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  Discussion on Recurrent colic in Weanling
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Member:
Canyon28

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 16, 2003 - 3:16 pm:

I have a mare that has a 4 month old foal on her and she is also bred back, bred in July. She began showing symptoms of colic a few weeks ago, off and on, finally I had the vet out last week, I had been giving her pysillium all week, then she acted colicy again. He gave her a gal of mineral oil and checked her feces, but didnt find as much sand as he thought there should be if it was sand colic. I changed the way i am feeding them and have all their feed in a feeder now, so they are eating very little feed off the ground.
so a week or so has passed now and she is colicy again! I am wondering if she has a partial twist, ulcer, worms or her teeth are bothering her so much that she is not chewing her hay properly and may be impacting a little. I meant to have the vet check her teeth when he tubed her but I forgot. He did palpate her and thought everything was normal. I had her teeth done last winter, and she had a sore then in her mouth from where the teeth were rubbing. She lookd good most of the summer until recently she has lost weight, part of this is due to the big colt i am sure, but I cannot figure out what is causing her mild bouts of colic. she is in a paddock with another mare and foal and she is fat and has never had a problem, although her foal is much smaller and will mature smaller. I gave her a whole tube of probios this afternoon after the last bout. Could she have ulcers as one poster sugested? I feed very well, she gets about 10 t 15 pounds of good alfalfa hay per day, no weeds or mold, dust, etc. AND about 10 pounds of good quality grass hay. they have a vit and mineral block in their feeder which they can chew on at any time. It is a purina 12-12 block, so I dont think it could be a calcium issue. this is a valuable young mare and I dont want to lose her, but I really cant afford colic surgery either. I dont know if any of the vets around here would attempt to 'roll" them like the article says. I keep feed in front of the mares with foals almost all the time, feeding three times a day.
Member:
Canyon28

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 16, 2003 - 3:22 pm:

as an addition to the previous post. I plan to wean the foal at the end of the month and put the mare on pasture with another older mare I have. I am hoping this will end the colic bouts. I just cant figure out why her colic comes and goes. I gave her ivermectrin last week, so if she was wormy it should have ended the problem, or if she had worms that bad, it would have plugged her completely up. I never found any worms in the paddock manure.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Sep 17, 2003 - 6:27 am:

A couple of comments: IF the foal has been exposed to a lot of sand, you need to know the sand test is not absolute, it needs repeating to rule sand out and it takes time to get all the sand out. IF the foal has been exposed to high parasite counts a single deworming will not undue all the damage so will take time. They will colic with small strongyle exposure without plugging up or you being able to see worms (they are almost microscopic) in the manure. Ulcers are a possiblity as are the conditions listed above. I don't think a ongoing partial twist is likely as your colic is episodic. You could be having recurring displacements however which will be hard to diagnose and rolling only helps a very small percentage of these. All of these conditions have their own article which will explain more and can be linked to from the Overview article or Colic menu.
DrO
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