Recurrent Colic

[purpleritos]

Hi all,

I have a coming 5yo Oldenburg mare who has just had the roughest go of it the past several weeks. I think it’s starting to take a toll on everyone involved and wanted to put a post out there for any advice.

Last January she had her first colic episode, during a major drop in temps, that ended up resulting in a hospital stay to get an impaction cleared. All was well until November, when another temp drop came through and she had a more mild impaction. Now she has had 4 colics this month, the first 3 more mild and treatable with banamine (seemed to just be gas as she was having explosive diarrhea during the episodes) but got decently impacted again this weekend and needed to be tubed.

After the first colic this month I sent her to the clinic to be scoped, no stomach ulcers so the vet recommended we put her on misoprostol for 30 days to treat for possible hindgut ulcers. It was clear this wasn’t the issue after more colics, so she went back to the clinic for more workups (abdominal ultrasound, rectal biopsy, diarrhea panel, allergy test) and nothing at all has come back significant. I did see another poster mention having success with testing the stomach fluid, and I’m going to ask the vet if she’s done this.

The horse lives out 24/7 on grass with a round bale and is a big drinker. She does seem to be the type of horse that internalizes her anxiety, so I’m honestly thinking this coupled with big weather shifts just set her off.

The vet does think her GI bacteria are significantly off balance, as she almost always has runny poop and will turn to full on diarrhea if she’s nervous. We are going to start her on Platinum GI first to hopefully balance her out, and will try Relyne GI gel if that doesn’t work. Vet is hesitant to put her on steroids at this point due to her age, but we will if we have to.

Hopefully this resonates with someone out there… if not it’s good to vent to fellow horse people. my boyfriend is starting to think I am full on insane with all these vet trips and long hours at the barn and constant state of worry. He might be right - I do think I’m going a little insane!

[Weezer]

Are the colic episodes always happening with fluctuating weather? My old vet recommended that we blanket like crazy during fluctuating weather to try to keep their body temperature fairly consistent. That means lighter blankets when it warms up, and then layering up when it gets cold.

I don’t have any experience with this myself, but I wonder if rationing her hay might be better in this case? I’m thinking that maybe having a stomach that is always full might be bad if she is generally anxious? If several feedings a day isn’t an option, what about some Regumate or sto help take the edge off?

[Scribbler]

@purpleritos

Hi all,

I have a coming 5yo Oldenburg mare who has just had the roughest go of it the past several weeks. I think it’s starting to take a toll on everyone involved and wanted to put a post out there for any advice.

Last January she had her first colic episode, during a major drop in temps, that ended up resulting in a hospital stay to get an impaction cleared. All was well until November, when another temp drop came through and she had a more mild impaction. Now she has had 4 colics this month, the first 3 more mild and treatable with banamine (seemed to just be gas as she was having explosive diarrhea during the episodes) but got decently impacted again this weekend and needed to be tubed.

After the first colic this month I sent her to the clinic to be scoped, no stomach ulcers so the vet recommended we put her on misoprostol for 30 days to treat for possible hindgut ulcers. It was clear this wasn’t the issue after more colics, so she went back to the clinic for more workups (abdominal ultrasound, rectal biopsy, diarrhea panel, allergy test) and nothing at all has come back significant. I did see another poster mention having success with testing the stomach fluid, and I’m going to ask the vet if she’s done this.

The horse lives out 24/7 on grass with a round bale and is a big drinker. She does seem to be the type of horse that internalizes her anxiety, so I’m honestly thinking this coupled with big weather shifts just set her off.

The vet does think her GI bacteria are significantly off balance, as she almost always has runny poop and will turn to full on diarrhea if she’s nervous. We are going to start her on Platinum GI first to hopefully balance her out, and will try Relyne GI gel if that doesn’t work. Vet is hesitant to put her on steroids at this point due to her age, but we will if we have to.

Hopefully this resonates with someone out there… if not it’s good to vent to fellow horse people. my boyfriend is starting to think I am full on insane with all these vet trips and long hours at the barn and constant state of worry. He might be right - I do think I’m going a little insane!

My mare had 4 hind gut impaction colics one winter and spring. I had an emergency vet out to tube for the second, but the others resolved with banamine and me sleeping at the barn. I traced it finally to a particularly stemmy batch of alfalfa and not wanting to drink from her heated bucket. I discintunued the alfalfa and put a second bucket near her hay drop so she can drink without having to leave the hay. If I see she hasn’t drunk enough in 24 hours I make up molasses tea for her.

So my first suggestion would be looking at her hay.

If her hind gut Flora are off, I swear by Herbs for Horses ProBios Plus, at double dose if necessary, and if that’s not enough, YeaSacc (it’s a yeast developed in Europe). This has always fixed chronic diarrhea for me. I think that once they’ve had diarrhea for a while they have shit out all the good Flora and have no chance to regrow it.

I’d also suggest dialing her menu back to just grass hay and ration balancer or VMS while you get this fixed.

