Colic

Working with horses in bad weather is difficult enough but ice has got to be the worst. Last Monday morning we’d had a covering of snow overnight which had turned to ice. It was not possible to get the horses in from the field or the ones that were in out of the stables. Tuesday morning the ice was as bad and we decided to leave the horses out until lunchtime. Hoping it might thaw enough to get them in. The ice was still bad but we had some grit we could put down and we managed to get in the horses and ponies needed for lessons that night and the Christmas gymkhana the following day. The rest we left out with hay in the field. Jess who had noticed that Fred had been lying down in the field was concerned that he seemed quite stressed in the stable so I went to have a look at him. As soon as I saw Fred I knew he had colic symptons. He was quite distressed. I took his rugs off as he was sweating and his respiration rate was over 45 breaths a minute (normal being between 8 to 15) He seemed more settled laying down although he did try to roll. I called the vet out. It was impossible to walk him as there was ice all over the yard. Although walking is useful for about 15 minutes if the colic is spasmodic it does nothing but tire your horse out if there is an impaction present. When the vet arrived she was quite concerned. She took his temperature and pulse which was up a bit and then gave him an injection of  Buscopan which is a muscle relaxant, she then had a feel internally and felt that the colic was caused by an impaction. This is the more serious type of colic and is the major cause of death in horses. The vet was not happy with his capillary refill and decided to adminster Liquid paraffin staright away. This involved passing a tube down through his nostril and into his stomach then mixing Liquid paraffin with warm water and pouring about third of a bucket through a funnel and down the tube. Hopefully the liquid paraffin will pass through the system and break down the blockage. The vet also injected some strong pain killers. We called the vet again at half five but there had been no change and although Fred was looking comfortable in himself due to the pain killers he had still not passed any droppings or ate or drank anything. The on call vet rang back at 7pm but there was still no change and he came out again at 10pm. He was pleased that Fred wasn’t any more distressed and looked well in himself and therefore felt that the cause was an impaction and not a twist but he was concerned that it had been at least 12 hours since he had ate or passed any droppings. Having had two horses with a severe impaction in the past both of which died I was now extremely worried.  We ran the tube through the nostril again and adminstered more liquid paraffin and more pain killers the vet also had a feel internally whilst doing this he dislodges some dropping which he felt looked oily as though the paraffin was getting through. He left with instructions to monitor him through the night and try to get him to eat or drink. I stayed up till 3pm and Steve took over from 4am. As the vet suggested we tried him with Bran mash, apples, carrots, apple juice in his water and handfuls of grass, the grass was the only thing he took an interest in but that was only to nibble a bit and spit it out. The following morning I rang at 10am, still no change. The vet said he would be out at 12 noon, this was now over 24hours with no food and no droppings. The vet arrived at 12pm and again was pleased that he wasn’t  looking to distressed as the pain killers would have been wearing off by now and decided to adminster one last dose of liquid paraffin. We had 40 plus kids in the indoor school for the Xmas Gymkhana at this point and I didn’t want them to see this so Jodie kept them in the school whilst Amelia and I assissted the vet. The vet felt that as he was comfortable we should give him more time and only make the decision to put him down if he became distressed. Only a handful of staff were aware of the situation and we have never been so pleased to see droppings in the stable at 4pm in the afternoon and an obvious wet patch, although he was still not eating. I stayed up most of the night on wednesday with him and on Christmas eve he did start to nibble at the grass i had picked so Steve found some grit to make a path from his stable to the garden so I could let him graze. He wasn’t very enthusiastic about eating but at least he was picking a bit. I am pleased to say by Christmas Day he seems to be back to normal. Sarah and Dave from Davey King Vet Practice Bridgend were marvellous and couldn’t have done more for him.

Posted on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 2:57 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.