REO
Well-Known Member
I want to start off by saying I know some people say that the things I do don't work. I'm sure there'll be those that want to flame what I did. But I hope no one does.
I could just say my colt had colic and we helped him, but then, people would be asking what we did. So I'm going to tell you what we did. If you don't agree with those things, I hope you'll be nice about it!
Because they worked for US.
Our colt who was 5 weeks old, was down when we went to feed Wed. He was up earlier that day. In fact, Tues evening I noted that he had soft poop.
What we do and what we've done for 20 years is, I get a container full of warm water. And a child sized Fleet enema. Yes I use them over & over again. Yes I know how to use them gently. We had gotten a big square bale of hay and unknown to us, it was full of those tiny round burrs. We got the hay Saturday and Monday Lady went down with colic. As I do with the adults, I gave her 10 enemas. Each doesn't hold much water. I do not walk horses, I let them rest and relax. I know my guts can't relax if I'm uptight! I want the water to stay in there as long as possible. Soon she was passing gas and a poop wet from all the water. She had gas colic. After she felt fine, I gave her some Banamine.
I have been doing the enemas like that for 20 years and except for 2-3 times, (once 15 years ago, once 10 years ago and this time on him) ALWAYS works for us in getting horses through colic ourselves. We do call the vet when we need to. And I suggest people always call their vets. I'm only telling what *I* do.
WED SO! When we saw the colt down, we brought him & his mom into the foaling pen to be under camera. We gave him a few little enemas and watched. Pure clean water came out each time we did that. I knew right away he was blocked up. I mean, 100% blocked! I gave him a little banamine orally. That helped him.
Thurs I called the vet in the AM before the office even opened. Vet said he'd be out soon. I know not to give them anything for pain, that the vet will, but he was rolling around in pain so I gave him a little Banamine orally at 8:30 AM and that didn't help. It killed me to watch the colt lay and roll for 5 hours until the vet got there. (He had clients all day) I asked if he'd tube him and he said that does more harm than good. He listened and the colt had no gut sounds and he said the colt was blocked. He said the intestines had not twisted yet. He gave the colt just an IV and pain shot. After some IV he listened and said he could hear a little gut sounds now. The vet left a girl with me and she couldn't hold him and he ripped out the IV. The vet had to come to my house 3 times that day (Thurs) I'd asked him if he'd be around if we needed him and he said he'd be around but there was nothing else he could do for the colt. That he'd refer us to a hospital up North.
~~Don't flame me but I know we're not the only ones that don't have $3000-$7000 laying around for colic surgery. And they pretty much won't let you in the door without a credit card, which we don't have~~
We knew then that it was up to us to get the colt through this and hoped the vet would still help us. You do the best with what you have in this life!
Fri The colt did better through the night. But I knew in the AM that he needed more. I gave him a little banamine. I called the vet office in the AM & asked if the vet would please come out as soon as he could. It took 4 hours before she called me back saying the vet said he didn't think another IV would help. That was what I wanted because when he said he heard gut sounds the day before, I got hopeful. I had given him banamine and probios. And a few times a day, tried the enemas. Only clear water came back out.
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Know here, I don't drive. I am VERY GRATEFUL TO OUR VET! He knows that if I call and ask him to come, that it's serious and he DOES COME. If he didn't, we wouldn't have saved Suki 2 years ago and now this colt. My vet leaves all of his appointments waiting and comes and helps me. So I don't want to hear anything about my vet
They are people and have lives too.
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Still Friday~~~Karrel got home early and I told him to hitch up the truck and lets go! So we did and we got there and the vet was gone already but there was another vet there that put a new cath. in and sewed it in for us and gave us all the IVs and stuff we needed. It was Friday of the 4th of July weekend and his care was up to us!
The colt's belly was distended and he wasn't doing well at all. The 2nd vet had given him a shot into the IV. 2 hours after we got home the colt was grinding his teeth and we were losing him. I knew it was up to me and nothing could hurt at this point. I had Karrel go get some Citursel. I figured, it would put fluid in the front end and might work on the blockage from this end. It doesn't cause bloating or gas. I felt stupid for not thinking of it before. Still tried enemas and gave probios. He started rolling into the fence and I told Karrel to watch him for that, as I'd had to roll him out of it a few times. We gave him more IV that night.
