Jazz has been having colicy episodes and I am racking my brain to figure them out. The first episode was a month ago during our first real cold spell. Friday evening she was fine when I fed her. By the time I came around with her hay (10 min max) I find her flat out on her side. At first I think she is injured because she is just laying there motionless. I get to her and she just looks at me. I get her up and began to check for an injury, find none but during my inspection she tries to lay down again. COLIC! I take her to the barn and assess vitals (CRT - normal, Pulse - slightly elevated, Resp. - elevated, Gut sounds - slow but there). I administer Banamine and watch her. She doesn't seem to be in much pain, just uncomfortable. 20 minutes later all vitals were normal and she had pooped. Put her up under the shed for the night and checked her hourly.

She was fine until the 7:00 check. She began to act uncomfortable again. I noticed that she had not drank much if any water overnight and that she had not pooped since the evening before. We were waiting at the vet when his doors opened. She had pooped in the trailer and was acting totally fine. I had the vet tube her with some warm water and check her teeth. I was thinking that her episode might be due to lack of water intake. Sure enough she had a damaged front tooth. The vet felt that it wasn't causing any problems, but I wasn't so sure.

We made it home and she had pooped twice more in the trailer. (Ahhh, the healing properties of a trailer). Watched her the rest of the weekend but she never showed any signs of colic again.

Fast forward two weeks. Another cold evening and again she is fine when I feed but by the time I come around with hay she is layed out. Oh no, not again! This time I am really scared. Two weeks ago was a warning that I didn't heed. I get her up and give her some banamine and send my SO to get the trailer. As we are walking her to the trailer she stops and poops. I check her over and her vitals are all normal. I decide to wait and see. She never acts off again.

By now, I am in full panic mode. I see this as going to be a recurrent thing that is going to need surgical intervention. (Yes, I sometimes go directly to the worst case scenario) I take a long look at her habits, schedule and diet. Both episodes coincided with cold spells. Both episodes began at feeding time. When I would see her drink she would only take a few gulps at a time. Hummmmmmm.

New plan of action!

Can't do anything about the cold because it is after all winter, but I can make sure that the tank heater is always working.

Water intake - I began soaking her feed with warm water. She eats a pelleted feed and that by itself draws water out of her system to digest, but I don't want to change feeds and risk causing her digestive upset. I also began adding a tbl. of salt to her feed.

I had been only feeding once a day so I began feeding twice a day and being diligent to stick to a 12 hour schedule (6am & 6pm). She is already on free choice hay and 24/7 turnout.

I also added a 15-20 minutes a day hand grazing in the yard on the green winter grasses.

Well has this worked? Well so far so good. Except for the grumpy looks at 6 am when I wake her for her breakfast this seems to be working. I will keep you updated.