My daughters mare coliced Sat night (a week after we put down her 17yr old dog).  We fed at 5 and went out, when we got home she was stuck under the fence and when we got her out she went and started rolling.  We called the vet out and he tubed her and gave her some banamine but in the morning she was at it again so we took her in to the clinic.  He said to take her to the equine hospital 2hrs away so we did and they have her on an IV because she got dehydrated.  They said over hydrating her and tubing her with electrolytes would help break down the blockage, they don't think she has a twisted gut.  She has a good heart rate and gut sounds.  She is still bloated and is passing a small amount of stool but......   Surgury isn't an option because I just don't have 5-7 grand. 

Lots of Prayers PLEASE.  I delivered this mare, I don't want to burry her yet.  She's only 2.

I've been in tears all day because I just don't know.  Some times she seems better, then the pain killer/ tranqulizer wears off. 

Here's hoping the vet doesn't call tonight.  It would only be bad news and my husband won't let me spend the night at the vets office..... again.

Hope your horse is better.  Been through it several times and will again. It always happens at the worse moment. Like working all day. Power napping for 1 hrs, going back to work all night getting in at 7:30am to feed and have a colicy horse. Stay up until 5:00PM until all is well. What we go through for these rascals only a passionate person would do....

The vet here works on large animals, but I don't think he is comfortable with them.  He tubed her Sat morning but it didn't do anything.  He's the only vet in about 60 miles and isn't set up for large animal surgurys.  He told us to take her to the other clinic becuase it was beond his ability.  I'm glad he said so instead of trying to bluff it.  We took her to a Equine Sports Medicine and Surgury Clinic near Sunland Park Racetrack.  They are supposed to be the best in the state/area.  They were very good with the mare and have a wonderfull facility.  Very patient and there was a vet on duty 24hrs and I saw at least 2 assistants there overnight checking vitals and conditions of all the animals there.  They let me stay for 2 1/2 days, putting food/drinks in their break frig.  They are wonderfull. 

Now if the mare can just keep from getting any infections or secondary problems.

Enteroliths are stones that can form in the intestinal tract of the horse. The stones are primarily composed of magnesium, ammonium and phosphate. The minerals are laid down in concentric rings around a ‘nidi’, which is an ingested foreign object such as a small pebble, fragment of baling twine, small piece of wire, or even a grain of sand. A horse with enteroliths is said to be suffering enterolithiasis. There may be a single stone in the intestinal tract or multiple stones. The size and shape of stones varies between cases. In general, multiple enteroliths are likely to be tetrahedral in shape and large single enteroliths are usually spherical.

Enterolithiasis is a common cause of colic worldwide but its prevalence varies widely between geographical locations and this is probably reflective of the mineral composition of soil and feed material variations between regions. In California, enterolithiasis is the single most common cause of colic requiring surgery. Due to its local importance, much of the research information available concerning enteroliths originates from the University of California, Davis.                  I know several horses who have had successful colic surgery, and have gone on to be just as useful as they were before surgery.  You may have to change your feed and hay, but she should be fine.  Good Luck

 The surgeon said she was ingesting rocks.  He said they weren't the enteroliths.    I've got one here and it's actually fairly pretty, or it would be if it was polished.  It's a gold color with silver specks.

It actually wasn't the rocks that caused the colic (though I'm sure they didn't help).  It was the hay.  Since the filly coliced two more of my horses have coliced.  The only common thread between them is the hay.  One gets foal feed, one gets sr feed and the other is on a sweet feed.  The vets said there are a lot of horses at their Weatherford Tx clinic for colic and they only thing they can find is the hay.  They said they have had it tested and can't find a reason for it.  The only thing they can figure is that the hay was cut late because of the rain and it is "mature" and the horses aren't chewing it up enough and it's causing impactions.

