Pistol coliced...AGAIN! The first time he was 16, we went through several bouts before we got over it, he was doing so well! He coliced again around 20ish... and now here he is at 24 and colicing again... .... UGH!
Had the vet out... $280 later it's a let's see how he does game... He seems like he's doing ok....I keep checking on him.... He pooped once.... it was hard, but it was a poop..... ugh!
Do you know why he is colicing? A change of feed? eating something he shouldn't be? Change in exercise? Change in routine? I know there are a billion other things that can cause it from the inside like ulcers etc but maybe if you can find a reason to prevent it?
he usually suffers from sand colic becuase his teeth are so bad that he drops grain all over the place and then gobbles it up from the ground.... But this time it is actually an impaction colic. Maybe from the dry summer. He must not be drinking as much as he should be. They put water and mineral oil in his tummy today and I had given him banamine. I checked on him a little while ago, he seems to be feeling better although he's still not quite right. He had two poops today, plus the stuff the vet pulled out for him...Hopefully tomorrow he'll be feeling better.
I thought he was dehydrated so I called and talked to the vet on the phone but she said you can't tell like you do w/ regular animals, you know where you pull the skin up and if it stays, they are dehydrated, she said that isn't a good reference for older horses. She said if you were going to do that you'd have to do it at the eyelid.... Anyway... I geuss he's doing a little better this evening... Hopefully by morning I'll see at least a couple nice greasy piles of poop....
If he has such dental issues that he drops lots of feed, lack of chewing may also add to the risk of impaction. You might want to consider switching from grains to a pelleted senior complete feed. These provide better nutrition for senior horses due to their increased digestibility plus they are much easier to eat with the addition of just a little bit of water.
If he has such dental issues that he drops lots of feed, lack of chewing may also add to the risk of impaction. You might want to consider switching from grains to a pelleted senior complete feed. These provide better nutrition for senior horses due to their increased digestibility plus they are much easier to eat with the addition of just a little bit of water.
He's been on equine senior for years. I would wet it down but he won't eat it that way. He can eat compressed alfalfa and that helps. I feed him in a stall in a corner feeder. I am going to put rubber matting in the stall and then I'll use minimal pine shavings, which will help. He's on a monthly sandclear and he recieves probios. When people give me "ideas"... I try them... never hurts... I'm not switching his feed though, Equine Senior (purina) has worked well for him, I was tempted once to try that blueribbon brand but chickened out....
No, I wouldn't switch from the Equine Senior either--it's what I had in mind. It is a complete senior feed.
If he won't eat it wet, try just adding a tiny amount of water at first--stir it around to make sure that all of the pellets get damp as this helps soften them. Many horses will balk at a sudden serious change in texture but if you do it slowly they won't mind. I had to start our old man out slowly on the wet senior but now he likes it just fine.
The compressed alfalfa may be part of the blockage problem because forage and especially dried forage requires serious chewing in order to digest well. Equine Senior is designed to provide all the fiber necessary in a horse's diet, so you could cut out the alfalfa and just increase the amount of Senior he gets. It will keep the diet balanced as well.
at the barn i work at, the horses live in sand paddocks so we feed our horses psyllium once a month for a week. we've never had a horse colic from the sand since we started.
Thats a good suggestion, I have seen people put down old conveyor belt rubber (do you know the black flexible rubber?) and feed over that to prevent their horses from eating too much dirt if they are eating in the paddock.
I've done the plywood thing!!! LOL, and it does work, I think the issue is that the summer has been just so dry that the dirt is getting mixed in w/ the hay because I do feed my hay on the ground... I may have to consider the corner hay feeders....
Ryle, When I said compressed alfalfa, I don't mean the cubes, I do have the cubes but I use them for treats, I meant the compressed bales of alfalfa that you buy at Booth feeds for an astronomical price.... Do you think I could wet them down? Just a teensy bit...
Wetting down the alfalfa isn't likely to do much since it's not a processed pellet. It's the processing to make the Equine Senior so easily digestible that also makes it easy to turn into a mush with just a bit of water. Adding water to a compressed, but otherwise unprocessed forage isn't going to do anything to make it more easy to chew or digest.
Farmpony, I'm glad to hear your guy pulled through. I wonder if a bit of oil would help him with his food? Maybe Ryle would know. I do know it makes it easier to go down, but once it's in the digestive system, I don't know.
hav eyou tried other senior feeds that do not have as many grains as the Purina does?? I would look for one that had little to NO grains .. and has a fixed formula so you know the feed is the same everytime and NOT least cost effective
For what it's worth, Justin has coliced 8 times in 10 years...most were gassy/grassy colics when the grass would get too green too quick, but he has had 2 impaction colics. After the last one, I said "no more!" and now he lives on soup. He has always been known to not drink enough, so the extra water really helps. Your guy probably won't like the change in texture at first, but if he gets hungry, he'll sure enough eat it.
For every 3 pounds of grain Justin gets, he also gets at least 2 gallons of water on top...his poops are consistent and well formed now...and I can be sure he's getting the adequate water intake he needs (3 feedings of grain = ~6 gallons of water + 2 feedings of alfalfa soup = ~6 gallons of water)
I'm glad to hear he's pulling through! We feed on plywood out in the pasture and when they are in their pen we have a cattle feeder/trough thingy. Its low enough to the ground that they aren't eating on a very raised surface (like corner feeders & hay nets) but its high enough that they aren't kicking dirt into it. I think I may have a picture of it.
awww...It's not a very good picture but the feeder is the long dark shadowy figure up close by the white fence posts. (you can see the chickens hanging out by it.) It's long enough the horse's don't fight for food and we can put the mineral/salt blocks in it too.
so much work! I'm adding about 2 inches of water to his grain right before I dump it and he's eating it... I'm going to keep upping the water over time and the boy will learn to eat soup!!!! LOL... UGH...
Aww, he sure looks like a sweet boy to be giving all this trouble! My mare had a gassy colic a couple months after she foaled because the "experienced hauler" was taking her across Arizona at the end of June in the hottest part of the day w/ a non-air conditioned trailer. I made him stop at a vet for an overnight stay that ended up costing $685.
I feel for you and im so glad he is better. I take alfalfa cubes and drench them in water, wait until they have absorbed them up, then give it to my horses, but it packs down, which makes it hard to get to, so prolly wouldn't work for your boy. Poor thing! He looks great for his age though!
my friends horse had an impaction colic because of not drinking enough, what she does now is to put three or four tablesspoons of salt in each feeding. that way her horse HAS to eat the salt and it makes her drink more. Its been about three or four years and they haven't had a problem since. just a suggestion for you. =]
awwwww I hope he gets better and doesnt colic again!
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