Why don’t they use those cameras-in-pod things they use on humans, where you swallow it and it takes pictures all the way though the digestive track. It seems like that would be the least traumatic way to see what’s going on. You would have to examine the poop for the ejected camera though😁
Someone postulated that a drop in barometric pressure preceded some colics, so I guess ensuring water intake before that would assist there. I don’t remember if that theory was ever proven though.
The displaced colon was discovered on a rectal exam, and she was treated with epinephrine, which causes the spleen to shrink and then the hope is, give the colon more space to move back. According to my vet it works maybe 50% of the time, and we were lucky.
This is definitely an n=1 but my old boy (now 29) had regular gas colics for several years, usually tied to going into a new paddock/high clover hay etc, and they always resolved. He then developed laminitis and was diagnosed with Cushings. He’s been on Prascend for 4? 5? years now and hasn’t colicked since he started on it.
Many horse who develop a strangulating lipoma often have visible fatty tumors on their body. The SL is just an internal one, and unfortunately deadly. Years ago a former BO’s horse had one; he was fine, rolled and then was in such agony they couldn’t do anything for him but euthanize.
Is there a way you could put him in a smaller area alone and monitor how much he’s drinking?
I get water in my senior horse by making her grain ridiculously soupy. She gets 4 lbs Triple Crown Senior 3x a day, and I add about 3 gallons of water to each meal. If that is too soupy for yours, you can add in ground flax or psyllium powder to thicken it up.
She also gets soaked cubes at night check so I figure that’s another gallon or two of water.
She does drink during turn out, but with this protocol I worry less and that is worth the extra work.
I’ve never heard that? None of the horses I’ve known with this, including mine, had any, none were even overweight. Is there some info on that I can read?
How do you get a picky eater to eat the soup? Sigh… the old gelding in my barn has had two colics in 3 years, but in the summer. He gets dehydrated, too hot, and gets mild impaction colic. But, he won’t eat ‘soupy feed’! I will try again though. He loves salt, so maybe I’ll experiment with a salty soup!
I lost my dear OTTB Calvin to a torsion colic one fall. Awful, just god awful. Hugs to those who’ve lost one to colic and here’s wishing good luck to those who battle it in the old guys you love and care for.
I’ve known a few old horses that started getting colic prone not long ago. Usually relatively mild and treated on the farm. But they all did eventually wind up being put down to unresolving (horse was over 30 and hospital visit or surgery not an option for him) or complications (stomach rupture in 2 of them, following a severe colic they both did go to the hospital for, both horse over 20) from colic eventually. The chronic colics had been going on with some seasonal variations in all of them for a few years. One had a propensity to get dehydrated but the others did not with one also being a hay dunker. One had Cushings also. One had sinus polyps. One had melanomas.
For some horses that I have known who have needed soaked feeds we sometimes have to experiment with consistency. And then seeing how much MORE water we could add over time before it was completely rejected… 
Other times it is finding the right feed that the creature cannot turn down.
One old guy did well with soupy alfalfa cubes. He would not touch soaked pellets.
The guy I referenced above was happy with soup pellets.
If doable you could try less soupy, smaller portions, multiple times a day? Obviously, the barn/boarding situation would dictate whether or not this works!
Very interesting. My Hackney pony had fatty tumors toward the end of his life, and became a very hard keeper and would colic easily. Our vet thought it was gas colic, but now I wonder. He would eventually respond to banamine.
I euthanized him at age 29 due to a sinus tumor. We would put him on antibiotics for his snotty nose, it would clear up, then it would come right back. At his age, I wasn’t going to have anything at all invasive done, so I didn’t have an X-ray. No point if I was not planning on acting on the results. I still miss him every day.
Rebecca
I agree you have to experiment to figure out with consistency to get more water in them. I have convinced my somewhat picky gelding that he can eat grain that has water by slooooowly adding more. And try different grains. Or adding a touch of grain to cubes, which can hold a lot of water. Or beet pulp.
I think a vet mentioned it in passing years ago. Something like “if you see external ones, chances are there are internal ones as well”. BO’s horse with the SL did have a few large external ones, FWIW.
I don’t think external lipomas on horses are very common at all. Rather, horses who are overweight are more prone to internal fatty deposits (ie lipomas). Every horse I’ve personally known who died of one which is about 6 including mine, weren’t, and never were, overweight. Since it’s most common in older geldings, rather than “most common in overweight horses”,and even rather than “common in older mares”, it really does point to a gender deal as well as age.
“horses that are overweight (and insulin resistant horses) may also have a higher incidence of strangulation by a lipoma. When I see an older, especially an overweight horse, with an obvious small intestinal blockage, I always think of lipoma first.”
“A lipoma is a fatty tumor most commonly located on the mesentery of the GI tract in horses. While in dogs, it is most often situated between the skin and the underlying muscle layers.”
https://cvm.msu.edu/vetschool-tails/lipoma-no-more-spartan-veterinarians-perform-standing-colic-surgery-on-equine-patient
I don’t think I have ever seen an external lipoma on a horse. Dogs, yes. My heart horse died from a strangulating lipoma. He had never coliced in the 11 years I owned him nor was he overweight. He did have Cushings but it was under control. The only time I have ever heard the adage “if you see one on the outside there are more on the inside” was in reference to melanoma.
The lipomas are actually OUTSIDE the tube of the gut, and the wrap around the outside. So using a camera in the tube of the gut wouldn’t show anything.
You know, they actually might show a narrowing of the intestine. I asked my vet once about ultrasounding from the outside to look for them. He said one might see a slowing down in movement in the intestine.
Ah, thanks. So they never grow inside the intestines?
No, the lipomas form in/on the mesentery, which is the thin layer of tissue surrounding the intestines
OP, sorry for seeing this late…I had a 24 year old in my care that colicked a few times in a row last summer, has never colicked before.
In this case, the issue was ulcers. A month of Gastroguard and a weaning phase and he hasn’t colicked since (knock on wood). Sorry to say it isn’t a cheap diagnosis, but this horse lived very similar to yours—we do all the “right things” management wise and he was still colicking. Might be worth a scope if it keeps happening.
So sorry for your loss, Calvincrowe, and to everyone here who has lost a beloved horse to colic.
Those of us with old horses who we love and care for every moment, know that the end of their time with us will come.
Just not today, please, not today.
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