has access to hay all day, what he can eat and not ball up. i have seven totes of food in the barn. there is no way to put in behind locked doors. i don't have a sperate room. i have everyones food out theres. cats, chickens, rabbits and all the other horses. (he only touches the totes with the goods in it.)
he is eating much better now and didn't have any other signs other than not wanting to finish his food. he is getting very grumpy in his old age. it might even be the fact that he knows there is way better stuff out there than in his bucket.
thank you on him getting this old. my mother was going to put him down five yrs ago, only three months after i lost my 9 yr old dog. i explained i couldn't do both in one yr. you would have never known he was on death row. he is in great shape considering.
again thank you to everyone for their help. i will be having the vet out, waiting for them to call me back so i can see what they say.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Oh! ok, sorry, I thought you meant he was *just* getting the feed you describe (it's pretty common for really old horses to be fed that way, having not much left in the way of teeth; it's great that yours *can* still eat some hay!) Sounds good to me

i have seven totes of food in the barn. there is no way to put in behind locked doors. i don't have a sperate room.

It'd be real easy to build, and save you a lot of trouble, wasted feed/money, and heartache in the future. Just build a little sort of 'closet' in a corner. It could even be triangular - just a straight wall built to close off a little bit of corner. With scavenged materials it won't cost much but the nails. Just a thought...

thank you on him getting this old. my mother was going to put him down five yrs ago, only three months after i lost my 9 yr old dog. i explained i couldn't do both in one yr. you would have never known he was on death row. he is in great shape considering.

Good for you - not everyone takes such good care of their animals

Best of luck to you and horse both,

Pat​

 

[horsejody]

Beet pulp can be fed dry, it's just more palatable wet. He probably got a stomach upset because raiding the feed bins was a change in his feeding routine. I'm sure you have called the vet by now and gotten his/her advice.

FYI when you listen to a horses flanks the sounds on the left are from the large intestine and the sounds on the right are the small intestine. Lots of gurgling sounds are good. All horse owners should make themselves familiar with normal gut sounds by placing their ear on the horse's flanks when they are healthy. All colic is serious, but the problems in the small intestion are often more serious. If the horse has bad teeth or no teeth, be careful with the hay. We had one old boy colic because unchewed hay had balled up in his intestine. Finally, with the help of having the vet pump oil in is stomach he passed a big ball of hay. Then he had diarrhea for two days.

Here is an informative article about beet pulp:
http://shady-acres.com/susan/beetpulp.shtml

Here is a fun article about beet pulp:
http://www.stableminds.com/justforfun/beetpulp.html

 

[Appytaz]

I had to move my feed from the garage onto the back porch. We have an onery donkey that learned to lift the garage and crawl underneath. I actually watched him get down on his knees and scoot under the door on his belly. It is a little more effort to carry feed to the barn stalls - but much better than someone colicing.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Glad your old guy is feeling better. I agree that bute is not a treatment for colic, but a pain reducer for the symptoms. I also agree that you need to secure your feed cans. It sounds like you have a very smart horse that can figure out how to get to what he wants. But when it comes to knowing when to stop eating..there are no smart horses. Over graining can cause founder and it is not only dibilitating to the horse..but also to your wallet. I have one..I know.
Cindy

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
Bute can also slow down the metabolism and make colic worse. Never ever use bute for colic. And only use any other pain reliever under the advice of a vet. They can mask symptoms that the vet may need to see to properly treat the horse.