horses get colic?

[Wingnut]

well, talk about your rotten weeks! Not only did we have a superfluity of winter storms ... our mini-mini (8 month old 15" mini colt) decided to come down with colic. Since my wife is somewhat new to horses (she's always wanted minis .. 'cause she likes small animals, I guess), she didn't realize how serious colic can be ... whereas humans can shake it off, it's commonly fatal to horses, minis in particular. After the vet told her she couldn't offer any hope and suggested that we take it down to Lansing to the Vet Hospital ... she got my on the cell phone and got me home quick. The 80 mile trip took 3 hours in a lovely winter storm ... about 3" of snow on the road by the time we got there. Interesting experience, folks ... taking the rear seats out in a minivan and putting in a horse! Got some looks when we got to the hospital ... you know, like ... where';s the horse trailer .. you said you were bringing a horse.
Looks like the little guy is gonna make it alright ... but I hope this kind of thing doesn;t happen too often ... hard on the heart and nerves (fighting those roads) and hard on the wallet ($1000 and counting). There's goes my snowblower for this year, I guess.

too bad that common sense ain't

 

[Rodneyd]

Wingnut,
I own the "King of Collic". Never had a $1k bill from vet but know what you are talking about when you describe the heart-stopping panic stricken attempt to get them on their feet. Only trouble is, my horse weighs in at over 1000 lbs. Used to collic two or more times a year. You might try keeping drinking water warm in winter. Our horse doesn't like cold water...hence in winter doesn't drink enough water and if they don't dring enough, they collic. Don't know about the little fella, but we used to put in some bran in with the food to give a little bulk to the diet. Also, sometimes, a little gatorade sprinkled over the food makes them want to drink more. MIght want to experiment a little. Maybe the vet can also offer some suggestions. For $1000 I would think they would be able to give you a consult on what to do next to keep this from happening again.
Rod

 

[Wingnut]

Rod,
I think part of the problem ($1k) is that the little guy is still there. I would guess 5 days (plus however much longer he's gonna be there) probably adds to the costs. Makes me wonder whether I should consider heating my barn. Nah ... they've got great fur coats .. especially this year ... amkes me worry about how long and cold the winter's going to be ... they might know something the weatherman doesn't (wouldn't be hard, would it?).
The warm water idea is a good one ... might also save me some work as I usually have to break all the ice out every evening and refill ... I'll just have to check my breaker box and see whether I can handle that much load out there.
The vet's got him on mash now and advised we'd have to keep him on it for at least the next 2-3 weeks. And I like the gatorade idea ... thanks much!


too bad that common sense ain't

 

[ERNIEB]

Peter, FWIW, most of my experience with colic has been racehorses. Trainers have told me that some horses are just more prone to colic than others, although any horse can colic. To avoid colic, Trainers will establish a feeding regiment that is never varied away from. If the horse is fed at 5:00 am, he is fed at exactly 5:00 am every day. Same with hay. No matter what track the horse ships to, he is fed exactly the same thing, at exactly the same time. Some Trainers even use bottled water, so the horse can have the same water no matter where he goes. And as has already been mentioned temp of the water is monitored.
When the great Australian racehorse Pharlap came to the USA, a large amount of his feed was brought with him. Evidently it didn't help, because he coliced and died in California. Foul play was suspected, but thats another story. Anyway, I hope some of this helps.

ErnieB
"We must defend our rights, ourselves, and our country by force of arms."
Stephen F. Austin

 

[Wingnut]

fwiw ... an update. The little guy pulled through ok ... fortunately he was very healthy which helped. A week at the vet (teaching) hospital set me back $750 ... so he'd better sell fro a pretty penny! Thanks to all the advice, the barn is now equipped with heated buckets in every stall, I trashed all the older hay and found a great source for extra clean hay with very little alfalfa ... and we're watching all 5 minis with eagle eyes. The wife is wearing out at least 2 pairs of binoculars.
Now that I know what to watch for ... I caught the second case of colic early ... our little stallion came down with the same symptoms on New Year's evening ... and we used all the knowledge that we'd gained from the first case to immediately treat him ourselves. 4 Hours of warm water, mineral oil, blankets and walking, and walking, and walking later he seemed to be ok ... and he was back to his nromal Dennis-the-Menace mischevous self the next morning (although I was ultra tired for my first day back to work in 3 weeks!)
Told the wife she needed to consider a different hobby besides hayburners ...but she is ignopring me.

too bad that common sense ain't

 

[DennisY]

Wingnut,
I don't know much about horses but I do recall my father giving them a mixture of baking soda and ginger in a capsule with a baling (sp?) gun and it was for colic.

