Colic Horse - Doesn't make sence...

[RWeb]

I had 4 horses in my field 3 cobs and 1 morgan they have all had more hay to eat than they could manage and a good bucket of feed a day .the 3 cobs look great but the morgan became to loose weight 3 weeks ago so i bought him a new rug and upped his feed to 2 buckets a day i just thought that that would do it i also gave him another wormer in case it was worms but he still lost weight on thursday this week he became tangled into his rug and a vet was called the vet noticed that he had a blood discharge from his privates .

He later died of colic this friday morning he had a few episodes of colic over
the last few years and muscle damage for this last year on his rear quarters since he got himself caught up in his stable ,the vet has taken a lot of blood tests but i feel awful as people thought that he must have been starved but he always ate more than the two mares put together please could you let me know if you know what is was or has anyone had this problem

[mart]

When you say rug, do you mean blanket ?? How old was the horse ?? Am trying to understand what you are talking about !! Exactly how much feed is in a bucket ??
If it was an older horse , did you have his teeth checked ?? Sometimes when they colic the gut twists into a knot and food doesn`t pass through which causes the bloating and death !! Mild cases are sometimes treatable but severe cases are not without surgery and even then it depends on how fast you called the vet as to the prognosis !!

[Candice_17]

Sounds like a possible ulcer to me. It could be a number of things, but ulcer was the first that popped in my head.

[mart]

Possibly !! Could be a lot of things !! Just not much information here that I can decipher !!

[My Ladyhawke]

I'm sorry for your loss. I know it's too late now but if it was colic, the worse thing to do is increase their feed and the need to be walked constantly. Just not enough information to really say.

[happyappy3]

I am trying to get a book finished on this subject, so many people will stop losing their horses. Unfortunately, it is too late for your horse, but here are a few tips for the future.
ANY time a horse colics, Sandblast him as soon as he is recovered. I recommend SandClear. Then try to locate a CERTIFIED equine dentist. If the dentist does not use power tools, they may not have enough experience to do you much good, (so ask if they use them when you call) tho even a simple float can be of some help, or may be all a horse needs. Depending on where you live, you may have to settle for your local vet for teeth, some are not too bad. If you have an Equine Hospital in your area, they should have a vet qualified with teeth. When you finish the sandblast treatment, (added to grain one week per month) use some Probios or put a cup of yogurt in his feed. You should also do this after every worming. What a horse digests is what puts weight on him, so his digestive tract needs to be A-OK.
NEVER increase grain on a horse that is having the types of problems you are describing. More grain will only complicate the matter. Sandblasting and tooth correction should stop the colic and promote weight gain. If it does not, you may want to consider the horse has EPM. A horse with progressing EPM will not gain weight no matter what you feed it. I have had broodmares that would not gain weight on anything but fresh green grass. That is unusual tho. Please keep in mind that hay must be GREEN for a horse to gain weight from it. Your horse may also gotten into something poisonous that did not kill him immediately.
I hope this helps, I am so sorry for your loss.

[westmar]

YES-I had a young mule do close to the same thing. She acted 'Colicy', a few different times and we treated her for it. She came out fine. She lost some weight. Just never came back to herself healthwise.

Then she coliced really bad, rolling and in horrible pain.

We kept her alive for a week. Major pain meds and I.V.'s to keep her comfortable and hydrated.

After 7 days we had to put her down. The vet, who had half 'interest' in her, did a necropsy-[autopsy] and found out she had a Tumor.

The tumor was like a ballon with a long string, the ballon part had worked it's way around the intestines several times and the 'string' stangulated them, causing the intestines to die a slow death. Sometimes they would be completely choked off, other times they were allowed to work.

This did not show up in rectal exam or ultra sound. Too far into her body. The vet kept telling us that she was acting like she had an intestinal twist, but it felt different to him when he did the rectal exams. Plus she still had some appetite and was still passing 'small' pieces/amounts of manure-for longer than he thought she should if it was a twist. He could not detect a hard impaction from no movement at all---because she had some bowel movement.

So, the intestines were slowly strangled to death by this 'ballon tumor', but still allowed some bowel movement. The slow strangulation of the intestine made it difficult to diagnos.

My Vet at the time-I since moved out of State 8 years ago- was 83 years old and had been a progressive Vet since his early 20's. He was very much into new methods and new ideas. This is why I used him as my Vet-plus I adored him and his personality-He had never seen a tumor like this.

He was devastated from the loss of our mule, he did not charge me one dime of my half of the bill though I insisted.

I will NEVER put another animal through that. It was horrible. Twist or tumor-when they are that bad I will not let them suffer that long again.