Location-dependent colic?

[Punkie]

I have a horse who colics only when he’s at the farm where he was raised from 18 months old. He’s now 18 years. He has a significant history of colic surgery (x3), but lived on the farm happily and successfully for years after the last surgery. The farm is gorgeous, the pastures are huge, well-maintained, free from any dangerous weeds, have ample shade, and have clean, fresh water available at all times. My farm at home (just about 10 minutes away from the farm where he was raised) is more or less identical in terms of amenities. He is fed the exact same grain, eats the exact same hay, receives the exact same supplements, is in the exact same training program…everything is as identical as it can possibly be on two discrete properties. I had him at his home farm for the first two years we were together as this is the farm where my trainer is based.

In 2013, he started colicking chronically, lost more than half of his body weight, and developed chronic laminitis. He spent almost 6 months at the clinic in total, had every test run short of exploratory surgery, was almost euthanized on 5 separate occasions, and generally looked like his life was over. I brought him home to my farm for a sundry of reasons, but essentially that’s where we expected him to pass. However, he did not pass…he just kept getting better. He went almost 8 months without colicking, gained the vast majority of his weight back, stopped foundering, and generally looked like a happy and healthy horse once more. My trainer was based out of my farm all summer as the farm he was from was being renovated, so it didn’t have anything to do with her being present or absent. We thought we were out of the woods, so we sent him back with the others when the renovations were complete and within a week he colicked again.

We have since tried to send him back on 4 different occasions for various reasons (either I was going to be gone for an extended period of time or he needed something specific from my trainer and she couldn’t get to my farm 5 days a week), each time with the same result. This last attempt, I made sure to be at the farm every single day to see if that made any difference; this time we made it two weeks instead of one.

I cannot emphasize enough how exemplary the care is there. My trainer is one of my best friends in the entire world and arguably the most dedicated, conscientious horse person I know. The staff there has been different each time he’s gone back so that isn’t a factor. I’m at the barn whenever I’m home (I travel frequently for work), so he sees me as much when he’s at my trainers as he does when he’s at home. We’ve never had a problem at away horse shows, but he also hasn’t been away for more than 2 weeks at a go since he regained his health, so I don’t know if a problem would present during week 3 or beyond.

He has all of the big vet clinics in Ocala absolutely stumped. There is no clinical or physiological reason that this should be happening. He’ll go literally 2 years without a single sign of colic and within a week of being back at the old farm he earns himself a trip to the clinic. The only two things that could be considered measurably different between the properties is the water (mine is softened and UV filtered, theirs is just filtered) and the grass (slightly different soil between the two properties, but nutrient content is not significantly different, nor is grass quality). He drinks just as much water there as here, so it’s not that he’s refusing to drink by any means and he grazes there just as he does at my farm…we’re at a loss.

If I were going to continue to be in Florida year round with trips out of state for work/leisure, then this really wouldn’t be an issue, but I have a summer farm in VT and am hoping to purchase a farm in MA where I currently board a few horses, so the plan would be to bring him north with me during the summers and send him back south during the winters. I’m also selling the portion of my FL farm where he currently lives and building on another area of the property with new pastures, a new barn, and a new arena. Now I’m questioning whether or not it is safe to even do so or if this is going to start all over again if he’s moved from where he clearly has no issues.

I know that there is some peer-reviewed literature which suggests animals can experience something akin to PTSD, could that be what’s going on here? I’m at the point where I’m ready to call a damned psychic and I’m just about the biggest non-believer there is. Does anyone have any thoughts?

[punchy]

Yeah, I really do think horses remember things that stress them out about a place. Maybe he associates that farm with getting really sick in 2013? And every time since that he has gone back? Many horses might not care, and of the ones who do care, it’s not enough to stress them into colicking, and you’ve got that rare one who ticks both boxes. I used to have a chronic colic, they’re maddening. I spent a lot of time thinking, ‘this shouldn’t matter, but it seems to, so I’m going to keep doing it.” My vets were like, “yup, we don’t know why either, but keep doing it.”

So it may just be that farm, for him, and another farm would be alright.

[NancyM]

I have no input for your horse, but sympathize with your problem. I also have one who colicked regularly, and everyone was puzzled why, for years. I thought she was gonna die several times. She has always been kept at home, in my care, home bred. Figured it out, finally. In her case, it is high protein in her diet that makes her colic, apparently. She can’t eat alfalfa, or high protein grains. What her system sees as “high” protein is just regular protein levels for other horses. And because she’s a horse, she will greedily grab alfalfa still, if she sees some. It doesn’t sound like this is your problem with your horse, but I understand the stress of wracking your brain from trying to figure out why. Good luck. It would be nice if they could speak English, and could explain this stuff for you.

[eventerpony]

I had a very similar issue and the only thing that made any sense was the water. Nothing was wrong with it, it was clean and it was tested regularly, but it was pond fed, not a well, and my vet and the vet hospital agreed it was probably some sensitivity my horse had to something in it. The horse never colicked before being at that barn and never after, but while living there colicked and was hospitalized (never surgical thankfully) regular basis for repeated colics. It was like a switch suddenly got turned off when the horse moved to a new place. Never colicked again. Nothing else in the horse’s care or feeding changed, just the location and source of water. I’m sure there are any number of possibilities (horses being horses and all), but it made sense to me. Hope you are able to figure it out!