I have come to the conclusion that she is a stress colicker. She's been scoped (twice) and treated for ulcers...I decided to treat once just to see if maybe it would help, it didn't. Both scopes have showed less than three very, VERY mild ulcerative spots on her stomach lining, basically nothing that would even come close to causing the issues that she has, according to the vet, and nothing that they wouldn't expect to see in pretty much every domestically kept horse anyway. She's had a basic repro exam done, no tumors or any inflammation/oddball stuff on her ovaries, everything there appears normal. She is on the most basic diet I can manage: a cup of alfalfa pellets and a 1/2 cup of ration balancer (although I'm thinking I'm going to switch her over to just a vitamin and mineral pellet) and is stuffed with forage 3-4x a day. The only other thing she gets is Vit. E powder.
The one thing that has been consistent with her since I've known her is the fact that she is ultra-sensitive...to literally EVERYTHING. Bugs drive her up the wall. She can't handle heat and melts into a pool of misery and madness if left out on hot days. If feeding times are off by any more than 30 minutes? Very upset mare.
Mom I hurtses. Circa December, 2012
And again, about a week ago.
She just had her third colic episode since we moved to the new barn back in January. If anything, she is much happier in this environment than she was in her previous one, so I can't really blame the barn. The symptoms are always exactly the same: lethargic as all get out, refusing food or water, wanting to lay down as if to nap, maybe a couple rolls but no thrashing, often gets up and lays down again. Passes multiple piles of manure. Often passes gas. Good gum color, temperature normal, gut sounds like the New York Symphony. You can walk her until the cows come home, but she'd much rather just lay down quietly.
Every time, I give her 3cc (yes, THREE...I know, I told the vet tech this when I went to pick up another bottle of the generic the other day, I think she thought I was nuts) of Banamine orally, and within 30 minutes she's up and feeling better.
In light of her recent colics and from suggestions of other horse people, I've added simethicone tablets to her grain meals. Basically, it's just generic Gas-X. It seems, as a stress colicker, that when her environment changes too quickly, especially when it comes to sudden stressful events (like the new farrier incident, she colicked immediately after that) and weather (sudden drop in barometric pressure? Approaching rainstorm? Stand by, Houston...) it all goes right to her gut. This has been happening since I bought her 5 years ago, so it's nothing new.
She's been cleaning up the Gas-X (I bought cherry flavor, thinking she might go for that, but in classic Stella style, she refused to eat it from my hand in tablet form...looks like crushed was the way to go) so here's to hoping I found a viable solution, short of a digestive system replacement.
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