My 2 yr old has been "off" this week but eating and pooping normally.  Just not acting like herself moving slow and ignoring me until I brought out the feed buckets.   Last night I only gave her a 1/8th her feed with lots of salt and water mixed in.  This morning there was no manure in her stall but when I took her out to pony her she left one decent size pile in my neighbors drive way (yes I picked it up).  She had another pile tonight but was wanting to lay down and when I moved her tail she let out some gas so I got her up and took her to the round pen and got her moving (walk/slow trot) for a bit and she passed some gas and left 2 more piles.  She still wants to lay down so I gave her some paste banamine.  I'm going to call the vet in the morning but I wanted to see what ya'll thought.  She has been showing signs of being in heat for the last week, all 3 of my mares are.  Her dam has also had a few heat cycles where she acted colicky, but not like this.

Any thoughts?

Almost.  That's why I added the extra salt.  The 2 piles she left tonight were cow pie-ish.

I should also say that since most of this areas hay has been harvested late or rained on I've been feeding hay cubes, SOAKED so I know they weren't absorbing all the moisture from her gut.   For the 4 lbs of cubes per feeding she was getting I'd add about a gallon and a half or so of water and after soaking it up they were falling apart and looked like mowed grass. 

I would be careful how much salt you give her, you dont want to screw up her electrolyte balance. I personally would add very little salt at this point.

I would also check her stool for sand. You can do this by taking some stool and submersing it in water and seeing how much sand sinks to the bottom. A large exam glove works well for this, as the sand will settle into the fingers if there is any.

Colic doesnt always mean that they wont move stool. Sometimes, especailly with a sand issue, they can pass loose stool past the sand.

I have not ever had a mare be crampy during a heat cycle personally, well unless regumate was involved(whole nother topic) But I suppose it is possible. It sounds like you are doing the right things with the walking and banamine. I would definately call the vet as you said. Good luck and keep us updated.

Also, I think you had a good idea with soaking those cubes(i have never fed them) But, if they are just falling apart, she is probably not getting enough fiber type feed. And maybe, that is a bit too much water to add? Then it would be really heavy in her gut, I would think.  And maybe she isnt wanting to drink quite like she should because of the moisture she is getting from the feed. She needs to drink along with and after her feed to move it through. KWIM?

Can you find some hay to give her along with the cubes maybe?

I took my mare in this morning.  The vet said her gut sounded good, no temp but her heart rate was a bit elevated.  He said there was a small amount of sand in the manure but not enought to make him think of sand colic.  He went ahead and gave her a dose of oil but he thinks it is a combination of her being in heat and the weather changes.  The cold nights, winter coat, hot days and being in heat are all putting stress on her system.  He also said it's not unusual for mares to be crampy but, like people they all show it differently.  Most are just "a mare", grumpy and irritable.

The vet and suguron both said soaking the cubes is best.  That way once eaten they aren't soaking up the moisture in her gut and drying her out and causing impaction.  They aren't like the pellets, when they fall apart they aren't mushy, they are about 1-1/2 inch pieces of hay.  That is about the size of the pieces my old mare spits out so I figure they chew it up that small anyway before the swallow it.  If I could find some good hay I'd buy it.  Most around here has been rained on and what hasn't is being saved for "existing" customers and after they buy what they need then I can buy some.  Unless I get it at the feed store for $15 a bale........ 

Glad she checked out pretty good.

$15.00 a bale....OUCH! Wow I thought $4 to $6 was alot....I guess I will be thankful we can find hay here!

