My horse had loose stool a year ago next day coliced, vet tubed him twice over the next few days. He would seem to be doing better then would go down again, interested in food on and off, loose stool the whole time but not dehydrated so we were able to manage from home with vet assistance. He would lay down but not thrash, heart rate, resp and temp were within normal range, vet thought he might feel an impaction but not twist, some gut sounds, we couldn’t really find a cause.
On the 3rd day he had a huge poop that was still really loose but not completely liquid then he started to act like himself and stay that way, interested in food, not laying down but still had very liquid manure. Vet pulled blood and said he had colitis but levels weren’t that bad considering what he’d been through, lost about 200 lbs.
Vet couldn’t say what started the whole thing, if he had colitis which caused colic or if there was an small impaction that caused the inflammation. We put him on probios and gastra–fx and his diarrhea cleared up in 24 hrs. I kept him on both for 4 months until his weight looked good again and now he is only on the probios. He was only 5 at the time so obviously easier for him to recover then at 29. This helped for him and was affordable for me (vs spending time in equine hospital) if he ever colics again and we can’t really pinpoint the cause I’ll be trying the gastra-fx again. It certainly wouldn’t save a colicing horse on its own but as long as something is getting through its soothing to their digestive system.
