Colic- On the way to the clinic-Update

[Sandy B]

Our 2 yr old gelding we found this morning with all his feed from last night and uncomfortable.

So we are on our way to the vet clinic. He has no temperature and his heart rate is not high, but gut noises are very minimal. So I gave him some banamine and my hubby is hooking up the trailer while I pour us coffee for the road. Say a little prayer for Toby.....

UPDATE- We are back home from the vet clinic. Since Toby is a small guy no rectal was done but we did do xrays and it does show a impaction, although it is not large. So he was oiled and we brought him back home to watch. I am concerned about him not eating. He would eat if allowed to now, since the Banamine has made him comfortable, but I am under strict instructions that he can not have any food until he starts passing manure. There was manure in his stall from last night but he has not passed any since this morning, even on the trailer ride there and back he did not pass any. I asked the vet about the chance for his calcium levels to drop, but they did not seem concerned. They want us to continue to hand walk him several times today and if he does not pass anything by morning to bring him back or if he was to get real uncomfortable. Should I be worried about the no food deal and potential for the low calcium and go find a calcium supplement somewhere?

Thanks for everyones prayers and good thoughts.

Wednesday evening- Toby is home!

We are all so happy. He spent about 40 hours on fluids and lots of soft manure piles. The cliic was giving him a handful of grass hay every two hours and I am to slowly increase this over a period of 72 hours. I am being extra cautious and soaking his hay. We are supposed to hand walk him and if he seems to be doing good the vet said we can take him to the show this weekend since its so close to home and we are just hauling in for the day and he will only be shown in halter by my daughter. We will see how he is doing though. Thank you so much for all your prayers and to everyone for all the well wishes. My daughter and I are very grateful. I wish I could post a picture of Toby but I do not know how to make a picture smaller to be able to upload.

 

[White Socks Miniature]

Sending lots of good thoughts your way!

 

[tagalong]

Should I be worried about the no food deal and potential for the low calcium and go find a calcium supplement somewhere?

No.

No more food until he produces more than one pile of poop. No matter how interested he may appear to be. And after that - only small helpings.

I agree with the vet - his calcium levels are not going to be in peril...

Did the vet ask you to give him the Banamine before you brought him in? If not - and you were hauling him there anyway - it would be best not to give him any as it can mask symptoms that the vet may need to know about...

 

[Jill]

I'm saying prayers and really hope you find fresh poop from him soon!!! Anyone who's ever had a colic horse knows what a great thing it is to find horse poop!

 

[lildrummer]

I'm saying prayers and really hope you find fresh poop from him soon!!! Anyone who's ever had a colic horse knows what a great thing it is to find horse poop!

POOP IS GOOD

Good Luck,

Lildrummer

 

[Magic]

Prayers and good thoughts from me too! Good luck!

 

[Sandy B]

Should I be worried about the no food deal and potential for the low calcium and go find a calcium supplement somewhere?

No.

No more food until he produces more than one pile of poop. No matter how interested he may appear to be. And after that - only small helpings.

I agree with the vet - his calcium levels are not going to be in peril...

Did the vet ask you to give him the Banamine before you brought him in? If not - and you were hauling him there anyway - it would be best not to give him any as it can mask symptoms that the vet may need to know about...

No, the vet did not ask me to administer Banamine. I usually administer Banamine if a horse is uncomfortable as I can relay the horse's symptoms to the vet. I would rather a horse be comfortable in the trailer and relaxed than to find one down in the trailer upon arrival or worse yet cast or hung in the trailer. I was not looking to mask symptoms as most vets administer Banamine right away anyways. I take the horse vitals prior to the Banamine injections and relay those to the vet either over the phone or when I get to the clinic. Luckily I rarely have had any colic issues with my full size horses, but minis are new to me and I know to not mess around with mini colic. I just have heard the horror stories on this board about the low calcium illness that minis develop for one reason or another and was worried about that. I heard it was related to no intake of feed and since he has not ate or will be able to eat, I was worried. And still no poop from the lil guy

 

[RobinRTrueJoy]

There are paste electrolytes with glucose(sugar) that can be given while the horse is not allowed to eat. It can help in 2 ways... by supplying elctrolytes and hopefully making the horse a bit thristy and maybe he will drink, and by supplying sugar. Another thing you can do while he is not allowed to eat is give him an ounce of karo or mloasses or pancake syrup every so often. Keeps their blood sugars up.

Do not feed him even if he acts hungry till your vet gives the all clear. If he is impacted, it will only cause more of an impaction.