Sat Why was he still alive? He had NOT gone potty in all those days. His belly was bigger still. He just wanted to lay around and roll. We did all the same things for him as we'd been doing. And I cut open 2 GasX gels into a sip of water and gave him that too. We knew that this was probably his last day. He was starting to suffer. Through all of this since it started, he only nursed after he'd had an IV or banamine. We'd wanted to give him all the chance we could, but wouldn't let him suffer.
Of couse, having him on the foal cam we were watching him around the clock. Sat around noon we were sitting in here and Karrel jumped up and flew out the door saying something I couldn't hear. I followed him out. Turned out the colt was rolled into the fence. Karrel went to get him out of it, but the colt saw him coming and scrambled out himself. As I got there, I saw Karrel talking to him and petting him to calm him.
Then!!!!! I heard Karrel talking, "Come on you can do it!" the colt's tail lifted, PUSHING and this THING came out! I was stunned! Karrel pumped his fist in the air and I started bawling my head off and thanking God! I'm crying again as I write this! My colt who we were going to lose that day just passed the blockage!!!
It was as big around as his intestine, about 3" long and hard as a rock! And you could see the burrs packed into it.
I'm not saying that enemas got that thing out. But all that water we put in there didn't come back out and did go somewhere. It is my thoughts that if nothing is moving in the intestines behind the blockage, that those might start to shrivel and get dry and then nothing could pass if it wanted to. I'm thinking the water kept his insides hydrated and did help him!
Here it is a week later and he's still with us! His belly went right down. The Citursel helped clean him out. But we're still watching him. He's not as perky as I'd like. He's not going potty as I want him to. But he's nursing well again. The thing I don't like is the lumps and white-yellow puss that is coming out of both sides of his neck where they put the IVs in. I'd never seen that before. What should we do about that?
Sorry to bore you all to death (too late! LOL)
But lots of people have asked me to tell the tale about our colt. Somehow a miracle got him though that 100% blockage.
Thank you to those that knew and sent prayers!
I know it sounded simple. But I was a MESS through it all and back & forth to the barn day & night and watching him & caring for him a lot. Thanks for listening!
I could just say my colt had colic and we helped him, but then, people would be asking what we did. So I'm going to tell you what we did. If you don't agree with those things, I hope you'll be nice about it!
Because they worked for US.
Our colt who was 5 weeks old, was down when we went to feed Wed. He was up earlier that day. In fact, Tues evening I noted that he had soft poop.
What we do and what we've done for 20 years is, I get a container full of warm water. And a child sized Fleet enema. Yes I use them over & over again. Yes I know how to use them gently. We had gotten a big square bale of hay and unknown to us, it was full of those tiny round burrs. We got the hay Saturday and Monday Lady went down with colic. As I do with the adults, I gave her 10 enemas. Each doesn't hold much water. I do not walk horses, I let them rest and relax. I know my guts can't relax if I'm uptight! I want the water to stay in there as long as possible. Soon she was passing gas and a poop wet from all the water. She had gas colic. After she felt fine, I gave her some Banamine.
I have been doing the enemas like that for 20 years and except for 2-3 times, (once 15 years ago, once 10 years ago and this time on him) ALWAYS works for us in getting horses through colic ourselves. We do call the vet when we need to. And I suggest people always call their vets. I'm only telling what *I* do.
WED SO! When we saw the colt down, we brought him & his mom into the foaling pen to be under camera. We gave him a few little enemas and watched. Pure clean water came out each time we did that. I knew right away he was blocked up. I mean, 100% blocked! I gave him a little banamine orally. That helped him.
Thurs I called the vet in the AM before the office even opened. Vet said he'd be out soon. I know not to give them anything for pain, that the vet will, but he was rolling around in pain so I gave him a little Banamine orally at 8:30 AM and that didn't help. It killed me to watch the colt lay and roll for 5 hours until the vet got there. (He had clients all day) I asked if he'd tube him and he said that does more harm than good. He listened and the colt had no gut sounds and he said the colt was blocked. He said the intestines had not twisted yet. He gave the colt just an IV and pain shot. After some IV he listened and said he could hear a little gut sounds now. The vet left a girl with me and she couldn't hold him and he ripped out the IV. The vet had to come to my house 3 times that day (Thurs) I'd asked him if he'd be around if we needed him and he said he'd be around but there was nothing else he could do for the colt. That he'd refer us to a hospital up North.