[purpleritos]

So far has only been with the fluctuating weather in the winter months. I have been blanketing her like crazy, because I did worry maybe she just got too cold. But I blanket her according to clipped horse standards and it doesn’t really seem to make a difference unfortunately.

Have thought about Regumate or Mare Magic to see if maybe it is hormonal. Unfortunately our boarding setup won’t allow for rationed hay and other facilities in the area are hard to come by. Part of me wonders if she just needs a change of scenery, but I do feel very safe with her where she is and would hate to have to leave. But it’s in the back of my mind.

[Scribbler]

@purpleritos

So far has only been with the fluctuating weather in the winter months. I have been blanketing her like crazy, because I did worry maybe she just got too cold. But I blanket her according to clipped horse standards and it doesn’t really seem to make a difference unfortunately.

Have thought about Regumate or Mare Magic to see if maybe it is hormonal. Unfortunately our boarding setup won’t allow for rationed hay and other facilities in the area are hard to come by. Part of me wonders if she just needs a change of scenery, but I do feel very safe with her where she is and would hate to have to leave. But it’s in the back of my mind.

Can you get the hay tested? If it’s too high sugar or stemmy or contaminated with something it could be giving her permanent diarrhea. Round bales are extremely variable. Also what’s in the pasture? Is she eating anything that’s setting her off? Is the winter grass high sugar?

Is she clipped? If not, can you leave her unblanketed?

[LCDR]

Round bale of what when she colics? As said, bales vary. Type of hay, source of hay, which cutting, contaminants, mold, plus many other factors.

It really sucks to be at a boarding barn when your horse has problems like this and you have no control over her diet. And monitoring water intake too. Just seeing her drink while you are there doesn’t equate with adequate intake. I had one who would drink 10 gallons up leaving totally dry water buckets in his stall every night, but would not touch the outdoor trough water. It was located under power lines and had enough stray voltage to shock him. Grounding the trough solved that but he was by then so suspicious of it that he never would drink.

My current barn trough picked up voltage from the underground power line running near it to my barn and everyone avoided it. I had to move it to a new spot to get them to drink. And I added a 6 gauge copper cable from the trough water to an 8 foot ground rod as well.

[purpleritos]

I’m not sure of the specifics on the hay and grass (and the grass is sparse, so she’s not gorging herself on that). They’re on a round bale all year so I don’t think it’s the hay, I understand they can vary but I’d expect her to colic year round if she was sensitive to the changes in hay.

She’s not clipped but has a thin coat, I wouldn’t start unblanketing her at this point in the winter.

[NancyM]

I have one who colics with regularity if she gets higher protein feed. Alfalfa in the hay gets her on the ground, moaning in agony. Straight grass hay… No problem. Since we grow our own hay, I know exactly what is in each bale. But she can graze safely on the alfalfa fields in winter, once the alfalfa has died off… Lower protein by that point. I dunno if this might be something you should consider, I only mention it because it took me a while to figure it out…far too long actually. And this one is a full thoroughbred, the type that one would think would be ok on alfalfa. When she is on grain ration, I keep the protein levels low there too, just in case. Yours may or may not be sensitive to protein levels like mine is, but consider other sources of feed sensitivity. I didn’t even consider this for far too long. Vets were drawing a blank, and shrugging shoulders. Good luck.

[purpleritos]

It’s just local grass hay. She gets it year round.

I do agree it is hard to have complete control and I’m struggling with that. We are in an area with very limited boarding facilities and I am honestly lucky to have her at the place I do!

I don’t think it is water intake, although I did at first because it was the easy solution. I’ve been at the barn pretty much daily this month due to being in between jobs (yay layoffs, but yay getting to give undivided attention to my horse who clearly needs it right now!), and she really does drink a lot. Takes a big drink when turned out, and is always at the trough when being refilled morning/night.

I will even make her a “soup” , warm water with a few alfalfa pellets for flavor when we are experiencing rapid weather changes/cold to be sure she is drinking. It makes me feel better to do it still, but it has not helped the colics.

[LCDR]

It seems as though you have eliminated all the “usual suspects.”

Has she had a recent dental and intraoral tissue examination by a knowledgable veterinarian? And not just feeling for points, but looking for gingival inflammation, tongue lesions, draining fistulae, and other types of oral pathology that may alter chewing and digestion. She should be at the end of the period of all her permanent teeth finally having erupted.

[purpleritos]

Yes. actually the on call vet that tubed her the other night is the dental specialist and checked her mouth.

[Scribbler]

Other threads on colic have mentioned bacterial overgrowth in stomach or hindgut

[NancyM]

The culprit may not be alfalfa in your case, like it was in mine. It may be ANYTHING in the feed, that other horses tolerate fine, but yours doesn’t. Soy. Flax, Preservative. Something in a “supplement” that is being added. Something sprayed on the ground the hay is grown on. This is just a suggestion for you to consider. I know what it’s like to be faced with a sick horse often, and not know why. Think of when it all started, and what you are doing the same since then. Then try eliminating that.

