Bugs in grain bag & colic - coincidence????

[targetsmom]

As elsewhere we are in a heat wave with temp last Thursday breaking our ALL TIME high, and a horse show Saturday. Friday night I opened a brand new feed bag of Blue Seal Carb Guard for our insulin resistant mare Princess, who is the one being shown. Everyone else gets either Nutrena Senior or Safe Choice. Anyway, there were BUGS in the grain, so I immediately called the feed store and was assured that while they LOOK bad, there is NO danger to the horses!! But they will give me a credit for the bag. Not really having an extra hour to replace the grain, I removed the top 10# or so, dumped the rest of the bag and doled it out for Saturday morning's feed. Fed the horses at 4:30 AM Saturday, load up at 5:30 and headed for the show (a 2 hour drive), all perfectly standard procedure. Princess has been doing this for 5-6 years and LOVES to show.

Get to the show, get her ready for her first class and realize she isn't right - she is parking out just like Max did when he was so sick!! Despite 50 years of horses, I have very little experience with colic - except for the kind that ends in surgery or death. Anyway, she was treated by me at the show (with support and advice from others), figuring she was better off there than trying to bring her home in the heat. We got her a stall (disinfected it and installed a fan), and by early afternoon after much walking, watching, and worrying, she pooped and felt better. By 6 PM we actually took her in a trail class to see how she was, because she was reluctant to walk back toward the trailer. She seemed OK, so we actually hooked her and did an obstacle driving class too, once we saw how happy she was to be harnessed!

Anyway, just wondering if you think the colic and the grain are related??? When we got back from the show I found she had only eaten about half of it (I saved the rest). I do plan to contact Blue Seal and the dealer! Or was the colic from the heat and the show itself???? If so, what can we do to prevent a future occurrence? (It seemed like a gas colic; at one point she actually shot up in the air and someone watching said it seemed like gas. She was treated with Maalox.) We used to love to show but a day like yesterday has us really rethinking our priorities.

 

[Minimor]

Well, depending what the bugs were--I would not expect the bugs to cause colic (not when I think of some of the things horses surely scarf down when they are out in the pasture grazing or eating hay off the ground or rooting through old, wet, yucky hay that is left on the ground in an old feeding area (I hate that, but they seem to love browsing through some of that stuff)--they surely eat a variety of bugs in the course of a day & they aren't bothered by it. Bugs in the grain is just nasty, though, and it would not make me happy to have the feed store tell me that it is okay to feed--because I simply won't feed anything that has bugs in it. Heck, I've returned BIRDSEED when I noticed it had bugs in it!

However, I would wonder what else might be going on with the grain when it's got bugs on it--bugs usually mean an issue with heat/humidity/storage/passage of time and it's possible that with any of those issues there could also be some mold in the grain, even if it wasn't obvious to the eye. Mold I would expect could/would cause colic. Unless the bugs were very bitter tasting beetles I doubt the bugs would put a horse off eating the grain--so since your girl ate only half her grain ration that would tell me that she was already feeling 'off' when you fed her & she simply didn't feel like eating, or else she didn't like the taste of the grain & didn't want to eat it. If it were the latter then I would suspect there was already mold in the grain & that's why she didn't like the taste of it.

 

[Windhaven]

Every summer my grain gets bugs. I use to throw it away but after the 5th bag or so, just can't keep doing it. I did talk to several feed stores and they all said the same thing. All grain has bugs, it just needs the right environment to hatch.

I was assured that it is not a problem to the horses. They are just grain bugs and the heat makes them hatch.

I have not had a horse colic from it. Knock on wood.

I sure wish I knew how to keep it from getting buggy but have not had any luck yet.

I am trying air tight sealed containers and it will take a lot but I save ever bucket that has an air tight lid now. Not the most convenient way to store grain, but if it works I will do this during the hot months. It seems to make a difference. And I only keep a small quantity on hand. Just have to make more trips to the feed store.

 

[targetsmom]

I think Minimor may have the right idea - it may not be the bugs per se, but the conditions that caused the bugs to be there - e.g. high heat and humidity. I am not sure how significant it is that Princess didn't eat all the grain, because she is not the fastest grain eater anyway - remember that it is low carb, so not as appetizing as some.

