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January 6, 2016

Recipe For Colic

Hindsight is 20/20, but that doesn't make the pill any easier to swallow in the here and now.

At 4:50pm, my phone rang  - it was the BO. "Its your mare. She was down in the field and not eating. I put her in the round pen. "

I'll admit to being a little overstressed with life recently and a little quicker to ignite than normal. In all my years of boarding, I have never once lost my temper or become angry with a BO. If something can't be resolved, we quietly leave with no hard feelings just a realization that what we want is not available at that barn. This time was different. I snapped. 

"Are you feeding her? Is she getting any hay? This is ridiculous!"

He hung up.

I called Dusty who called a vet and I headed to the barn. Gem was in the round pen with the largest bucket of grain I have ever seen. Seriously, I think he dumped an entire bag of grain out in it. There was a tiny little pile of hay. She was eating neither, but was standing bright eyed staring at me. 

I got her halter on and began walking her, hoping she would just pass some stool and this would be a false alarm. 

An hour later the vet pulled up and she hadn't passed anything, but wasn't looking in overt pain. A quick exam revealed good color to the gums, a good resting heart rate, and quiet but still present gut sounds. She was tucked up and uncomfortable.

She was given banamine and, per Dusty's request, I asked her to draw blood for a panel just in case. The vet confirmed her weight loss was not my imagination and we opted to tube her with mineral oil and water. 

After the procedure, I continued to hand walk Gem around for another 2 hours. The temperatures dropped with the sun to 25 degrees and I was not prepared: no gloves, no hat and tennis shoes. I was a popsicle when Dusty came by to check on us.

At that point she was trying to stop to snag some grass and we decided to put her in a stall for the night with plenty of water to see if she would relax and we would check on her during the night. If she looked worse or was laying down we would continue the walking and call the vet again. 

At the 2 am check she had finally passed some hard stool and so we gave her a small flake of hay and said goodnight. This morning she was back to herself. 

A mild case, for sure, and caught early, but the big thing here is why did it occur and how do I prevent it from happening again?

The recipe for colic can be simple:

Low forage
High grain
Dehydration
Sudden change in weather

Check to all the above.

When I pressed them about the lack of visible hay in the pasture, I was told that they get 2 1/2 bales of hay once a day. For 14 horses. With no other means of forage. And somehow I am supposed to be applauding this? Wrong. That is not enough. 

The BO has always overfed grain, simply because it is easier to store and cheaper to feed. This is fine when there is also enough forage and water to go with it. A lot of starch and sugar with no fiber and no water is asking for trouble.

When the mares kept pouring into the pasture, he added a second water trough which is great. Except it was put right next to the other one. A mean mare can easily guard both. If you are going to have two troughs, they need to be separated. 

Gem is the lowest of the low in the herd. She dropped about 100 pounds over the course of a month or so and the reasons are simple: she was getting run off her food and had no access to any hay that was being put out. 

Not enough forage, too much grain, dehydration.  

Then winter decided to show up and the highs dropped 30 degrees overnight with lows in the 20s. Gem is a hardy mare, having lived in the north most of her life, but she needs the sustenance to get her through. 

 It was foreseeable and I am angry with myself for not seeing it. For not doing something. So now I am doing something. I will write about that in the next post. 

14 comments:

  1. Shit, I'm sorry. I was in your shoes almost exactly a few years ago: Tristan colicked very badly due to poor care at the barn I had chosen. I slept outside his stall for three days and as soon as he was well enough to get on a trailer we left under cover of darkness. It's hard to face up when you have that benefit of hindsight, but it sounds like you are on your way to improving the situation.

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    1. We will be leaving but I'll do it in full day light with a flaming sword if I have to :)

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  2. I hate being at the mercy of a bad BO. I hope you can find a place that is great for your horses in a very short time. Sending lots of energy and big hugs to you. Sorry this had to happen right now. It seems like you have had to deal with a lot the past couple of months.

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    1. Not sure why the tables have turned lately with so much piling up, but it really has. Guess it's just time to learn some zen and carry on. Or die of a stroke. Whichever comes first.

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  3. Scary. And put in the round pen with giant pile of grain? Arghh! I think this might be the breaking point for you and this barn owner...

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    1. Exactly! Let's give her the largest pile of sweet feed humanly possible. And then run away. That works.

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  4. I'm so glad everything is okay and was caught early. I panicked when I saw your FB post yesterday! However, in checking back in this morning I guffawed when you replied to the one girl with "this is my page get off it". Freaking hilarious. GO YOU. And I'm so happy nothing worse happened!

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    1. I don't do FB fights. If you think 2.5 bales of hay once a day for 14 horses is something to brag about, talking to you is a waste of my time. The barn was awesome last year when the BO had a middle aged super horse smart lady helping him. Now he has two teenagers who think they know everything. The one even locked the tack room and wears the key on her neck making boarders ask her for entry. If my stuff was in there I would have decapitated her to get the key before begging for it. Time to move on.

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  5. I'm so happy you were able to catch this early before it turned into something worse! I saw the one comment about the 2.5 square bales of hay for 14 horses and had to bite my tongue really hard to not go starting a battle on your FB! Even if they had been round bales instead of square bales, that's still not enough! 14 horses would've eaten 2 round bales down to nothing in a couple of days... The whole thing with the giant grain bucket is just more fuel for the fire! I loved your response to the one poster. I hope you can find a better situation for Pete and Gem STAT!!

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    1. It gets worse....we told them she would be in the stall until last night when we would check on her and decide to put her out or not. She was to get hay only until otherwise noted. NO GRAIN. Dusty checked on her for me over lunch and she was outside. The barn help happily told him she had eaten all her grain that morning. ARGH!

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    2. I wish you could send them the bill for the vet emergency visit! Jesus Christ that is all so unacceptable! It makes me want to scream for you and Gem. :(

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  6. My blood is boiling FOR you. So glad she is ok...

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    1. When I got there and saw the massive bucket of grain I thought my head was going to explode. The BO saw the look on my face and quickly went to his truck and left without saying a word.

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  7. My blood is boiling FOR you. So glad she is ok...

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