poisonous stuff/colic

[Charlene]

i have been absolutely racking my brain trying to figure out the cause of little red's colic from yesterday. when i talked to my vet last night, after things had settled down and red seemed to be on the road to rapid recovery (which, thank you Jesus, he was!!!), doc asked me if it was possible that he had gotten into something....

i said the only thing i could think of was that when we were out driving sunday, he did reach down and grab a couple of bites of tall grass along the roadside but i never even gave it a thought. tuffy does it under saddle when we stop for a break and he's has never had a bad outcome. plus, the farmers around here don't spray, they mow. i have never known them to spray the roadsides.

so today i was thinking about this...is it possible that red could have ingested some of the fly spray i apply? i remember spraying them all down sunday afternoon. by no means do i "saturate" them, it's just a misting. but i often see red reach around to scratch a back leg with his teeth or reach around to scratch an itch on his side, etc....

do you think it's possible that he could have ingested enough to make him ill/give him a tummy ache? or do you think we should just go with the possibility of a gas colic, one of those things that happens and is beyond our control?...i think i'd rather think it was gas!

 

[RobinRTrueJoy]

More than likely not related to eating a couple of mouthfuls of tall grass.

How did his belly sound? If you didn't listen, you should. Listen when he is well and healthy. Get to know what "normal" bowel sounds, sound like.

Very quiet, usually an impaction or possibly a gas colic.

Quiet with high pitched " coiled spring" sounds(like BOING!) maybe a gas colic.

Quiet with a "pinging" sound, or sometimes a Plunk sound... like dropping a coin in an oil drum.... gas colic.

Listen when he is well. There are a lot of noise in there. A stethoscope is best.... but you can press your ear against the belly. ALWAYS listen on both sides too. There can be sounds on one side and NOT the other.... may mean something... manure...or gas and manure, is NOT getting through.

Also was his belly distended?? Was it hard? Look at his belly when he is well so that you notice a change. Sometimes a gas colic can make them look like a beached whale. Gracie just recovered from a bad bout and looked like a whale.

Good luck!

Robin

 

[Flaxenacres]

i have had 2 colics in the past week. 1 a big horse and 1 a mini weanling. The only thing they think could have happened is the drastic weather change. Here in Pa. last weekend we went from 90 to 50s in the night . and the same thing happened this weekend. My vet says that when the berimetric pressure change so drastic they have a hand full of horses that colic every time. The big horse is 21 yrs. and this is the 1st time she has ever colliced for me and I have owned her since she was 2yrs old. Lorie

 

[Charlene]

oh, one of the first things i did with him when i got him home was listen to both sides of his belly. i use a stethoscope. i did this several times, for several days, to accustom myself to what is normal for him. yesterday, there was virtually no sound on his right side and only a little "gurgling" on the left side. his belly wasn't what i would call hard and he did not look distended. i look for those signs, too.

i am leaning toward gas. today, his gut sounds are completely normal.

thanks for your input.

 

[Marty]

There is something that us old timers knew as "Monday Morning Azuria"

That is when the weekend riders would get out and work their horses hard on weekends, and do nothing with them during the week........the horses would "tie up"

The riders would go to the stable and say, "that horse doesn't get enough exercise" and boom, rides the crap out of him all day long to make up for it all at once.

Mind you, I am not saying or implying that you and your horse are in that category, just "splaining" this to you ok?

From your other post: WHAT DID I DO WRONG??? even though he wasn't terribly hot, i cooled him down well before i turned him out when we got back yesterday

See? You probably did nothing wrong........

Anyhow, your horse still could have suffered from MMA or also known as "tying up syndrome" anyhow. A short way of explaining it is a real bad case of muscle cramping after a working session. It is painful and can present as colic. Maybe he wasn't as conditioned as you thought he was? Maybe you didn't warm him up enough before you started out? And then maybe you did. Given the right conditions, the screwy temps, anything, MMA could have been the culprit.

Keep in mind that colic can happen to any horse, anytime, any where, and many times "for no apparent reason. " Personally, I think that weather changes do cause colic in horses; that a weather change is just an abrupt change in his body, just as bad as any other abrupt changes such as a feed change and horses are much more sensitive creatures than many will believe. If you happen to be experiencing a heat wave like I am here, or maybe excessive rain like some are having, I would not be surprised that your horse has reacted to it.

You are no doubt getting paranoid over this scary bought of colic which is what a good horsey owner does, but I want to let you know not to grasp at straws and try to blame yourself for it. Colic happens and many times there is just no rhyme or reason for it.

Now, go forth and conquer!

Carpe Diem!

as always,

Best Wishes

 

[ChrystalPaths]

Well said Marty. Our Minis, much as we adore them, do colic for almost any reason. It has been so cold here all week, nites low to 40, days only up to 64....now the end of the week they are calling for 88...I just said, "oh great..colic weather". We just have to love em and watch em and help when needed.

 

[Charlene]

yep marty, i'm old enough to be acquainted with equine azutoria although not on a personal level.

i know red isn't what we would consider "conditioned", after all he hasn't done anything other than eat, sleep and recycle hay for the past few years. that's exactly why i kept everything to a bare minimum on saturday and sunday. actually, saturday was mostly spent simply getting me familiar with the harness and sunday, i don't think we put a total of even 2 miles on.

i agree, sudden and/or drastic changes in the weather could very well bring colic on. how can it NOT be stressful to have to be outside in 100+ temps? ugh!

my big gelding, in the 20 years he's owned me, has colicked several times. it was almost always during the raw winter months. i always heated his water in the winter but i thought maybe if i heated it MORE, he would drink more so that's what i did. in the winter, steam rolls off of the water surface and if you were so inclined, you could comfortably take a bath in the stock tank. since i've been doing that, tuffy drinks more and colic with him is virtually non-existent now.