I have to tell you that Spencer had a little colic issue last night!!
Luckily he is fine this am. It must have just been some gas...? We had about an hour of rolling, pawing and discomfort. I walked him for about 30 mins and things started moving again.
I think I got off easy, for sure!! I don't think he is drinking enough water now that it is cold, so I'm going to start putting hay out by the trough when weather permits (even though I will have to fish bits of hay out in the cold!). I think I might also start soaking his dinner again, just to get a bit of extra moisture in to his belly. I'm also researching some supplements and feeds to help his digestion, since he seems to suffer from discomfort every now and again.
Anyone have any ideas?
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| Me watching the boys from my office window. Making sure both are drinking. |
As I was pondering what to move from the bookshelf to make more room, I realized I didn't share pics of my first two trophies!!! I thought I'd put them with ol' Zippo Pine Bar - Spencer's grandsire - for effect! hahaha - mostly that is the only spot they fit right now!!
I managed to get some of the papers sorted, but I think I'm going to have to get some more shelves to sort all of my junk collectibles! ;-)
8 comments:
Add electrolytes to his feed (you may have to wet the feed to get him to eat it), and make sure that all the water he has access to - buckets, troughs - have heaters. Horses need more water in winter than summer, since they're eating more dry matter.
Glad he recovered from his "episode".
You might want to try him on some regular probiotics. Also, if he regularly has some gastrointestinal issues, consider ulcers - lots of horses have them and they can contribute to colic. The over the counter formulation of the active ingredient in Gastrogard can be used to do a check for ulcers - if symptoms disappear, then ulcers are likely. Only scoping can tell for sure, but sometimes it even isn't necessary to do that if it seems clear the horse has ulcers.
The active ingredient in Gastrogard is omeprazole - Ulcergard is the same thing, just a lot cheaper and calibrated for a lower dose as compared to Gastrogard.
Thanks for the info, Kate! The electrolytes are a good idea. All the water is heated, so that helps, I hope.
I tried him on omeprazole for 2 weeks last fall and it didn't change his behaviour at all. I had the vet out and she thought his grumpiness and sensitivity in the gut area was suspicious. Maybe his digestion isn't 100% with certain types of hay, not drinking as much, plus the weather - warm/cold/freezing cold/snow this time of year just creates the right conditions for colic...? I think probiotics are my next step....
One other thing to think about - Lyme disease. Fall onset is one of the peaks. When Pie had Lyme (he had it concurrently with EPM, we believe), he had repeated gas colics - daily - that were self-resolving (based on our vet's read, this was due to swollen lymph nodes in his abdomen) - and also was muscle sore and very crabby - it's hard to tell which symptoms were related to Lyme and which were related to EPM, but muscle soreness/crabbiness is common with Lyme. Cornell has a new Lyme blood test that is much more accurate, and if you were to test for EPM, you'd want to use the new Pathogenes ELIZA antibody test rather than the old Western blot or spinal tap tests - your vet may or may not be up to speed on these things. Just something else to consider if other things don't work.
You always have such great information Kate. :D
I'm glad Spencer is okay!
Glad Spencer is okay! Love the Zippo on your shelves :)
Nice trophies :)
SO glad to hear that Spencer's colic was a minor issue!
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