I moved one of mine to a new barn in June. He is now out at night and in during the day. When I bring him inside in the morning, he starts to eat and either during or right after he will stop, stretch out, do the flehmen response a few times, seem generally uncomfortable for 30 seconds to a minute, and then go back to eating like nothing happened. This has happened 5-6 times that I have seen, but I don’t watch him everyday so it could be more. Anyone ever deal with something like this?
I wouldn’t think colick with such short duration.
I would look first at teeth, then at ulcers.
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I had one who would do this while eating. He would also occasionally get mildly colicky- lay down after eating, look uncomfortable- after eating. We treated for ulcers and the issue resolved.
Is he only doing it while eating grain, or also hay? Did he get a change in grain? Sounds like he’s probably got an upset stomach and something smells funny to him. How is his manure?
Thanks for the responses! Teeth have been done already. He has been on ulcer meds since I moved him in. I have tried to taper the dose and it does seem to bring on an episode, but latest episodes were with him on full dose again, so I am wondering if that is just coincidental.
This is only after eating grain, and only in the morning. Once it happened after I rode and he was great during the ride. It is just so odd. Manure is normal. Feed is the same AM and PM. The only things I can come up with is the pasture here is richer and he does get upset when leaving his buddies. But once in his stall he settles right down and dives into his feed.
I would check for ulcers.
I agree with the above posters. Ulcers would be my first guess. When he demonstrates this behavior is he eating grain?
What brand of ulcer meds is he receiving and how much? Does he have a lot of forage while he is turned out at night? Grass? Hay? Or is he fasting?
What kind of ulcer meds? The internal medicine specialist recently explained to me that nexium to me. I would try two weeks of ulcergard and see if you see any difference.
He has been on Nexium which completely resolved the issue I was having that led to the ulcer diagnosis in the first place. I also went through a month of sucralfate which initially had good results but kind of tapered off in effectiveness. Also have had him on Equishure and now recently started him on Outlast. He is out on good pasture at night and never fasts.
I’ve got one who did/does something similar. He would only ever do it if he had been out on decent grass and typically had been gorging himself. He showed symptoms of a mild gas colic. I never strictly resolved it however as he’s now on very limited grass/predominantly hay diet due to a Cushings diagnosis (unrelated) and hasn’t had an issue since.
Scope him. Perhaps the ulcer cocktail you have him on is masking the symptoms, but not actually clearing up the ulcers.
That would make a lot of sense. The field is huge with great grass which he never had previously. And it only happens after he comes in from being out overnight.
In the case of my boy, he is an absolute guts and would stuff himself til he couldn’t fit more in IMO. If the colics had continued and/or he needed to be on more grass, I would have investigated further but his Cushings diagnosis strictly limits his pasture time anyway and he hasn’t colicked since.
It might be worth trying a grazing muzzle to see if that limits him enough that he doesn’t stuff himself. I did try that with my boy (pre Cushings/laminitis) but he was too adept at removing them.
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This might sound weird but my horse did this a few times and we eventually figured out it was mild choke, though you’d never know it based on appearance (colicky symptoms like rolling, biting at sides etc). Have you changed feed? My horse did this with hay stretcher type pellets. Does not do it with anything else. I thought it was ulcers, but one time it became a full blown choke. Took her off hay stretcher pellets and it never happened again.
Yes, I have a feeling mine would have it off quickly! He is a TB so he really needs good pasture to keep his weight up. He has gained nicely since being moved but still not chunky. But even after grazing all night, he is still trying to snatch more grass on the way to the barn (it’s a long walk) and then he plunges into his grain ration like he hasn’t eaten in days. :rolleyes: Maybe I need to just give him a small meal in the morning and see if that helps.
Not weird at all, it was one of the things I was wondering about. The other morning I heard a noise like he was choking and I went over and saw a big wet blob on the ground in front of him. I wrote it off as clover slobbers or bolting his feed but maybe it was a choke. I did not change feed and wet his food down with quite a bit of water. He gets Fibrenergy, which is more crumbly than a typical pellet but he does eat it quickly.
