If you are a good, responsible horse owner than you probably have the veterinarian out to the farm to see your horse(s) at least once a year. This may be for a coggins test, routine vaccinations, or a general health checkup. Or it could be (unfortunately) because of an emergency. About a month ago I had my vet out for just such a case.
As I mentioned in my Winter Post, my horse Darwin coliced quite badly eight weeks ago. I was alerted to his condition by an apprentice staff member who, thankfully, told one of the senior staff members who then told me during one of my lessons. “Darwin is lying down. He won’t get up. We think he may be colicing.”
I handed my lesson over to the senior staff member and rushed up to the barn. There was my big 17H thoroughbred curled up in the corner of his stall, looking and acting absolutely miserable. His hay and water where untouched. The staff had known enough not to grain him once he started acting abnormal, but I doubt he would have eaten it anyway. I got him to his feet. He started kicking sideways at the stall wall and then promptly circled and went back down. It was then that I knew this could be a serious problem, but I didn’t call the vet quite yet. I have dealt with colics in the past and know there are several steps you can go through before having the veterinarian out. I proceeded to get Darwin back up to his feet and hand walked him in the indoor for about forty five minutes. Towards the end he was struggling to lay down in the ring and I brought him back to his stall. I gave him 3cc’s of banamine, pulled all the hay out of his stall, refilled his buckets with warm water, and waited. The banamine seemed to make him comfortable and he stayed on his feet. When I came back two hours later he was a little restless, but still up. At 11:00PM he was rolling and I called the vet.
To make a long, stressful story short Darwin was suffering from a very painful impaction colic. The vet gave him 10cc’s of banamine, a strong sedative, a rectal palpation, and a gallon of mineral oil that night and had to come back early the next morning to do the same thing because he was colicing again. Thankfully the second time seemed to do the trick and he had returned to his normal self by the end of the day.
That was an example of when (I believe, at least) you should call the vet. When your horse is suffering from what is obviously colic and you have tried everything to the best of your abilities (hand walking – check, small amount of banamine – check, take the feed away – check, warm water – check) and there is no improvement, you need to call your veterinarian.
But what other emergencies should you immediately call your vet out for? What, exactly, constitutes an emergency and what should you (or your barn manager) be able to treat yourself?
1) COLIC. This has already been discussed in detail, but I want to give you a different scenario. My assistant barn manager’s mare has displayed colic symptoms three times since she came to the barn. The first time I found her lying down in her stall looking crossly at her stomach, I immediately called her owner who left me with instructions to keep at an eye on her but unless she became very restless to just let her be and not call the vet. I’ll admit, I had my doubts at this approach (every time Darwin has coliced it started off as lying down but always rapidly progressed to the point where I had the vet on speed dial) but when I returned to do night check the mare was back to her feet demanding to be fed with a loud whinny. More recently she coliced again and this time it was worse. Her owner took the same wait and see approach, but this colic continued over the span of two days, not one night. This time there was hand walking and all food was stopped. Her owner gave her a small dose of banamine on the evening of the second day and said if this didn’t work, she would be calling the vet. Thankfully, the drug was just enough to help the mare out of the colic and she was peachy keen the next morning.
This is a fantastic example of the number one reason many vet calls can be averted. Know your horse. My assistant barn manager knows her mare to a T. She knows when she is feeling grumpy, upset, or in genuine pain. It also shows that not all horses are the same, nor can they be treated the same. Still, there are basic steps to treating any colic before calling your vet.
1) Diagnose the colic. Is your horse lying down? Are they biting at their stomach? Getting up and down repeatedly? Are there abnormal gut sounds? No gut sounds? Are they off their feed? If you said yes to two or more of the above symptoms, then there is a good chance your horse may be beginning to colic.
2) Take away all feed. This means hay and especially grain. Do not feed your horse until you are absolutely certain the colic has 100% passed.
3) Make sure there is fresh water available and monitor your horse’s water intake. When a horse is in the middle of a painful colic they will usually not drink at water, but once the colic has past they will normally guzzle it down. How much they do (or do not) drink is a good indicator of their pain level.
4) Walk your horse. Do not lounge them, do not turn them out in the field, hand walk them. Make sure the footing is nice and even. A barn aisle or a ring is best suited for hand walking. If you have a horse that is repeatedly trying to lay down, this is one of the best things you can do. There are several different theories on how long and often you should hand walk a colicy horse – my vet advised me to hand walk Darwin as long as he would allow it. Others will tell you to walk them no more than fifteen minutes, give them a break, then walk them again. If you are unsure of what to do, this would be the time to consult your veterinarian.
5) Give your horse banamine. If nothing else has worked, you can try to alleviate your horse’s symptoms with the common colic drug banamine. This is a muscle relaxant and pain killer. It can be injected IV, IM, and also comes in paste form like a wormer. If you have not given your horse banamine for colic before and/or are uncertain of how much to give them or how to give it to them, call your vet. When Darwin coliced last summer I called the vet at step number 4. I asked if I should give him banamine and she told me no, to wait until she got there. When he coliced the second time the vet left me with 10ccs of banamine and told me to inject it IM if he started to show colic symptoms again. When in doubt, especially about a drug, call your veterinarian. They don’t charge you for advice over the phone.
6) If nothing in steps 1 through 5 has worked for your horse, it is time to call your vet ASAP. Make sure to describe in detail everything you have done and to give a thorough history on your horse as it pertains to their current situation.
Once again, I cannot stress how important it is to know your horse. If I ever get to Step 4 with Darwin, I call the vet. I might not have them come out until I’ve tried Step 5, but I at least call them. If you have a horse that colics every few months on a smaller scale (one of the boarder’s has a horse this) you may skip right to step 5, give them 5cc’s of banamine, and they’ll be fine.
As always, I am not a veterinarian and the above is my opinion, not solid fact. Colic is scary, especially if you haven’t dealt with it a lot in the past. Keeping a cool and level head is very important. Monitoring your horse is also very important and when in doubt, even if you’re at step 1, your vet is only a phone call away.
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