Good luck!

Robin

 

[Carolyn R]

I wouldn't be overly concerned about the no eating. If he doesn't pass anything by morning they can administer more oil via tubing, and give lactated ringers/electrolytes via a cath line. Hopefully you'll be able to go out and find a huge wet pile glistening with oil. We'll be sure to pray for poop for your guy, been there, it's not fun.

 

[wildoak]

Been there done that too many times, most recently a week ago with my boarders gelding. I'm pretty stingy with feed for a couple of days after a colic - I start back with a little alfalfa, maybe a little grazing...and then work my way back up over several days to full grain. This guy gets Eq Sr, pretty digestible stuff, and he is just now back up to full rations a week later. He's colicked 4-5 times in the last year though so we are being ultra careful with him. If they have a tendency to not drink enough electrolytes are great, also a bucket of warm water with a little beet pulp as part of a maintenence diet.

Hope you have no more problems!

Jan

 

[Sandy B]

Our 2 yr old gelding we found this morning with all his feed from last night and uncomfortable.

So we are on our way to the vet clinic. He has no temperature and his heart rate is not high, but gut noises are very minimal. So I gave him some banamine and my hubby is hooking up the trailer while I pour us coffee for the road. Say a little prayer for Toby.....
UPDATE- We are back home from the vet clinic. Since Toby is a small guy no rectal was done but we did do xrays and it does show a impaction, although it is not large. So he was oiled and we brought him back home to watch. I am concerned about him not eating. He would eat if allowed to now, since the Banamine has made him comfortable, but I am under strict instructions that he can not have any food until he starts passing manure. There was manure in his stall from last night but he has not passed any since this morning, even on the trailer ride there and back he did not pass any. I asked the vet about the chance for his calcium levels to drop, but they did not seem concerned. They want us to continue to hand walk him several times today and if he does not pass anything by morning to bring him back or if he was to get real uncomfortable. Should I be worried about the no food deal and potential for the low calcium and go find a calcium supplement somewhere?

Thanks for everyones prayers and good thoughts.

Update 2- He started to get uncomfortable again about 4:00 PM and passed some oil with no manure. Finally he passed some manure, not what I would call a full mini pile though. It was soft and had oil on it. But he still continued to get real painful so I called the vet. She had me give another dose of Banamine. We are both not happy that the last dose did not last closer to 12 hours though. The plan is, if he get painful again after this dose wears off than they want me to call and will probably bring him back to the clinic.

 

[wildoak]

Sorry you are still having problems with him. I've had horses tubed with epsom salt a couple of times when it wasn't resolved with mineral oil. I think it's a little harder on them, hence the reason it's not the first thing used normally, but it sure gets things moving. We had a mare I had almost resigned myself to losing (past colic surgery, bad impactions...) and this is what got her through her last episode. Has probably been 5 years ago, and I'm just extremely careful now with her diet.

Jan

 

[tagalong]

Well, at least something is moving through there... sometimes they can experience a bit more pain as things start moving through again with the accompanying gas etc. Hopefully that is all it is... *crosses fingers*

We are both not happy that the last dose did not last closer to 12 hours though.

I guess this surprised me a bit - I never expect Banamine to last more than 8 hours...

I hope your little guy improves and I hope you can avoid another trip to the clinic...

 

[RobinRTrueJoy]

If you have the vet see him again, ask him about DSS( I think that is what it is) Its the active ingredient that is in human stool softeners to help soften the impaction.) It worked for one of mine.

Also, there is an injection that will help the intestines to move it along, like human Reglan, that worked well for us too.

Did the vet give anything like Milk of Magnesia to try to get this moving?

Jan, I, too, have had success with epsom salts with a mare.

I am not a vet, just wondering, as some of these things helped my horses.

Robin

 

[bevann]

I also had had success with impaction colics with tubing epsom salts and metamucil.Vet has to work fast with metamucil since it clogs tube quickly.My recent colic case I was sure was going to die-she was so bad she was throwing herself on the ground.Vet was here at 9PM back again at 1 AM and we finally resolved it.Severe impaction from not drinking enough.Not she gets very wet beet bulp, hay in water(nothing dry) and molasses soup to drink.good luck and keep us posted.I have also used DSS, but it does make them crampy.Vet says it churs everything up in there, but sometimes that is what it takes.Keeping you in my prayers.

 

[Sandy B]

Our 2 yr old gelding we found this morning with all his feed from last night and uncomfortable.

