ridecamp@endurance.net: Re: Horses and crazy things...
Re: Horses and crazy things...
WarholNW (WarholNW@ccmail.apldbio.com)
Mon, 21 Aug 95 09:25:35 PDT
I am sorry for Robert's loss. We also lost a wonderful horse at our
barn in Northern California last week. A sweet old 22 year old Appy
Mare named Star (I nicknamed her the "Bubba Girl", because of her wild
knickering when I gave her carrots. She would go BUH BUH BUH, and
sounded like a city bus)
She had a horrible colic, and needed to be put down due to a ruptured
something inside. It turns out it was caused by stones! She passed a
big one the night before she was put down, and there were more inside
her.
This is the same thing that almost took our Appaloosa "Warpaint" 18
months ago. He survived the surgery, since he was a young, strong
endurance horse. Poor Bubba Girl never had a chance. We will miss
her.
This stones thing is becoming a leading cause of horse colic in
Northern California. There are many different opinions about what
causes it, the most popular being too much alfalfa, and Northern Cal
water. The vets at Davis suggest a few things can be done to
hopefully avoid the formation of stones.
1- feed psysilium (spelling?) once a month. This is a real gloppy,
sticky metamusel type of thing designed to clean out any particles in
the intestines which might become the nucleus of a stone.
2- Don't feel straight alfalfa. It is to high in some chemical
compounds that these stones are made up of.
3- You can feed a cup of vinegar each day. It wont hurt the horse,
and it might change the PH level in the horses insides, thus fighting
the formation of these chemical compounds.
4- Don't feed a lot of bran mash, especially if the horse is not
active. A lot was defined as daily. Once a week is fine. They have
cut open a lot of these stones and have found little bran particles
inside.
Stones can be supposedly picked up by X-ray. The most common symptom
is a blockage. The horse will get plugged up by a stone, and will not
be able to poop, or pass gas. In the case of the Bubba Girl, she
stopped eating one night. This was way wrong, so we knew something
was up. The vet came out and found a soft impaction, and released the
pressure by inserting a hose into her stomach. It went FFSSSSS as the
gas pocket was hit, and the horse seemed much better. He was
optimistic, but he was not able to feel the stones that were there.
Nick
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Subject: Horses and crazy things...
Author: mmaul@micro.ti.com (Mike Maul) at CCMAIL
Date: 8/21/95 12:38 AM
I ride in Houston now with the group at Daralynn Butlers barn. We had
a very nice ride in the heat and humidity and people were putting their
horses away for the eve.
Robert Jacobs horse - Oz - the leading 100 miler(national or central?)
started pulling at the hitching rail - eventually pulling it out before
anyone could get him loose. He panic ran around dragging the rail until
he broke his leg. Robert put him down 2 hours ago.
Horses do nutty things. and you learn to love them too much.
Mike Maul
Houston, Texas
mmaul@micro.ti.com