This morning when I went to feed, my gelding had his nose pressed to the stall door, waiting for breakfast. But when I looked in, I could tell something was amiss. There were three separate areas that had been pawed clean, right down to the stall mats. There was a huge pile shavings in the middle-- probably 20" deep, so something had upset him. His belly was tight, with minimal gut motility. He had drank both buckets of water, there were 5 piles of manure (I cleaned stalls at night check, about 10pm so this was a normal quantity for him). Gums moist and pink, bright eyed, ears up and asking for breakfast. I gave him a couple handfuls of alfalfa, and he ate eagerly. He was sweating under his light blanket, so I peeled it off to just a sheet. (45 degrees in the barn). Gave 10 cc banamine “just in case”. Within minutes of starting on alfalfa, his gut was sounding good-- and this is somewhat normal for him. When he anticipates breakfast, he pees, and tends to be a little tight in his belly. However on the right, he also had muscle twitching (fasciculations), and that’s not normal for him. I walked him a bit, and he just wanted to graze. Still very bright, no sign of discomfort. So I gave him a bit more alfalfa, and watched him. He just wanted his grain. He usually gets 1# of ration balancer-- I have him 1/3 of a normal meal for emotional reasons, then turned him out. He trotted off, looking for the rest of his alfalfa outside. Consulted with vet, who was not concerned at the fasciculations as long as he was comfortable, she said just monitor. All day he was fine. Within another 30 min the twitching had stopped. He ate his alfalfa, then parked at the hay rack for some coastal, wandered around, grazed a little (almost senseless in December but he persists)
This evening he came in and wanted normal dinner.
Back story-- he has done this twice before. Once about two weeks ago, but just one big bare spot. He was pawing when I got to the barn, so I walked him for a few minutes. He acted like we needed focus on his breakfast… No distress, not sweating, and was fine afterwards. I hypothesized that his arthritic knees were bothering him and starting giving him prevacox daily (1/4 tablet). He’s been fine since. The other time was in the summer, and one spot pawed, scared me but was fine, wanted to eat, normal.
I’ve mulled this over and am perplexed. He doesn’t normally paw. But now I have 3 episodes of early morning pawing. He always lies down to sleep at night, but is usually up before I get to the barn. He’s a big horse, and it’s a bit of a chore for him to get up. I wondered if maybe these are times when he struggled to get up, and got painful or agitated? A friend opined maybe ulcers-- as the pain of ulcers could inspire pawing.
This horse gets alfalfa 3x daily and has grass hay pretty much all the time. I am generous with the grass hay overnight, intentionally ensuring he does not run out since I’m a big fan of gut motility.
I plan to have the vet out, probably will xray the arthritic knees and maybe scope him to check for ulcers. I know some of the most observant and OCD owners frequent this forum, so wanted to ask for any opinions or thoughts? The horse is a 12 year old gelding, easy keeper. Routine in winter is out 8-5 ,in an oversized stall 5p-morning. He gets fed at 7:30 then turned out (with most of his morning alfalfa outside). He has coastal available all day. He gets fed again at 5p, and bedtime hay around 10pm. He drinks well (about 15 gallons) during the 5p-8a that he’s in the stall, and not sure how much he drinks from the trough since he’s out with his sister.
TIA for any input.
My horses colic like symptoms resolved without veterinary attention it was horrible experience.