[cnd8]

I know you say that the hay is the same year round, but I’ll just share my recurrent colic story in case some part of it helps in any way.
I bought a gelding many years ago that was raised on coastal roundbales. Never an issue. A couple months after I had him, he started having recurrent colic episodes that were thankfully always resolved with walking and banamine–some worse than others. He was on pasture board with coastal roundbale, but vets suspected ulcers given his personality and change in home, etc. We scoped, no ulcers, but some evidence of former thickening due to stress. Treated with GG because insurance was willing to pay for it. Made no difference. Still coliced. I’m talking like once a week, maybe every other week type of frequency. VERY long story short, and about $4,000 spent on vet exams, multiple scopes, ultrasounds, rectal exams, and bloodwork…he had a problem digesting the coastal hay. It would cause intense pain and gas. It took 9 months to figure this out because suspecting ulcers, we kept hay in front of him at all times. Boy was that wrong.

Specialists at equine hospital finally convinced me to do a hay restrictive diet when all the other testing failed to find a diagnosis. We took him off of hay and placed him in a grass pasture with only grain and soaked alfalfa pellets for 3 months. Not a single colic episode. Gradually added chopped alfalfa, no issues. Regular alfalfa, no issues. Eventually tried coastal–he was biting and very grumpy. It told us it was the coastal hay. We never have given him coastal again. He hasn’t had a single episode in the last 4 years. He can only have perennial peanut (the south’s version of alfalfa), alfalfa, timothy, or orchard hay.

Ever since the vet hospital, they told me to keep him on Arenus Assure Guard Gold for life, and I have kept doing that. I stepped down after a couple years to the cheaper Assure Guard (not gold), and he’s still thriving.

It was the hay the whole time. It makes me wonder if the temp swings in your case encourage your horse to eat MORE of the hay, which aggravates the issue?

[LCDR]

Have any of your veterinarians asked the owner about the hay yet? Better one of them than you, IMO. That is a difficult situation because most any owner puts a lot of effort into finding hay, puts a lot of money into it, and deep down will resent being questioned about the way the barn is operated. I understand why you’d not want to ruffle the BO’s feathers, with boarding barn choices being so limited.

You are going to need to trust and hope your veterinarians can work this out. But if is diet related it seems like you might need to move for your mare’s health. Years ago I owned one whose problems turned out to be related to grass hay. I ended up moving him to a place that would feed him alfalfa, where he lived a long and healthy life. It was a 90 mile round trip away versus being 10 minutes away, but his health was worth it.

[purpleritos]

For those curious… we seem to have found a solution, but knocking on all the wood. She was reactive to corn and flax on her allergy test, so that knocked out Platinum GI and a slew of other supplements that we could put her on.

Vet eventually suggested Assure products (as did @cnd8!), which had sooooo many options but what a neat concept. My first thought was just to go for the Assure Guard Gold, but wow it is really pricey and I didn’t want to have to get hooked on that . I decided to do Assure + Assure Guard to see how the results were, and wow. She’s been on it about 17 days - first week she had pretty intense diarrhea, and lots of it. It wasn’t fun on white legs, but at least we could tell it was doing something. Around 10 days her piles began to resemble those of a normal horse and she’s been very comfortable ever since, even with days of 30-40 degree temp swings.

If all keeps going well, I plan to wean her off the Guard once we run out and maybe just pick that back up in the wintertime each year for extra support when she’s prone to colic.

[ladipus]

My 20yr old Tb geld who I’ve owned since he was 4 recently starting having recurring mild colics as well over the past 2 months …the first 2 were only 2 wks apart …I had the vet out and we did the lube and tube and they resolved within 12 hrs …the 3rd only required banamine …he normally ate soaked Timothy Balance Cubes/ Hygain Zero/ Vermont Blend/Flax/Vitamin E/ and Tractguard -had been on this diet for several years without issue …actually he never has had colic issues in the entire 16+ years I’ve owned him …since this last colic I’ve kept him on soaked mashes of Triple Crown Senior Gold and knock wood he seems to be doing well for the past couple weeks …I also have kept feeding him wet/soaked second cutting orchard grass hay as well.

I know you mentioned yours was a mare …wondering if these colics could be related to her cycle…maybe a repro work up …sometimes when the mares ovulate can cause pain

[EmilyM]

If your horse continues to get impactions I would ask the vet if low gut motility could be an issue. I had one even on necropsy zero findings. I believe there are some Chinese herbs that can help

[Fiesta01]

Great news! Thanks for the update. Will continue the jingles coming your way.

[cnd8]

I forked out for the AGG for a couple years, but then backed down to just the Assure Guard with an added psyllium supplement of my own (I use Su-per Psyllium–a pelleted one). This works out to be considerably cheaper than AGG.