First of all, a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Here’s a video of my mare’s colic “flares.” She had been munching on hay. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JHhZwxtauHvZrUcCA8T8nYhdfDSfd9Q9/view?usp=drive_link Often, these flares are also accompanied by yoga (stretching like a cat).
Some time ago, I wrote on here about my mare (now 8yo) going into surgery for repeated minor colics with no known cause. We were hoping to find a cause. She pulled through beautifully, but unfortunately, her symptoms did not change even a smidge, and nothing suspicious was found on biopsy or in physical exploration. I am sorry if you remember me and I did not respond to you–I have been avoidant/depressed regarding this topic.
I now have more data, based on careful note-taking. This horse has baffled New Bolton and every local vet I’ve had out. So at this point, I’ll take any suggestion or idea, no matter how obscure.
These observations have held true for three years, across two different barns and different types of hay/feed.
She is “normal” from early May to mid-August.
LATE SUMMER:
Every late summer, about mid-Augaust, she begins to crib. Scopes turn up no ulcers. No mineral deficiencies. No stressful lifestyle, travel, etc. Minimal sand on x-rays.
FALL:
Almost to the day (September 21, 26, 24), she begins showing signs of discomfort during or after eating. Like digging into a new bag of green hay, eating happily for a few minutes, then sudden yoga (stretching like a cat) and repeated lip curling. Self-limiting, goes away after 15 or so minutes. But the yoga re-appears throughout the season, sometimes at seeming random. Most commonly when she is anticipating food, eating, or having recently eaten. Again, we’ve had her scoped literally the same night as these “yoga” practices. No ulcers. These persist through October and November.
Early September, and throughout all of fall, she also becomes inexplicably picky about her food. Suddenly won’t eat supplements like equishure, which she eats without complaint during any other season. Suddenly will turn her nose up at food if the consistency is wrong (meds not mixed in enough). This is NOT a picky horse, normally. She also becomes downright aggressive for cookies/treats.
WINTER:
Usually, the yoga flair ups taper off once we’ve had some consistent cold, so late November/early December.
LATE WINTER:
Last year, she had a severe sand colic in late February. Scope revealed glandular ulcers as well that were NOT there in November. Those may be a result of the sand, but she’s had glandular ulcers before (AND sand accumulation before, though not as severe).
SPRING:
Some occasional yoga returns, but not to the level of predictability of fall. Worst month is April.
SUMMER:
By late May, she’s a seemingly normal horse.
KNOWN FACTORS:
As of last spring, she has chronic inflammation in her hindgut, or scarring—we believe from the sand colic. This was not present in previous years, so we don’t believe it corresponds to the initial cause of colic fits.
She tested positive for chronic lyme last year, titers somewhere around 1400. We just re-tested her, thinking we were finally desperate enough to try minocycline, despite her not having typical lyme symptoms: no dice, she came back stone-cold negative, in the low hundreds.
Occasionally seen eating dirt in the spring and fall. Usually after other symptoms start flaring.
She’s currently on 20 tabs of Zyrtec once a day. We’ve also started giving her sucralfate twice a day.
She is on long-term compounded misoprostol and regumate, as we were looking to address the hindgut inflammation, keep the recurrent glandular ulcers at bay, and stop her cycles (which sometimes corresponded with yoga and really muddied the causative waters).
I am batsh*t insane. My vet is stumped. It’s been three hellish years. But most of her colic flares are self-limiting; I don’t feel I can put her down until we have a “bad” one. I was really holding on to trying minocycline for lyme, so that test coming back negative this time, when it was positive last time, has really thrown me.
I just don’t know anymore.
