UPDATED2 - 12/19 12:11 am ! Here we go....colic?

[wingnut]

UPDATE 2: Spoke to soon it seems. Husband kept watched while I ran our daughter to an event and ran some errands while I waited for her. The rolling started again around 10:30pm. We're walking her 20-30 minutes at a time then going back into the barn to get out of the snow. We're expecting anywhere from 10-24" by late tomorrow night. Husband is out in the barn now with her and I'm to go out and spell him in 2 hours unless he calls me before then.

Still no fever. No shaking. Gums look good. No poops since I got home @ 10:45pm. Called the vet again but no answer. Trying not to panic. Just wants to roll, but we're not letting her.

UPDATE: The news is good, thankfully. We ended up getting a hold of our back up vet. He was literally around the corner from our house. He examined her and watched her for a bit. She had dropped another small pile of manure with more worms. He gave her something to help with the gas she was experiencing (antispasmodic ?) to help relieve the discomfort and watched her some more. He said he could tell that helped as she relaxed a great deal but it only lasted about 45 minutes and she was starting to get "fussy" again. She had no fever. She was nibbling the grass on the lawn.

He was quite certain this is all worm related. That the adult worms are the culprit. He told us a lot of things but I probably wouldn't relay them all properly here.

I realized when I looked over my notes that I gave them the wrong wormer last month. The Ivermectin works well for the early stages but not the adult stages. I was suppose to give them Strongid (sp?) last month (based on my rotation schedule).

He gave her a second dose of the antisposmodic. Watched her some more, listened to her gut again and then gave her a dose of banamine. We talked about giving her only a tiny bit of grain over the next day. We will be worming them all with the Strongid or StronglyCare on Sunday and the two young ones will get another round in a couple of weeks (I think of the Ivermectin). We're waiting until Sunday because to give her a day to recover ads well as the fact we're expecting a major snow storm here tomorrow so we don't want to do anything that could create another urgent care issue.

He told us that while this was definitely a problem, it was very solveable, treatable and we did all the right things. Yeah us!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone on this board who give us newbies so much information! Because of the things I've read on this board, I recognized the symptoms when my husband described them to me over the phone. I was able to direct him what to do until the vet could get there. I knew that when vet #1 wasn't getting back with me, that it was okay and necessary to reach out to vet #2. I shudder to think what would have happened if my husband had not been home. And I am so proud of him for doing everything I asked of him without question. He may never be a "horse guy" but he's there with me 100% when it comes to doing right by these girls of ours.

We'll be keeping a close eye on her because I recognize that we may not be 100% out of the woods. I don't expect to get a lot of sleep tonight as I intend to keep checking on her throughout the night.

******ORIGINAL POST******

I think we might be dealing with colic in our youngest (6 months) girl.

My husband saw that she had rolled herself against the fence. He told me she was smiling...I think that she must be curling her lips in discomfort. I told him to watch her and if she didn't get up in a minute or so, get out there and help her up. Which he did. And she walked away a few feet and started rolling on her back again. She did this a couple of times and then he called me.

I've told him to put her halter on her and keep her UP and walking. I have a call into our vet.

Husband just called again and said she passed some BM but it's loose and wormy. She was due for a monthly worming this weekend. We've had her since October at which time we wormed her and then wormed her again in November.

What else should we do until we can get a hold of the vet (and likely have him come out as we are too new at this to try too much on our own)?

 

[Carolyn R]

Keep her up, she may very well be colicing due to the worms. She sounds like she has a major parasite issue, you should not be able to see the worms, especially if you haven't wormed her lately. If your husband isn't a horsey person and is picking up on this issue, it must be pretty evident.

Good thing is that she is passing them, it is quite possible the worms are just shedding out now from the last time you wormed her (think velcro, they latch on, die after being wormed and are just now starting to shed off the intestinal walls).

Bad news, long course of dilligent worming is ahead of you, if she came to you infested with worms, you have now put your other horses parasite risk factor on high alert. It is doubtful that the problem started with your place, it wouldn't be this far along this soon, IMHO.

Keep her up and walking at this point, your vet will probably tube, oil, and give her something for the pain and maybe slightly over hydrate her to help with any impaction/blockage issue that may result from this in the next couple days. Let her drink and have access to a salt block, but don't give her hay or grain until you talk with you vet. The Lip curling is deffinately a sign of pain from the colic, don't be surprised if she has a very low fever to go with this from the inflamation in her gut, it is not unheard of.

Keep us posted.

 

[jegray21]

Just went through this last week...Keep her up and walking. Its good that she passed manure. Worms can cause upset stomach. Call vet asap. If you have Banamine my vet said give 1/8 of a cc to start. Mostly get the vet out asap! Things can go from not so bad to very bad very quickly

 

[Ellen]

Not to scare you, but we lost a gelding this way. Get the vet out immediately. Whoever you can. Keep her up an walking, get banamine on board and I would suggest a dose of ulcer meds. Don't need that staring if she is on banamine for some time, and it will not hurt her.

Maybe get some electrolytes to keep her hydrated, or a stress pack.

Is she sweating? How are her Gums and what is her pulse?

Wish I could be of some help.

 

[WhiteTailsMinis]

until I read the wormy poop portion - my first reaction to "rolling on her back" was ulcers. they roll on their back to relieve the pain - when on their backs, the acid drains off their stomach giving them some relief (something to that effect as I understood from my vet but to the experts I may not be wording it exactly right).

We went through that with a very young foal. And yes, the vet tubed him and we had him on meds for quite some time. The pink liquid and the ulcer guard.

Good luck - hope he's better real fast - keep us posted - we'll be thinking of you - we know how scary it is when something just isn't right.

 

[Ellen]

until I read the wormy poop portion - my first reaction to "rolling on her back" was ulcers. they roll on their back to relieve the pain - when on their backs, the acid drains off their stomach giving them some relief (something to that effect as I understood from my vet but to the experts I may not be wording it exactly right). We went through that with a very young foal. And yes, the vet tubed him and we had him on meds for quite some time. The pink liquid and the ulcer guard.

Good luck - hope he's better real fast - keep us posted - we'll be thinking of you - we know how scary it is when something just isn't right.

My first thought as well.....until the wormy poop. Ulcers are so common in the foals we medicate them all with a prenative, but wormy poop, brings a whole nother issue.

 

[krissy3]

Not to scare you, but we lost a gelding this way. Get the vet out immediately. Whoever you can. Keep her up an walking, get banamine on board and I would suggest a dose of ulcer meds. Don't need that staring if she is on banamine for some time, and it will not hurt her. Maybe get some electrolytes to keep her hydrated, or a stress pack.

Is she sweating? How are her Gums and what is her pulse?

Wish I could be of some help.

No No , keep her walking YES , but dont give meds please till the vet gives an OK over the phone or in person...they will want to be able to measure the amount of discomfort so they know how to treat the colic.

 

[Ellen]

Depends on the vet and your experience with horses. When my vet calls, I tell him CRT, pulse and what I have given, but you are right some vets do not like that though, you are right. I am used to what I DO, with my VET, my apologies!

 

[HGFarm]

Glad you had the vet out, hope she is doing better today. That is an awful lot of worms.... the only time I have seen masses of worms from horses are ones that came in from other farms that were not wormed at all. Or not often enough. Hope the horse does not have internal damage from a heavy worm infestation. Did the vet say anything about that?

I hope you can get rid of the nasty things and your baby is feeling good again!!

 

[Carolyn R]

How are things today?