Spring Is in the Air at an Arabian Horse Farm so What Else Is Up?

The sun shone glouriously today and the temperatures nearly reached 70° so you would think that this warmth loving Arabian horse breeder would have had a good day. But with the wonders of spring can also come things like new grass and tons and tons of weeds, sometimes that combination isn't good and it wasn't good today.

Dressage Mom asked in today's post, A colic question Even as I read the title, wondered about the timing. Isn't it funny sometimes how we bloggers can seem to be living parallel lives. Invisibly connected by some unknown force.

The self-care barn at which six of my horses reside has the usual large popluation of horses on not much acreage. The fields used for turnout are stressed from over grazing and horses on them even when they are wet. (Just for the record my farm is just the same.) That combination leads to spring grasses with even higher sugar levels and lots of weeds.

Turning horses out on such fields means they need to be started off with not much time and gradually increased so their systems can cope with this change in diet. Sometimes with even the greatest care, this combination can cause problems and that's exactly what's happened for me.

All of my horses have had a chance to play a bit in the sunshine at sometimes during this week. Three of them actually got out into the pastures that actually have some grass coming on. They were monitored closely and brought in much sooner than they wanted but it was a necessary precaution.

Despite those attempts to avoid problems when I went into Dandy's stall on Wednesday, I noticed he hadn't cleaned up all of his hay. Then I stripped off his blanket and found the horse's belly looked bigger than my mare who is due to foal in a month. This Arabian horse was very bloated but not showing any other signs of colic other than not cleaning up his feed.

The first thing I did was change his feed card and make a big note on his door. Dandy gets absolutely no grain until further notice! Then I went ahead and saddled the horse up. I know that sounds like a strange thing to do with a horse that might be colicky but since bloating signifies major gas issues to me, rounding a horse up is the best way I know to actually relax the gut and cause them to pass some of that gas out of there.

Dandy wasn't happy but he wasn't miserable either. He was tolerating this huge gas load pretty darn well but still voicing his opinion about being put to work when he's uncomfortable. He pinned his ears at me when I saddled him up and tossed his head and tried to nip when I cinched him up. Can't say as I blame him, but it's still the best thing I know to do. If the horse was a big problem to ride, I would call the vet immediately, otherwise I'd see what we could get worked out on our own.

The horse was good about standing still for me to mount. That told me that my assessment of his condition was probably about right. As I asked him to work, he wanted to be on the muscle a bit even at the walk. This isn't the norm for this horse but certainly understandable.

When I asked the horse to jog, he still wanted to speed up a notch. However, the horse wasn't bracing at all against the bit so I had another indication he was uncomfortable but not in a lot of pain like a colicing horse would be. I worked at getting him nice and supple because the key to breaking up lots of gas seems to be in the softness and roundness of the horse. I don't know if it has to do with the relaxation that brings or what, I just know it works.

Even when I asked the horse to lope he didn't brace against the bit. Again he wanted to be faster than normal and it took a while to work through to a point of that soft round lope the horse is so amazing at. But once we hit that point, the "tooting" began. The tempo was consistent with the tempo of his lope. It would have been amusing if it wasn't so darn important.

I kept loping the horse until the orchestration ceased. Then I got off poor Dandy and unsaddled him and put him away. With our twenty minute ride, Dandy's bloated belly had decreased by at least half. The ride had definitely made a big improvement.

Dandy did this very same thing two years ago in the spring. Within a day or two the horse had passed all of the gas through and we had avoided an episode of gas colic. I was hoping for the same again.

However by today, it's clear that Dandy isn't out of the woods. Although his still pooping like he should be, it's not showing any signs of hardness, and the horse is eating good. The back two quadrant of the horse's gut are still bloated giving him a really lopsided look. He has good gut sounds but walking or riding will no longer loosen up the gas because the horse is hurting too much to relax.

I spoke with the vet and he suggested bran mash and probiotics to reestablish good flora in his gut. Two cups of wheat bran with hot water twice a day and two doses of the probiotic. Each of these is to be given at different times. The bran can coat the cut so the probiotic doesn't do it's job. The horse is also on banamine which I began the first day.

The cause of all this gas is clearly the spring cocktail Dandy got that day he was allowed to graze. The probiotics should help repopulate the desired bacteria and the wheat bran should help bind with the gas and push it through. In the meantime, Dandy is on colic watch. He is getting hand walked or lunged at regular intervals in the hope of working the rest of this gas through his system. So please everyone keep your fingers crossed that this all works out ok for this very special horse! Hopefully I'll be back to posting soon about our story at the US Nationals.

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