I thought I would ask here first since this group has experience with young horses. I have a just turned 4-year old mare that had a very bad gas colic, and it seems to be tracking with her coming into season. She is not a marish mare, it is often hard to tell if she is in season. She acts like she wants to pee a lot but does not, osteopath said ovary on one side was a bit displaced and putting pressure on her large intestine and it looks like it may be happening again this month. Has anyone experienced anything like this in young horses? Did you have any success with anything? I hate to put a young mare on regumate but her body (she got a thrombosis from the catheter we are still fighting when she colicked) and my checkbook can’t take another serious colic.
Years and years ago, we had a mare who lived with us who did something similar. The veterinarian recommended bute a few days before. I’m sure there are better alternatives today (this was 30 years ago).
Thank you, at least hearing others have experienced this makes it slightly less odd, if no less frustrating. Our experience is on banamine she does better, but she can’t live on banamine for weeks at a time. Bute is a bit of a concern with colic these days. I agree, back then you used what you had.
What is her management like, is she out or stalled? Herd mates?
How did the osteopath diagnose a displaced ovary?
It is possible her ovaries are the problem and source of her discomfort. It is also possible that discomfort associated with being in heat has affected gut motility. I’ve seen both but the latter is far more common.
She is out 13 hours overnight, stalled during the day. Osteopath did an internal adjustment through the rectum. She is also a regular vet, she wears both hats. Mare is out with one other horse, a gelding, that she has been turned out with since she was 2.
Years ago I had a friend whose mare did this. Every time she came into season she would be a little “funny” and that would lead to a full blown vet calling colic. But if somebody noticed early on that she was a little iffy and gave her 5cc’s banamine then it didn’t progress to a full blown colic.
A vet she was using suggested that she breed her and that would solve the problem if she had a foal. This was really crazy I thought because she wasn’t anything special that needed to reproduce and what if you got a filly and it did the same thing. But that vet was never able to get her in foal using live cover to a pretty meh stallion. Which was a good thing. I don’t know what ever came of this since that person moved and I did not keep in touch.
This mare was middle aged and had been on the track. So I don’t know if this behavior happened on the track or not. And I don’t know how old she was when my friend bought her. So not a young horse. She was turned out 12-14 hours a day. I don’t think she was out 24/7, but she had no issues with being in a stall.
If she’s in that much discomfort, is it worth putting her on regumate? I know my mare was much more comfortable in her body when I finally started regumate.
how was it determined to be gas colic?
Ovaries move around during ovulation, some more than others, depending on their conformation, and that movement can be anything from mild discomfort, to “holy crap i’m going to die!”
It’s probably worth a trial of Regumate for a couple of heat cycles to see if it resolves
Thank you all for the input. We have started the regumate, unfortunately she has had 2 mild colics in the last 4 days, but she does have a follicle in one ovary, so basically we were too late in her cycle starting it to shut them down completely this month. I’m hoping we can get her through this month and by leaving her on it we will shut both ovaries down by next month.
I have a mare that had an absolutely horrible year one spring. I was watching her out in the pasture and she was bucking and kicking at her belly out of discomfort. Under saddle she was pretty miserable. Wanting to be close to the geldings, then trying to kick at them to get them away from her. It’s like she wanted a boyfriend but didn’t. I had the vet ultrasound her and she had multiple follicles and the vet asked me if I wanted to breed her? And gave me regumate to help.
At any rate the issue seemed to pass on its own and thankfully did not reoccur the following spring. I always said she had a split personality and was a different horse when she was in season and when she wasn’t and that year was 10x worse than usual. Normal for her is to flirt with the geldings and stop and stare at them while riding and completely become insensitive to the aids. That is annoying but not something I can’t manage and not dangerous.
