Wild West Ride-Mare colic Update

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Patty J jbco@jps.net
Mia Rabbia is home at last!  Her knees are pretty swollen from
the fall she took.  (that was before the colic)  She is extremely
happy to be in her own corral and eating, and tried to empty her
water tank.

My vet feels the whole thing was caused from metabolic problems.
She was not there at the ride to see what happened, but she
explained to me what she thinks happened.  Robby may have had
a little gas colic the night before the ride, just enough to
make her not be especially hungry.  She only ate oat hay, which,
according to my vet, does not have enough energy to fuel this
type of activity.  Robby also did not drink much the night
before, which is unusual for her.  I'm blessed with a good
drinker and usually haul a lot of water buckets at every ride.
Robby's electrolytes were also way off.  My vet drew blood for
analylsis.  My horse also had developed muscle vasiculation (sp?)
(trembling badly).  All this caused her intestines to slow down,
she got further behind, and colicked.

I did give electrolytes and supplements as usual, but apparently
it was inadequate this time.

We still need to look into the posibility of enteroliths, ulcers,
and what ever else could have caused this.  For now my vet has
given me new feeding instructions, mostly lots of bran mashes.
(I know, phosphorous)  I may substitute beet pulp.

For now my vet is convinced that it was a metabolic failure
which led to the horse's system getting "behind" and causing
the colic.

This is a learning experience that I don't want to repeat.  It's
pretty scary to think I could have lost this horse.  I have
always paid such close attention even to the littlest things
when it involves my horse, so it's pretty hard for me to take
knowing that I noticed these small differences and didn't take
them seriously.

My ride season has now ended, but I still have my best friend
with me.  Maybe I'll try again next year.

Patty J
and Mia Rabbia (I tried to tell you I didn't feel right!)



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