I talked to a friend of mine who works for my old vet in S. TX (my coastal hay came from TX) and he said they have been having a lot of colic cases there too.  They said the hay fields are full of walking sticks and that they are toxic to horses and they believe that is what is causing the colic.  They are supposed to paralize the gut (he said rumen) so the "stuff" in there settles and compacts and dries out then when the toxin wears off the intestines can't move the feed and they get impacted.   They have been checking bales of hay and have found them dead and alive in the hay.  I've been trying to search for info on the web but everything about toxic bugs/hay/horses only comes up with blister beetles in alfalfa.

notfromtexas   Who do you have your insurance with?

Terri-I have mine through LCI, which I believe shops around different companies for the best rate.  I got basic mortality when I first got my horse.  For $150 a year he is covered for $3500 (what I paid for him) and has a $3000 emergency colic rider.  The price would of course vary on a lot of factors.  I like LCI, I had contacted about half a dozen companies when I was looking and 2 didn't call me back, and 2 were disinterested/rude.  LCI was very professional and answered all my questions.  Their number is 1-800-874-1789, website is www.lcihorse.com .

They had that problem with my filly.  She is 2 but has a very small head, they had to use a foal tube on her.

I'm here in central Texas and I've heard a couple of times that straight coastal is pretty fine stemmed and can get impacted.  I try to feed some alfalfa, turn out on grass, add soaked shredded beet pulp, and I have bought the coarser coastal.  For awhile we had a guy that was coming down from up north to visit his sister and he would bring a semi of timothy/alfalfa mix and I would buy all he had.  I also feed electrolytes, especially in the winter and really humid days.  I have a friend that puts mineral oil on some of her horse's feed too.  Any other feeding suggestions?  Daily wormer, what else?

That is the what I grew up feeding and then we had 3 colic with in 10 days of each other, one horse coliced twice and one ended up in sugury.  That $100 round bale of coastal cost me $9 grand.

My horses were on the round bale for 3 days when the first one coliced, 5 days when the second one (the one that ended up in sugury) coliced and 8 days when the first (again) and third coliced.   It wasn't old or moldy.  The vet couldn't come up with a definite reason for it.

Hang on to your hat, it's gonna be another dry summer

Your not kiddin!!  We've had NO rain since December.  Not just measureable ran, but NONE.  Even in the desert that's bad. 

What is ya'lls idea of a small paddock?  Tomorrow is 30 day mark after the sugury and on my instructions it says....  Stall confinement for 30 days with hand walking for 5-10 minutes twice daily.  We've been doing that...  But now it says follow by turn out into a small paddock for 30 days then pasture turnout for anothe 30 days before training.  The surgeon is out of town on a family emergency and my vet said a paddock was a 12x12 area.  Her stall is 10x11 and at the surgeons she was in a 20x20.   

Sooooo.  What would ya'll consider a small paddock?

     We had a gas problem this morning.  I went out to feed and she ignored me.  She was laying down and looking at her belly so I called the vet and surgeon, got answering services for both as it is Sunday.  Neither one called me back!!   I took her temp and it was normal but since no one called me back I gave her a dose of banamine, the amount I was told to give for fevers and took her out of her stall to keep her from getting cast if she rolled.  We walked over to "her" rolling spot, she rolled for a minute got up passed lots of gas and went in search of her feed bucket.  I wasn't sure if it was the "release of gas" or the banamine starting to kick in so I didn't feed her.  She isn't pooping quite as much as she was last week but she is going.  She is being fed every 6 hrs with 2 piles in between feedings, now just one pile between most feedings (piles are about same size/consistency as before).   We just increased her alfalfa/cut back on the number of times a day she is fed so I wonder if that was the problem.  Or part of it.  I didn't feed the AM feeding but I fed her at noon and I soaked her alfalfa (the "before" amount) and added salt to her Sr feed to make sure she is drinking.  She is peeing and the manure is wet and she is acting normal tonight. 

     When I took her out for her afternoon walk she was almost unmanageable.  I ended up using my daughters gelding to pony her because he doesn't put up with nonsense and settled her down.   That and he's stronger than me.    She started acting up and he turned and looked at her for a second, twitched his tail and she started behaving.  I wish I knew what he said to her.  I've got a 12 yr old girl that needs that same speech!!