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  Discussion on URGENTLY need advice!
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Member:
Missa

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 29, 2003 - 7:50 am:

Am having a real dilemma at the moment,
My 8 month old foal came down with colic very serverly 2 days ago, today will be the third day.

He was stabled and fed as usual and as I came to turn him out in the paddock after turning my other horses out found him in crippling agony. He was up the wall constantly rolling getting up again going down again.

Called the vet and he was given the usual colic injection and a sedation injection to calm him still every few minutes spasms were coming that bad in no circumstances could you keep him up or stop him from rolling.

Vet said leave him and see how he goes. No improvement by about 5pm that night, still having sever spasams every five minutes and his eyes were rolling looking funny.

Vet came back, this time gave him a muscle relaxant and another strong pain killing injection and put some liquid parafin down him.

Still regardless of the injections the spasms were as bad as ever with no improvement.

At this time he had not done any DrOppings at all.
The following morning still no DrOpping and still In agony. Vet said wait untill the painkillers have worn off cos the apparantly last 12 hours.

So by this time 24 hours had gone by and we were half way through the next day. Again called the vet that evening, another pain killing injection was adminitstered and they pumped his stomach with a a whole load of liquid parafin and on top of this he has been having plenty of bran mashes very watered down.

We have still not got anywhere and it is his 3rd day and 48hours have passed still no improvement.
It might be too late for anything to be done as tonight if no improvement he will have to be euthanasied. I am having difficulties contacting my own vet so wither way I would like some questions answered if you could help.

1) why is my foal still wanting to eat even though he is in so much pain? don`t colic horses usually not want to eat?

2)How long does liquid parafin or bran mash take to go through a horses system?

3)How long can you keep waiting considering the pain spasms have not eased for 48+ for him to improve?

4)And obviously as he hasn`t done any DrOpping and is contantly straining and collapsing in pain even though he has had pain killers why would you think the vet has prolonged it this long considering he has not improved?

Thanks
Member:
Suzym

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 29, 2003 - 11:24 am:

Missa, I'll defer to DrO on the details of your questions. BUT, this baby should have been transported to an equine hospital that first evening. :-( Other than that, I don't quite know what to say.
Member:
Missa

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 29, 2003 - 2:03 pm:

I am afraid it is too late now, sadly the vets couldn`t do any more for him and they didn`t believe in taking him to an equine hospital unless he was going in for surgery but that was out of the question as they thought he was too small and weak to take an operation and travelling.
Member:
Scooter

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 29, 2003 - 4:38 pm:

I am so sorry Missa, I have one nagging question why didn't the vet manually palpate him and see if he could reach the impaction? or see what was causing it.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Jan 30, 2003 - 6:47 am:

I am so sorry Missa, my sincere condolences. Did they do a necropsy to discover the problem?

Diane I expect at 8 months of age he was too small to palpate. Suzanne has a good point, if surgery was an option from the beginning, the lack of response to treatment, the first few hours of this disease, was your best indication for referral. Even though not a help for you I would like to answer your questions, it may be of benefit to others and some comfort for you to better understand:

1) Lack of appetite is one of the most consistant diagnostic signs of colic. But a horse that is going up and down with obvious signs of abdominal distress should not be considered not colicing just because they show some interest in food. Usually this interest is episodic and half hearted, though once I saw a colidky horse with a almost manicial interest in his food, looking like he would attack it. When this happens I leave open on my rule out list for nonintesinal causes of pain (heart, urinary system, muscle, and even skin reactions have caused horses to appear colicky) until proved otherwise.

2) Transit time for mineral oil is much quicker than for food and may happen as quickly as a day.

3) I am not exactly sure I understand what you are asking wait for surgery...euthanasia?

4) He sounds like he is hoping that whatever is wrong might correct itself. This does happen even with severe pain.
DrO
Member:
Missa

Posted on Thursday, Jan 30, 2003 - 7:06 am:

Obviously the vets tried as much as they could considering he is a v.small foal at only 8hh making things a little tricker and also the fact that it wasn`t fair to continue his suffering, but I am still a little confused with my vets views on what caused it and how to treat it.

I had 3 different vets come to see him from the same practise. All had very different opinions.