~~Don't flame me but I know we're not the only ones that don't have $3000-$7000 laying around for colic surgery. And they pretty much won't let you in the door without a credit card, which we don't have~~
We knew then that it was up to us to get the colt through this and hoped the vet would still help us. You do the best with what you have in this life!
Fri The colt did better through the night. But I knew in the AM that he needed more. I gave him a little banamine. I called the vet office in the AM & asked if the vet would please come out as soon as he could. It took 4 hours before she called me back saying the vet said he didn't think another IV would help. That was what I wanted because when he said he heard gut sounds the day before, I got hopeful. I had given him banamine and probios. And a few times a day, tried the enemas. Only clear water came back out.
--------------------------
Know here, I don't drive. I am VERY GRATEFUL TO OUR VET! He knows that if I call and ask him to come, that it's serious and he DOES COME. If he didn't, we wouldn't have saved Suki 2 years ago and now this colt. My vet leaves all of his appointments waiting and comes and helps me. So I don't want to hear anything about my vet
---------------------------
Still Friday~~~Karrel got home early and I told him to hitch up the truck and lets go! So we did and we got there and the vet was gone already but there was another vet there that put a new cath. in and sewed it in for us and gave us all the IVs and stuff we needed. It was Friday of the 4th of July weekend and his care was up to us!
The colt's belly was distended and he wasn't doing well at all. The 2nd vet had given him a shot into the IV. 2 hours after we got home the colt was grinding his teeth and we were losing him. I knew it was up to me and nothing could hurt at this point. I had Karrel go get some Citursel. I figured, it would put fluid in the front end and might work on the blockage from this end. It doesn't cause bloating or gas. I felt stupid for not thinking of it before. Still tried enemas and gave probios. He started rolling into the fence and I told Karrel to watch him for that, as I'd had to roll him out of it a few times. We gave him more IV that night.
Sat Why was he still alive? He had NOT gone potty in all those days. His belly was bigger still. He just wanted to lay around and roll. We did all the same things for him as we'd been doing. And I cut open 2 GasX gels into a sip of water and gave him that too. We knew that this was probably his last day. He was starting to suffer. Through all of this since it started, he only nursed after he'd had an IV or banamine. We'd wanted to give him all the chance we could, but wouldn't let him suffer.
Of couse, having him on the foal cam we were watching him around the clock. Sat around noon we were sitting in here and Karrel jumped up and flew out the door saying something I couldn't hear. I followed him out. Turned out the colt was rolled into the fence. Karrel went to get him out of it, but the colt saw him coming and scrambled out himself. As I got there, I saw Karrel talking to him and petting him to calm him.
Then!!!!! I heard Karrel talking, "Come on you can do it!" the colt's tail lifted, PUSHING and this THING came out! I was stunned! Karrel pumped his fist in the air and I started bawling my head off and thanking God! I'm crying again as I write this! My colt who we were going to lose that day just passed the blockage!!!
It was as big around as his intestine, about 3" long and hard as a rock! And you could see the burrs packed into it.
I'm not saying that enemas got that thing out. But all that water we put in there didn't come back out and did go somewhere. It is my thoughts that if nothing is moving in the intestines behind the blockage, that those might start to shrivel and get dry and then nothing could pass if it wanted to. I'm thinking the water kept his insides hydrated and did help him!
Here it is a week later and he's still with us! His belly went right down. The Citursel helped clean him out. But we're still watching him. He's not as perky as I'd like. He's not going potty as I want him to. But he's nursing well again. The thing I don't like is the lumps and white-yellow puss that is coming out of both sides of his neck where they put the IVs in. I'd never seen that before. What should we do about that?
Sorry to bore you all to death (too late! LOL)
But lots of people have asked me to tell the tale about our colt. Somehow a miracle got him though that 100% blockage.
Thank you to those that knew and sent prayers!
I know it sounded simple. But I was a MESS through it all and back & forth to the barn day & night and watching him & caring for him a lot. Thanks for listening!
