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Discussion on Reoccurent impaction colic
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New Member:
mpulsar1
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Posted on Sunday, Aug 30, 2009 - 10:00 am:
I own a 2 yr old warmblood gelding that has just had his second bout of an impaction colic. Last Dec, his impaction colic was severe enough to warrant a stay at an equine surgical facility for 5 days. I live in Illinois and it was his first winter this past year since he was from the south. We put 2 heated water buckets in his stall after the winter colic episode to encourage an increase in his water consumption and also added some psyllium husk and salt to his diet. He is not a big water drinker. He always has 2 buckets of fresh water in his stall at all times. I empty and clean out his buckets daily. He is not out on pasture but has free will to go in and out of his stall to a large dry lot(not sand). I am current on his rotational worming schedule. He is on safe choice feed and gets a good quality grass hay. He just had another bout of the impaction colic 2 days ago. We were pretty aggressive with his treatment and the impaction(pelic flexure impaction) has passed. Any other suggestions as to increase his water consumption? We were thinking of adding soaked beet pulp to his feedings to add more moisture as well as fiber and soaking his hay. You know the old saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink is so true!
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Sunday, Aug 30, 2009 - 10:46 am:
Hi Signe, I'm from Il. too the very nw tip. I always worried about my horses in the winter also, they don't tend to drink as much. The summer time they vary.Impaction Colic is one thing I haven't had to deal with in a LOONG time.
The things I have learned along the way is some horses don't like drinking out of buckets I have 2 that don't. The old girl being one of them. When I had her locked in for her tendon injury I bought a heated muck bucket she drank out of that much better, summer (not heated of course )and winter. OF course for some reason she prefers the drk. green one over the lt blue one...Darker colors of buckets seem to make my horses drink more...go figure!
I also give them watered down alfalfa pellets in the winter. Just recently I had Hank locked in while he was on antibiotics. I put a couple handful of alfalfa pellets in his DRK green hang over feeder let him take a bite and filled it with water. He had a blast bobbing for alfalfa pellets (carrots/apples ect) also work...he drank the whole 3 gals. of "alfalfa tea".
I used to feed safechoice that was also watered down...the sloppier the better, the horses loved it. Adding Salt to feed has never made my horses drink more AND can work against you sometimes by drawing water out of the gut same with psyllium.
Try adding something he enjoys to a bucket of water. Also sometimes adding a small amount of alfalfa helps keep them looser, and tends to make them drink more for some reason.
Lastly try to make sure he gets plenty of exercise if only to run him around his pen a little.
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Member:
vickiann
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Posted on Sunday, Aug 30, 2009 - 1:17 pm:
Diane has made the good and important suggestions and will just add a couple of additional thoughts.
One of my books by a veterinarian suggests using flax seed as a digestive aid to improve the consistency of the manure. She recommends 1 cup in the morning and 1 in the evening though you may have to gradually work up to that amount and then see if you have to adjust higher than that due to the size of the horse or the degree of the problem. Buy a bag of whole flax seeds (Canadian seeds are usually organic) and keep it in a cool, dry place to prevent it from becoming rancid. Most of the seeds will pass through whole but will still aid the digestion. If you want the horse to have the antioxidant benefits of the seed as well, use a coffee grinder to grind them just before adding to the feed. A 50-pound bag should cost about $25.00
Do make sure the horse has been wormed for tapeworms.
Loose salt in a mineral feeder in the stall works better for some horses than a salt block.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Sunday, Aug 30, 2009 - 3:24 pm:
Hello signe,
A few questions:- What is your horses general condition?
- How would you say your horses stools look normally: Does he have fairly dry manure as a regular problem?
- How much water (in gallons) does he drink daily?
- How do you clean the buckets?
- How much hay and grain does he eat daily?
- What type hay are you feeding and how do you feed it?
DrO
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New Member:
mpulsar1
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Posted on Monday, Aug 31, 2009 - 11:58 am:
WOW, thanks for all the advise!! To answer a few questions by Dr. O:
My gelding has a good body weight-not over or under weight. He is about 15.1hh(warmblood/arab x)Coat and health is in excellent condition except for these 2 impaction colic episodes. I would have to say that his manure for the most part is on the dry side. It is hard to determine an exact amount of water consumption a day since I board him, but after discussion with the barn owner he is consuming approx 5 gallons a day.
Each day that I am at the barn, I empty and scrub out his buckets with a brush. He does tend to drink water right after I clean the buckets and fill with fresh water. He is on primarily grass hay-5 flakes a day and as far as grain-- he is on Nutrena's Safe Choice 1 1/2 lbs 2 x/s a day. He also get approx 1/2 lb of rice bran in which I add sea salt and water to to make it like a mash.
We were going to add 8-12 oz of soaked beet pulp in the morning to his grain and it was suggested to me to either pour 1/2 cup of mineral oil over his feed 1x a week or I could soak some alfalfa cubes at one of his feeding-make it like a soup to add more moisture and soften his manure.
I sure hope this answers some of your questions.
I am open to any suggestions!
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Tuesday, Sep 1, 2009 - 5:03 am:
With the concept that the horses stools are a little on the dry side I like the suggestion of alfalfa cubes, either dry or wet. In general horses stools tend to be a bit looser on alfalfa. I think this is mainly an osmotic reaction: there is an increase in osmotically active particles that pull water into the bowel. The increase nutrient density of the alfalfa may require you cut back a bit on the concentrate to maintain condition. It does not work for all horses and the next step I would consider is a small amount of Epsom's Salts added to the concentrate portion. The Epsom's Salt also will osmotically draw water into the bowel. Mineral oil will not likely help the situation.
DrO
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New Member:
mpulsar1
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Posted on Wednesday, Sep 2, 2009 - 6:51 am:
Dr. O:
Thanks for the suggestion of the epsom salts. I just have one questions regarding their use. Magnesium sulfate is in the epsom salt. People use Mag sulfate as a saline laxative. By putting a horse on the epsom salt, is it considered a laxative and would it be something that would need to be done daily? If it is done daily and then stopped, would there be adverse effects? Thank you so much for all your help.
I have been checking his manure and it is still pretty dry.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Wednesday, Sep 2, 2009 - 3:40 pm:
Yes it would be a saline (osmotic) laxative and should be done at least twice daily by adding to the concentrate. I have used two tablespoons twice daily to increase fecal water content for intestinal impactions. One tablespoon four times daily would probably be better. If you get a good response try lowering the dose. I have not heard of any problems with discontinuing this dosage but this is not a well studied treatment so I would be sure to get your vets approval on this before you start.
There have been reported cases of magnesium toxicity in horses that receive much larger doses and apparently potentiated by complicating factors. For more on this see Diseases of Horses » Nervous System » Incoordination, Weakness, Spasticity, Tremors » Epsom Salts and Magnesium Toxicity. As long as you used the dosages recommended above problems are unlikely but because of this potential I would prefer the alfalfa be tried first.
DrO
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