Horse acting colicky but not colic

[MissB]

I have a mare who often presented with colic symptoms, often overnight and only seen on camera but she’s fine in the morning. Banamine often resolved, but on a couple of occasions had to have vet out to at least run fluids. I suspected gas. I did also observe some other things-- somedays there was enough poop but in smaller or larger piles than normal. This all came to a peak in January, where we thought we were treating a colic caught too early to show anything but elevated HR. Ended up inpatient on a Monday morning, oiled, fluids etc, On Tuesday she passed all the poop but would not eat. Stayed painful in her gut. By Wednesday fever spiked, very painful and diarreah. We had full blown colitis. Vet and I agree that what we thought was mild little colic-like episodes was actually her fighting a battle with colitis-- she’d get painful, but it would pass. She’d be better, then not. If I saw this again, I’d start with good gut support. (she’s currently on Platinum GI, after much research). No NSAIDS or antibiotics for about six months.

Just something to think about.

[SMF11]

A horse here colicked when the barometric pressure changed. We would give him banamine and it would resolve by the next feeding time, although I remember once it took more than 24 hours. He was never in extremis, let me hasten to add. Just off his feed, sometimes pawing, sometimes with the flehmen response. He lived on the farm for 14 years, so I’d say it happened a good 20 times.

He did colic “for real” when he was 32, luckily caught early, and euthanized.

[cristalle]

@cnd8

You don’t have to have an impaction or a twist or something to constitute the true definition. Stomach pain is colic

I agree with this.
And I agree with the posters saying the colic symptoms could be caused by gas.
Another possibility, I don’t know if the OP’s vets checked for this, is strangulating lipoma.
I had a horse who had this and she presented in the same way you are describing.

https://vetster.com/en/conditions/horse/strangulating-pedunculated-lipomas#:~:text=Strangulating%20lipomas%20are%20uncommon%20in,is%20crucial%20to%20good%20outcomes.

[4horses]

Can he move during these episodes? Tying up looks a lot like colic. I had one that was not quite right. She looked depressed after riding but nothing I could put a finger on. I thought it was ulcers and started treating for that. She finally tied up. Was staggering and looked like she was going to go down, with muscle tremors but she did come out of it. It can look just like colic. They lay down, paw, and look uncomfortable. But usually will eat feed or graze during episodes.

[ladipus]

I’m my experience this past October…my mare was acting colicky when in fact she was starting to go into acute kidney failure …it might not be a bad idea to check baseline chemistry bloodwork-particularly creatinine & BUN

I also have a horse that started cribbing more than usual and he was experienced mild gas colic symptoms occasionally.

And then another one of mine was experiencing intermittent mild colics -tuned out he was high positive for chronic Lyme

[sara78]

Mine IS a mild cribber too, négative lyme

[sara78]

He Can move, graze and pass manure with no problem during the episode

[sara78]

Could it bé hindgut ulcers? Normally hé eats his grains and alfalfa cubes but hé s not eating at all AT thé moment, so i tried to give différent grains and hé eat those well