Coincidence or something more?

[Roxy's Run]

Brother and sister - one year apart in age. Sister colics, twists, and is put down at four years of age. Brother same exact thing a year later at four years of age also. Coincidence? Both resembled their sire in type, stature, movement, mannerisms. Vet even questioned if both were related but didn't comment further when told yes. Could this be something genetic from the sire? Just a bad breeding combination of sire and dam? Or just coincidence? Thank you for any input or opinions.

Linda

Roxy's Run Miniatures

 

[Miniv]

I've very sorry for your losses, Linda. And you have brought up a very valid question. This should be something we as breeders should do some research on......... Personally, I do not believe it's a coincidence. (I don't tend to believe in coincidences in general, but that's beside the point.)

The reason why my ears perked up by your question is that I've been noticing digestive problems/colic has also been running in families for us too.

Along the same lines..... we see that when a mare is an excellent broodmare, her daughter has a high chance of being one too.....

 

[minimule]

I have a mare that is now 10. At 2 she impacted and we opted for surgery. She had a "rock" about 1.5" square stuck at her lower intestine. She had a smaller piece a little further back that was still "floating". She was my baby and a true fighter and survived. Her little 3/4 sister at the age of 2 coliced. We took her to the vet but she wasn't near the fighter the first one was. The vet didn't think she would survive the surgery so we opted to put her down. He did a necropsy and found a blockage, exactly like the first mare's in the same spot.

Now, the sire to mare #1 was a full brother to the sire of mare #2, both mares out of the same dam. Sire #1 was 32" and sire #2 was only 27". I've always felt it was something genetic (no proof of it) and made the decision to never breed the surviving mare. Her dam is a great broodmare, 32.5" and has never been sick a day in her life. Mare #1's full brother has had several bouts of colic but so far never had surgery. I'm very careful what my little mare eats because she will colic with certain foods.

With my own experience, I think there can be genetic defects.

eda: For reference: None of my other horses have had these kind of issues. I have one mule that will stress colic on a very rare occassion but his is a whole other page of a story. Other than these 2......(knocking VERY hard on wood now

) I haven't had colic issues.

 

[ruffian]

I have 2 full sisters. Had a third one, she has been sol

Oldest mare is thin as can be - probably a scale 3. Cannot get weight on her. Free choice hay and pasture, 2-3 c of Strategy every feeding.

Youngest mare is obese - on less than 1/2 flake of hay and 1/4 cup of Safechoice once a day. Foundered last year after being on pasture for months.

Middle mare as far as I know is in decent weight and has not had the problems that the other 2 have had

I have a mother/daughter pair that roll constantly. As soon as they get out of their stalls, they want to stop drop and roll!

This is an interesting thread!

 

[love_casper]

I haven't done a whole heck of a lot of research, but if there is a genetic component, I wish breeders would DO SOMETHING about it!!!!!!

My little boy Charm had coliced 13 times by the time he was 3 years old! 7 of them required hospital visits. For a $500 horse, I sure have put thousands into him!!! But I'm not sure if perhaps the climate just didn't settle with him... we were in dry, sandy, dusty CA, with bad quality hay. Now, we have moved to CO and switched him to bagged hay, and so far (knocking on would) he hasn't had one problem. I own his mother as well, and she has "stomach o' steel" as we call it... this girl is the only one that never had problems with bad hay, and is pretty much a garbage disposal for anything she can get into her mouth. So if it's genetic, it either came from his father, or things like this skip a generation.

Perhaps it's just environmental though? Even if mine weren't all colicing, they were having other issues from the climate, frequent dehydration, sand intake, going off feed, etc. Not that you can blame anyone in those types of situations, but maybe it's just that whatever caused the first one to colic had the same effect on the other one. On the other hand, if it wasn't doing anything to your other horses, maybe their genetics caused it to only effect the two of them? Interesting....

 

[Roxy's Run]

Thank you for your thoughts and experiences. To clarify, I own the sire and my best friend owns the dam and the two deceased foals.

As soon as my friend called me yesterday and told me about the colt twisting, I called my vet to arrange to have my stallion gelded. (waiting to hear back) These were his only two foals and I'm not going to try for a third. Maybe it is just a coincidence, maybe not. I don't know and will never know, but why take the chance?

Linda

Roxy's Run Miniatures