But if is wasn't the grain, then it could easily happen again at a show... Short of not showing ever again (which we are considering - this was our second show in a row and third of the last 6 where we weren't able to show after all the prep and in most case driving to the show) I welcome suggestions to avoiding colic episodes like this.

 

[Minimor]

I've only ever known personally of one horse that colicked at every show--a Morgan gelding that I saw at one show was VERY uncomfortable and had obvious colic symptoms--not real mild ones either--the owners shrugged it off saying he does this at every show. Just stress/nerves I assume--I personally would stop showing such a horse but they seemed determined to keep hauling him & letting him colic at every show.

With your mare....how much has she been shown previously? Has she had any problems with previous shows? Does she have issues with heat/humidity at home? Does she drink well away from home? If this is the first time she has had a problem I would probably try another show with her--perhaps not on an equally hot/humid day (unless this particular heat/humidity are normal for your location--I'm not sure if you are in the area that is affected by the unusually high temperatures/high humidity?) because it could easily be the weather more than the show that affected her. If she repeats the colic at the next show then I would probably not show her. If all is fine at the next show--then you probably need have no concerns that showing is bad for her innards.

When I haul to local shows I always take along my own water--that way the horses get to drink the water they are used to. We're on a well here and I don't know what these horses would think of drinking chlorinated water at the shows. If I were going to be gone a week or more I wouldn't be able to take along enough water & would have to do something different to ensure that they would drink other water, but when it's just a day show I can keep things exactly as the horses are used to & so I do. I have seen some people be very stingy with hay at the shows--I don't believe in that, my horses have hay in front of them pretty much all the time--it's what they are used to at home & so it is what they get at shows.

 

[targetsmom]

This is our 7 year old show mare and has been to LOTS of shows every year since she was a yearling and has always been fine and clearly loves to show. We are trying to complete her Pinto Supreme Championship and she has also been shown AMHA, AMHR, and at local shows and ADS events. She sometimes (like yesterday) does not like to go back to the trailer from the ring; she wants to show! We also take our own water and try to keep to as much a normal routine as possible, so we do not scrimp on the hay. She drinks OK at shows, not the best, but remember she colicked fairly soon after she arrived at the show. We also added a bit of Gatorade to water over the past few days and at the show. She did drink well yesterday and was eating hay after she arrived. And of course she had pooped in the trailer!

Some people commented yesterday that they don't grain in this heat and of course she isn't getting grain now until I can get more of her Carb Guard.

Thanks for all the comments!

 

[Minimor]

Okay, I would have to say I would assume this was just a fluke thing, a bad day for her for whatever reason and that her colic had nothing to do with the show specifically--and that it is okay to show her again.

Hope things will go better next time around!

 

[Cindy4H]

Not sure about the bugs, never had bugs in my grain before but do agree that maybe there was some mold it could have caused a problem. I limit grain when showing especially if its a long haul to the show and is going to be a really long tiring day for them. Rain has colicked in the past and I have to be really careful with him. As you know we didn't go to the show because Rain was acting colicky on friday . He just started on allergy meds on thurs, but I really think it was more the heat then anything. Once we had him hosed down and the fan up etc.. he was feeling much better but with the weather predicting it would be up to 98 again I didn't want to risk trailering him. He did go to the 4H show on Sunday ( only 1/2 hr away) and was fine. I wonder if maybe she was just not feeling well with all the heat fri and then add some iffy grain with trailering 2 hrs maybe it just put her over the edge. I definately wouldn't stop showing her, it was probably just a fluke . Hopefully it won't be as hot for the next show!

- Cindy

 

[targetsmom]

I have never had a problem before with feeding before travel (many horses, lots of years), but I guess I was lucky. We have an ADS show August 7 so I will try no grain - just wet beet pulp and hay before loading and see how that goes. Unless we break another all time record, it won't be as hot anyway! She has not seemed to be bothered by the heat at all, and I continue to work her - within reason - so that showing in the heat won't be that different.

 

[Mareish Mom]

I have had moldy Blue Seal grain in the summer before. I also would suspect that rather than the bugs. My solution? I buy my grain from a store that has a proper climate controlled storage facility. I bring it home and immediately empty the bags into airtight containers in my garage. Not the barn. Have not seen bugs or mold since. Oh, and I switched to Purina some years ago, they have the best reputation for quality control.