Colic question

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Maxi'sMinis

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I gave him banamine, Probios and a little ace cause he was really trying to roll. He would get down and we couldn't get him up. After a couple hours of walking and all he seemed to be getting a little better. There was still no gut sounds and he was having spasmic ab pains. Then he started having a drainage from his nose and sounded like he couldn't breath. I called the vet, packed him up and took him to be seen. When we got there 45.mins later, I got him out of the trailer and the stuff coming from his nose had stopped. He had loud gut sounds and was much perkier and wanted to. eat grass. The vet wasn't concerned at all. He checked his lungs, gave a listen to his stomach and said sounds OK now. I asked if I should be concerned about pneumonia and he said just keep an eye on him. So my question is have you ever seen the liquidy looking feed come out of the nose? This freaked me out. I thought he had to have a blockage or be choking. I kinda felt stupid being so concerned and the vet seemed to be annoyed with me.
 
The only time I had a horse with frothy liquid coming from its nose (mostly green grass) it was choking. Choke can be cleared by the horse and if your horse was choking this may be what happened. I wouldn't worry about your vet being annoyed, better safe than sorry is always a good motto. Glad he's feeling better.
 
One of my clients Freisian colts died from a colic and he had greenish liquid coming out his nose. Can't remember what the vet said, but it's a bad sign.

Choke (the few times I've seen it ) is a foamy liquid.
 
liquid from the nose can be from choke or from reflux(maybe there are other causes too, but those are the ones I know of). Reflux will occur when the GI track is at a standstill and nothing is going down (think of it as a drain that is blocked, you can put more in the sink, but it just won't go down). When reflux occurs due to an impaction or enteritis (sp) the horse would have other severe pain symptoms. Reflux from a situation like this is really bad, if not tubed out it can cause the intestines to rupture.

Most likely you had a two-for, two issues at the same time, a colicy horse that had choke that cleared on its own. If it were due to the above, you would know it.

Hopefully he is fully recovered.

Carolyn
 
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I AGREE with ALL of the above posters...........You could have been dealing with a colic AND a choke combination, or one causing the other....... Just the trailer ride itself may have helped the situation, who knows?

If I had a relationship with my vet, I would definitely verbally smack him........(I try to develop a working relationship with them.) A good vet knows that ANYTHING is possible with our guys.

There is also the possibility that you were dealing with a GAS colic and CHOKE........

To help with a colic, we also give banamine, plus mineral oil..........In addition to that -- if we suspect a gas colic we mix some vinegar and water into the mineral oil. This helps break up any gas bubbles. And it doesn't hurt things if it's not gas.

Hope this isn't TMIF............
 
MA, what does the vinegar do?

I use a bottle(approx 2ounces of pure simethicone( baby tummy drops) to help break up the gas, but never heard of vineagar. I am very open to new ideas, tell me about it!

Robin
 
Definetly not TMI. My boy had to of had gas colic and then a back up of fluid through his nose. That is exactly what happened. The fluid was clear brown liquid at first and then it started looking like it had food in it. He only had timothy hay and water yesturday morning before this happened. He is fine now. His tummy is still a little distended but he is acting normal. I'm not to sure about this vet, he doesn't seem like he gives a hoot. The only problem is equine vets are few and far between around here.

Do you think this kind of thing can happen again in the same horse, like they are more sensitive or prone to gas colic?

I have been feeding a good timothy hay but lately my minis are looking like they are getting bellys. Do you think the hay could be a problem? My biggies are fine on this hay.
 
The vinegar.....just a few tablespoons in with warm water and mineral oil is supposed to break up gas bubbles.

We were advised of this last year by another horse person and have tried it a couple of times. So far so good! And, if it's not a gas colic, the vinegar doesn't hurt anything. (I would be cautious if it's an ulcer, though.) The vinegar is a holistic method for breaking up gas bubbles.
 

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