Good luck

Terri and I are in the same town.  We have had a abnormally wet summer.  Back in July I was going thru the Rio Grande valley where there is lots of farming, unfortunally the day after most of the farmers cut the alfalfa the remnits of the hurricaine that hit by Corpus worked its way up to NM.  Every field I drove by was black with rotting alfalfa.  That cut was a major loss.  This year the farmer I buy my hay from redid his fields with drip irrigation which did some damage to the established alfalfa fields.  This cut his yield by almost half, but since I am one of his regular customers we got called first but were limited as to how much we could take from the field.  I usually get about 500 2 wire bales from him and this year was only able to get 350.  The $15.00 was $18.00 a few weeks ago, bales that Terri is talking about is shipped in from Calif. but can be from AZ.  When I bought a trailer in Tucson I decided not to bring it home empty so we filled up the 4H with 3 wire bales of alfalfa at $13.00 bale.  I have paid from $3.50 to $6.00 for a 2 wire bale.  Will be going to Phx for the Arizona National Livestock show if I can, I might fill up the trailer again.

The area dairy farms are contracting alot of the alfalfa grown.  One field just a mile away from me all 6 cuts were contracted out. 

  Yep, what NM-Rider said.  Except the hay was grass hay from Cali, not alfalfa.  I'm going to scatter about a leaf of that around the pen to give them something to search for during the day.  The guy I got my hay from last year lost his 2nd and 3rd cutting to rain and his 4th cutting was sold strictly for cows since it got rained on after being baled.  Good thing for him that he is a Dr. and is only growing hay as a side to support his horse habbit.

NM-Rider, are ya'll going to be showing in Phoenix or just going to watch?

Diaz has a new cutting in but the bales I checked were really light and $7.  Going by feel I'd say I'd need almost 2 bales a day of that stuff.  The last time I got hay from them it had rabbit parts in it (not just one bale but about a dozen of them) and whole misquite bushes.

We just had this same issue last week with two different mares and we actually had to put one of them down  (needless to say, it was a rough week).  We found a suspicious brown leafy thing in our hay and our county AG office sent it to U of I for testing and we found out it was horsenettle (in the nightshade family and very toxic to horses).  The mare who did not survive was 21 and had cushings, so she wasn't able to fight off the toxicity as well as the 8 yr old healthy mare (who was in the horse hospital for a FULL week, just brought her home today.)  We haven't contacted the hay guy yet, but we're hoping he will buy it back (he should since we're not asking him to pay the small fortune of vet bills we've racked up over this..).

If anyone out there is in Southern IL and has a reputable hay person, let me know as we'll need to re-stock..

With all the vet bills and Dr bills from everyone getting sick this year I don't know if we will be able to.  We'll have to see what Squirt does.  I took her to Silver Monday and she got oiled and I took her back to the vet here and he oiled her again yesterday.  He said he wanted to get a bunch of metamucil in her and to bring her back in but she likes the orange stuff so I bought 5lbs of the stuff.  She has already had a pound of it so we'll see.  I wanted to take her back up to Silver but the vet was out on farm calls.

How long did that feed last?  I don't remember when you got the steers.

I've had her to two vets and talked to a third. 

     She had colic surgery in May (bad hay) so I called the surgeon first to see if it could be related to the surgery but she doesn't think so because it's been 6 months and there have been no issues.  I told her she has started eating manure and she said to take her in and have her checked for sand (since were in the desert and the manure is in sand).  The first vet checked her and did pull some sand out so he gave her oil.  She passed some but still wasn't acting right so I was going to take her back but the first vet was out of town so I took her to the second and he didn't find any sand but went ahead and gave her some more oil and wanted me to bring her back so he could give her metamucil.  He said the oil would loosen up the sand but wasn't very good at moving it but the metamucil would move it out.  She loves the orange metamucil so I gave it to her here.  I gave her a pound of it last night and another pound this morning.  She hasn't shown any signs of discomfort since yesterday morning.  After the surgery I switched everyone to the (soaked) hay cubes.  Partly because of the surgery and partly because of the bad hay year we are having.  No one gets anything off the ground. 

     The surgeon told me to make a muzzle for her like the one they had to use after the surgery because she was eating the shavings in her stall.  She said to put that on her when she is turned out and to put mats in her stall so she has no access to the sand.  I have a browser and that is what is getting her in trouble. 

Terri,

Read my addendum on hay in the election day-voting thread.