So we are on our way to the vet clinic. He has no temperature and his heart rate is not high, but gut noises are very minimal. So I gave him some banamine and my hubby is hooking up the trailer while I pour us coffee for the road. Say a little prayer for Toby.....
UPDATE- We are back home from the vet clinic. Since Toby is a small guy no rectal was done but we did do xrays and it does show a impaction, although it is not large. So he was oiled and we brought him back home to watch. I am concerned about him not eating. He would eat if allowed to now, since the Banamine has made him comfortable, but I am under strict instructions that he can not have any food until he starts passing manure. There was manure in his stall from last night but he has not passed any since this morning, even on the trailer ride there and back he did not pass any. I asked the vet about the chance for his calcium levels to drop, but they did not seem concerned. They want us to continue to hand walk him several times today and if he does not pass anything by morning to bring him back or if he was to get real uncomfortable. Should I be worried about the no food deal and potential for the low calcium and go find a calcium supplement somewhere?

Thanks for everyones prayers and good thoughts.

Monday AM Update- Toby is still hanging in there. He has not had anymore Banamine since 4:30 yesterday afternoon and has remained pretty comfortable besides the occasional stretching. He only has pooped one more time and that was midnight last night. His attitude is good and he is hungry. But he is not drinking well and no flood gates of poop have opened, so we are headed back to the clinic this morning to have him oiled again. I will ask the vet about all the suggestions. I myself had wondered about milk of magnesia and epson salt. Thanks for everyones prayers.

 

[madmax]

A suggestion: in my experience, having the vet give an iv of ringers solution has successfully rehydrated my horse, pulling water into the gut and moving along the impaction.

I am not a vet, just my experience with my horses having an impaction, also used with high fevers.

Hope he recovers well and soon.

 

[Sandy B]

Our 2 yr old gelding we found this morning with all his feed from last night and uncomfortable.

So we are on our way to the vet clinic. He has no temperature and his heart rate is not high, but gut noises are very minimal. So I gave him some banamine and my hubby is hooking up the trailer while I pour us coffee for the road. Say a little prayer for Toby.....
UPDATE- We are back home from the vet clinic. Since Toby is a small guy no rectal was done but we did do xrays and it does show a impaction, although it is not large. So he was oiled and we brought him back home to watch. I am concerned about him not eating. He would eat if allowed to now, since the Banamine has made him comfortable, but I am under strict instructions that he can not have any food until he starts passing manure. There was manure in his stall from last night but he has not passed any since this morning, even on the trailer ride there and back he did not pass any. I asked the vet about the chance for his calcium levels to drop, but they did not seem concerned. They want us to continue to hand walk him several times today and if he does not pass anything by morning to bring him back or if he was to get real uncomfortable. Should I be worried about the no food deal and potential for the low calcium and go find a calcium supplement somewhere?

Thanks for everyones prayers and good thoughts.

We are back from the vet clinic. They were happy with Toby's attitude and his heart rate was down from yesterday. While he was being tubed, he went poop

The vet was very happy to see it (as were we). So she gave us the ok to give him a bran mash and do a little hand grazing. If after 5 hours he is still comfortable and we see another pile of poop, he can have another bran mash with a few soaked alfalfa cubes. She wants us to go slow with his feed, which we plan to do. Toby has been such a trooper never once having to be sedated for the tubing. He is such a good boy. We will continue to keep our fingers crossed he recovers enough to make the show this weekend. My daughter has been waiting for this show since she got him. Luckily it is very close to home and I will take extra precautions with his diet and health.

I did ask the vet about some of the suggestions you all mentioned and she said that they sometime do add salts or stronger laxatives to the tubing, but felt he had not reached that point yet. She mentioned that sometimes it can be pretty hard on them too.

So Toby is finishing up his extra soupy bran mash, slurping every bit and thoroughly enjoying it.

 

[Jill]

It really sounds like he's heading in the right direction!!! I am glad to read your updates on him

 

[cretahillsgal]

I agree with administering an IV of fluid if your horse is not drinking well.

I recently had a mare colic. Not a bad colic, but uncomfortable and just enough to keep me worried. She would occasionally pass a couple pieces of hard poop. And wanted to eat, but didn't want to drink. We were administering ProBios, GastroGard, and banamine.

After 2 days the vet finally gave in and gave her an IV. About halfway into the IV of fluids she perked up and started to become a regular pest again. And pooped 4 HUGE piles by the next morning.