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RE: [RC] Colicky mare - Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.I agree with Bruce's suggestion to try giving her really sloppy mash to eat, not just for the moisture, but also it just seems to slide through easier. I have some doubts that her problem is a progressive thickening of scar tissue, though. I'm thinking more of some other tissue displacing progressive outside pressure on the bowel, ie lipoma (fatty tumor), lymphosarcoma, or a chronic displacement (ie, adhesions following surgery 'glued' a loop of bowel to the abdominal wall or other loops of bowel and thus forms a potential narrowing, or sharp turn or some other 'bottleneck' to the traffic pattern. Sand or enteroliths can also cause repeated bouts of colic. In any event, you can certainly try a sloppier diet, but monitor her pretty closely for continuing colic symptoms. I had a good old broodmare that also had chronic colic problems, normal bloodwork, normal abdominal radiographs (so far as you can actually image the equine abdomen, which aint much), everything negative that we could find. I finally ended up putting her down when we couldn't pull her out of a tailspin, did a necropsy and found her riddled with lymphosarcoma, which doesn't always show up on labwork. Had I known, I might have sent her on her way a little earlier. I'm personally a believer in giving them an easy ticket out a little too soon rather than a little too late, but that's just me. Try the sloppy mash first, but be prepared that you may only buying a limited amount of time. JMO. Good luck. Susan Garlinghouse, DVM HI, I am about to call the vet to put my poor old mare down, and thought, 'wait, one last effort. I will pose a question on ridecamp, and maybe someone will have some amazing miracle cure.' Here goes. 26 year old saddlebred mare, had colic surgery 5 years ago, has been colicking on a fairly regular basis for several months now. Although the interims are getting shorter and shorter. I use the term colic =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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