Colic Case - Timeline and Care

If you've been around horses long enough you will eventually have a colic case on your hands. It's simply, in my view, that we put them in confined spaces and feed them dry food in dense amounts when they are built, by God, to roam and eat living grass all day long.

Anyway, coming on the heels of my friends losing a horse, I was particularly spun up to find one of my horses not eating and pacing the ground, head down, in small circles trying to lay down. I immediately got a halter on him and started walking him while calling the wife to load a shot of Fluxomine (Banamine). This was at 08:30 on Day one. The horse, Charlie, could not stand still, was in racking pain and kept trying to lay down on me. I don't let them lay down as they can go down hard and end up twisting a gut, which is almost always fatal. We got 12cc of Banamine in him (IM) at 8:55 am and our Vet was on her way.

At 10:15 am our Vet had arrived, given a shot of Torbugesic, tubed the horse with water and mineral oil and gave him a mineral oil, water and detergent enema. The Vet palpated the horse's back end and said she thought she could feel a twist of the beginning of twist. She was not optimistic. She did however installed a catether in a neck vein for us to give medications. Pictures of the neck cath shown below:

Torb helped him with the pain for just a little bit. Wanting to spread out the Torb as much as we could, we finally gave him another Torb shot at 1:20 pm. This shot of Torb lasted even less time. At 3:45 pm we gave him 12 cc's more of Banamine in the neck vein catether but he got no pain relief. He kept him from going down for an hour by walking, but when you walk them, especially in the heat, you can dehydrate them faster.

We flushed the IV line with 20 cc's of water before and after each use of medications.

At 4:50 pm, we turned him back into the geldings corral with his buddies. He rolled, farted, got up then appeared fairly normal, and starting to forage around the ground for loose hay.

At 8:05 pm he produced his first manure with some oil, and what we figured was from the enema. At 8:45 pm, after consulting with the Vet, we have gave Charlie a bran mash and a couple handfuls of grass hay. He passed more manure at 10:00 pm and by Day Two at 6:00 am he had passed three more small piles.

At 9:00 am on Day Two he passed a large pile of manure with lots of oil in it, which we figured was from the stomach tubed oil, and we started to relax. He has been gradually getting more and more hay through Day Two and into Day Three. He is also on a seven day cycle of Sand Clear.

Things could have turned out bad for Charlie and us. God's will, Immediate Vet care by a great Vet, Charlie's will and luck had alot do with him staying alive.