The first vet said immediately it was too serious to cure and suggested euthenasia was the only option. He thought worm infestation was the cause.

The second vet who came the following night felt the same way but thought it was caused by overheating hay and that it would be worth trying a little more with the liquid parafin but if that failed again euthenasia was the only option.

The third vet who came (2nd day) went along the exact lines of your response to my question no 4) and insisted it wasn`t serious and by morning he would have been back to normal and ready to go back to his normal routine after having his stomach tubed with liquid parafin.

Like I say it was very confusing how 2/3 vets said it was too serious to cure and the other was looking on the very optimistic side.

Also the cause is a mystery, I would not have thought food was the case but the worm theory is a little puzzling?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Jan 31, 2003 - 3:25 am:

I disagree with the above opinions, as the most likely cause. This type of acute onset, unrelenting pain most often comes from a twisted bowel segment. However until a necropsy is done we are all just guessing. But the questions to follow up these opinions are:
  • Have you not been deworming this foal well?
  • Were you feeding moldy or poor quality hay?
  • Why would the vet be optimistic when he could not relieve the pain? While horses do sometimes recover from such circumstances, it is a good indicator surgery will be required.

DrO
Member:
Missa

Posted on Friday, Jan 31, 2003 - 8:04 am:

Thanks for that,
I follow your opinion but of course can`t dispute my own vets decisions. I am afraid no necropsy will be done as the vet arranged all the nescessary arrangements and he was taken away yesterday to be disposed of.

All the vet concluded was that he was put to sleep because of acute abdominal pain and that is all they put in their report.

Answers to your your above questions:-

1) He had been dewormed regularly and was last done with the 5 day Equine guard containing Benzimidazole Fenbenazole on the 27th November (approx 8 weeks prior to this)

2)He was on best quality meadow hay

3)Honestly I don`t understand why they wanted to let him go on more and more knowing full well they could not relieve the pain for him.

The third vet to visit was the senior partner of the practise.He overruled the other two vets who believed it wasn`t fair to keep him suffering in pain even though they were trying their best but they too changed their opinions of course to follow the view of the senior vet.

Not to be rude but the senior vet on tuesday night said he`ll be right as rain in the morning after tubing his stomach with the liquid parafin. He said feed him grass as much as you can hand picked or lead him out and even better turn him out if you can. Considering he was collapsing every couple of minutes in pain spasms whilst even the senior vet was tubing his stomach. I still can`t understand for the life of me his optimism.
He knew my foal had gone 30 hours at this stage with no DrOpping and no letting up of the spasms.
And by wednesday night approx 55 hours had gone by no change it was only fair to not let my foal to continue to suffer and the only way to do this was by insisting one of the previous vets came to his aid.
Member:
Carol67

Posted on Saturday, Feb 1, 2003 - 1:46 am:

Missa,
I am very sorry for your loss. I really have nothing to offer but condolences. I had an experience with a four year old mare. She looked like she was not feeling well on one night. To be honest I did not think much of it. The next morning she was lying down and did not want to get up. I immediately called my vet ( who was out of town) so I got a visiting vet. She came out and put a gallon of mineral down with a nose tube, and an injection for pain. We did not let her have any thing to eat and gave her another injection later that night. I called the vet out again the next morning and she said I needed to take her in for emergency surgery. I unfortantly could not afford the surgery and asked what else could be done. She said they could keep her on an IV for a while and see if that helped. I opted not to take my mare in to the hospital. I noticed if I left her by herself her pain seemed to increase. She liked the comfort of having us with her. I sent my husband to the vet supply store. He came back with BL paste and Saratoga Equi- spaz paste. He said the guy at the store said the local ranchers swore by equi-spaz when it came to a collicky horse. We were on day three. My mare was going down every fifteen minutes. WE gave her BL paste to calm her and a dose of equi-spaz. We forced liquids down her ( water and electrolites).We did get one bowel movement around nine that evening. She was still not feeling well. We gave her another dose of BL paste pulled up 4 bales of hay and slept outside on the hay. She was much less stressed when we were with her. By morning we had four piles of manure and a mare that appeared healthy. Our vet came over and checked her and said she was fine. I am only posting this because it might help someone who finds themselves in the same financial situation.
Carol P
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