Old horse becoming colic-prone

[alterblue]

My senior also started to become prone to colic when he was 29-30 years old. The first one was out of nowhere, I had this horse since he was 3 and he’d only ever had one or two colic episodes before. It was relatively mild, resolved with banamine, and we chalked it up to a fluke. 6 months later, he had a similar episode, slightly more severe. And finally, 6 weeks after that he had another episode, the worst of the 3 but still resolving with banamine and time.

My horse was on regular Equioxx for his arthritis and so we suspected potential ulcers or lipomas based on signs/symptoms. Unfortunately he really needed the Equioxx to be comfortable and I was terrified of losing him to a strangulating lipoma, so after the 3rd colic I made the difficult decision to let him go peacefully. SL are a terrible, painful way to go, and I didn’t want that for either of us to be his last memory. While I miss him terribly, I know in my heart it was the right decision.

Something you may want to consider if he colics again. I truly hope your story ends differently, it sounds like your boy is lucky to have you and has a great setup. Sometimes there is only so much you can do when they reach this age, despite wishing differently.

[ladipus]

It’s possible maybe he’s drinking less since he’s moving around less …also the onset of cold weather. Has he been tested for Cushings ? That might be something to check as well as his Insulin & glucose …sometimes cold weather can induce laminitis…also another possibility for less movement. …all of which could indirectly be causing colic …I would have his teeth checked as well…and if all else checks out ok and if this continues then perhaps a GI consult /abdominal ultrasound/scoping

[foggythistle]

The displaced colon is typically called a ‘nephrosplenic entrapment’, where the colon works its way over the spleen and gets hung up on the ligament that connects the spleen and kidney. Initial treatment is to try shrinking the spleen to see if the colon can unhook itself. With my horse, it did not. He had surgery to move the colon back into place, loosen up the resulting impaction and remove the gas. He made a complete recovery. There is a surgery (laproscopic?) that they can do to fill in the space that the colon migrates to prevent it from happening, but since it’s not something that commonly recurs, I didn’t opt for that. My horse was 9 at the time.

A friend’s horse recently had surgery because he was colicky/NQR. They found numerous lipomas and removed 8 of them, only one of which was pedunculated (hanging). Because of the ugliness of two of them, they were sent for pathology. Luckily, both were benign, but one was a really weird shape because of it’s location. Moral: lipomas don’t have to be hanging/pedunculated to cause a problem. This horse is in his mid-twenties. He’s home and doing well.

[IPEsq]

That is just left dorsal displacement. Displacement can happen on the right side also, where the spleen isn’t involved.

[Weezer]

This is interesting. I’ll keep an eye on that. He colicked again two days after the one I posted about here. But that time I’m certain it was because I overblanketed him. I was being paranoid and not thinking and the poor guy was sweating when I came out in the morning. I’ve since got my head back on straight about blanketing. I also started him on Gastra FX daily and two weeks into that, he seems like a younger horse. So something was going on in his gut and this seems to be helping.

[Weezer]

I agree with you that we need to pay attention to make sure we give them a humane exit, rather than holding on too long. Hearts to you for taking such good care of your old one.

[Weezer]

We did full blood and vet exam, including teeth. Everything came out good. But I have seen an overall improvement in his demeanour since starting him on Gastra FX, so I think something was going on in his gut.