 

[Billc]

Wingnut, congrats on your horse pulling through. Know what you went through was trying times. Sounds like you learned a lot.

One thought: Do you leave your horses stalled a lot? I know when I first met my wife, the red head, she was about half crazy...she says I've gotten her all the way there now. She treated her horses like children. We don't have kids so these are her kids. Anyway, if it rained she stalled them. If it went below 40 she stalled them. Every night she stalled them. It made me nuts running to the barn all the time. A lot of other girls at her barn were the same way. Almost all of these girls were having continuing problems with their horses.

We go to Equitanna every year. It's held in Louisville. Anything you care to know about horses is taught there. Anyway, I was listening to a speaker, Gawanee Poneyboy (sp?) and he made perfect sense to me. He said that 80% of horses are owned and cared for by women. He said the main problem with horses (kicking, biting, mis-behaving, colicing, etc) is due to the fact that 80% of the horses are owned by women. I died laughing. This had been an argument my wife and I had had for several years. Then he said he had the answer to all of our problems. He told us to take out our note pads and right this down. He said if we always remembered it most of our problems would go away. This is the most important thing to know about horses. So here is what he said to write down....."A horse is really a horse!"

From that moment on we have treated our horse like horses. No more babying them.

About that time we moved to a new place that had 4 acres in pasture and a small horse barn. I would not let my wife stall the horses any more. I left the stalls open so the horses could go in if they chose, but for the most part they stayed outside, again, their choice.

From that day to this (4 years ago) 99% of our horse problems have gone away. We've had a horse colic once and that was because he got into a bunch of dog food that was at the neighbors. Other than normal care, no other problems. The horses are like night and day.

My point is this: Let your horses be horses. Make sure they are out lots and playing, running, and walking. This keeps their digestive tracks working properly. I don't think it is any different for mini horses.

Again, congrats on saving your horse.

Bill Cook

 

[cowboydoc]

Bill,
You are absolutely right! I've been around horses since I was born and we had so many growing up you didn't even think about stalling them unless it was for a show. We rarely had a need for a vet. I have around 30 horses most of the time with 12 mares and foals and never have a problem. No open mares, no breeding problems, etc. My mares are all pasture bred and foal in the pastures. Never a problem. In the winter I have three sided shelters built for them and give them plenty of hay and some grain to supplement, no problems. My neighbors have problems all the time. Shoot I even had one lady call the humane society onme because I left my horses out in a snow storm. They had hay, water, and shelter but she thought they should be in the stalls.
I went in partners on an equestrian center in town for about 6 months. Those people drove me nuts. Horses were stalled for any reason, little turnout time, overfeeding, etc., etc. We had the vet out daily! I sold my share in it because all the time was spent pampering the horses or caring for them and no time on the fun stuff.
Like the guy told you just let a horse be a horse!

Richard

 

[gerard]

Cowboydoc,
Do you ride regularly? I'm new to horses but my wifes been riding/owning them for 20 years. We take care of 3 and she rides regularly so we have to blanket them to keep them from growing thick winter coats. I guess if they do and you ride them it takes to long to cool them down and they get too sweated up. We put them out as much as possible but they come in every night. Haven't had a colic problem (that tapping sound you hear is me knocking on wood!) yet and we're pretty religious about the feeding times and keeping them with drinkable water.

 

[cowboydoc]

Gerard,
I ride nearly every single day. There are very few days that I miss. Now to your comment about having to keep a horses coat short that's one of those old wives tales. In no way at all will you have to wait one second longer for a horse to cool down with a thick coat or a thin coat. A horse cools down from the inside out. Very rarely do my horses ever build up a sweat in winter unless we are doing alot of work. Even then the horses coat is designed to keep the outside dry and the inside wet so the outside acts as a dryer for the inside. That's alot of work to always be taking blankets on and off. If fact you are putting your horse at great risk if you ride him and he gets sweaty with a thin coat. That coat grows for a reason. That is the horses defense, even with a blanket you're not making up for that coat of fur. It would be like if you were used to wearing a coat and then went out to go riding and took your coat off, pretty chilly. To cool your horse down all you need to do is walk them for the last 15-30 minutes of your ride and they will be plenty cooled down. If they are sweaty instead of putting a blanket on them let their hair grow out and put a cooler on them for a half hour. Unless you were showing my opinion would be to just let the hair grow.

Now as to you feeding every day at the same times and water that's great. Horses are very used to habit and get upset when it's altered. The other thing is make sure they have plenty of roughage, hay. Some people make the mistake of feeding more grain but you should feed more hay if you need more weight or if it gets cold.