Colic and the Broodmare

There are many causes for colic, after all by definition it's abdominal pain.... there is just sooo much in there to go wrong. The broodmare has some extra "baggage" to deal with when it comes to her abdominal cavity.

While they are pregnant....

We experienced a 7.5 month pregnant mare that had a splenic colic. So her intestines were up over her spleen. The only way to fix that is surgery. Yes she went through surgery 7.5 months pregnant. Her baby saw the light of day before birth when she was opened up for colic surgery. She could have rolled, but that was not common for this mare. It was likely that the foal movement pushed it up to the wrong spot.
She made it through the surgery and successfully carried to full term a healthy baby boy. The foal is now an adult and is doing very well. The only complication is that the surgery clinic did not put a hernia belt on the 7.5yo very large Friesian mare and she has a life long hernia. Her abdomen is also distended towards the ground an abnormal amount likely from having the stomach re stitched in such a distended frame from having the foal. She is healthy and rides. She got a few years off  to fully heal and has since had 3 foals. She did loose her first foal post surgery in a late term abortion. No autopsy on the foal was done so there is no way to know if the abortion was because of mare pain or foal problems.

There are other pregnancy colics that are possible such as uterine twisting. This is very painful but there is a chance to fix it non surgically by rolling the mare. This obviously takes a vet and a large team so please don't try it at home. This FYI is just so that you know there are other things to look for with broodmares and colic symptoms.

During or just after birth.....

It's scary when your mare goes into labor... then she's still in labor an hour later. You check the foal, it's in the right position, cervix closed... ok so not labor.. Colic. We had a situation where the foal was due and all the signs that the foal would be born in the next 24 hours was there but the mare coliced instead. What happened in her situation was that the birth impacted her cecum. She was distressed from that so didn't want to give birth. The big debate was to force the birth medically... not safe and the foal can be red bag, or wait till the foal is born, or get her to surgery. We opted for all three. I know that sounds odd. We took the mare to the clinic because a pasture or farm birth with that much distress could cost the foal and the mare. Our drive was not longer than 30 min and we were lucky that we got the mare there safely. She was in the clinic under serious watch of the vet for the foal and for her. She was up and down deciding if she would have the foal or not. The foal came out Red bag, meaning that the placenta detached before the foal was born so there was blood in the sac and the oxygen was deprived to the foal. She was not a dummy foal (no suckling response) so we gave the foal post natal care of oxygen and plasma. We rushed the mare down to the surgical vet so that if and when she flipped her gut she would be ready for surgery. With the added space from the foal being out, the added gas from the impaction and the weight of the impaction she flipped. Lucky for her and us she was at the clinic ready to go on the surgical table so there was no damage to the intestinal track. She recovered in record time, 4 not 7 days. She was ok with us taking her baby away, it was as if she knew we had to save her. The foal lived 36 hours. The trauma of the birth complicated her blood flow. When we stood her up her tongue got cold and fell out of her mouth. When she was laying down her limbs were cold. She was suckling and did have a few pees and poops but her viability was very low. We stayed with her round the clock and had her in the house by the fire. She got plasma to replace the inability to get colostrum, but she was too compromised to make it longer than 36 hrs.

 

Longer after birth....

You don't need a traumatic birth to have a post birth colon flip. It's very common when the intestinal system takes back the space where the foal is. It can happen up to 2.5 months post foaling. Most surgical clinics don't put the 2 together when it's that late after birth. Or they are more worried about saving the horse then why they are saving the horse. But many surgical clinics have put the 2 together and when you tell them the foal is 3 mo or under they put that mare on the higher risk for a twist or flip.

We had a mare go through a 2 month post partum colic surgery. She was vibrant and feeding her foal, there were no indications of issues. We looked out and she was laying down in a spot that she would normally have felt unsafe. She had some gas build up on rectal palpation, but no elevated pulse, respiration or temperature. We got her down to the surgical clinic and were told they would watch her closely. My gut just knew she was surgical, that mother intuition or something, but I was scared. Sure enough they called us 30 minutes after we left and she was going into surgery. Her Colon had slid up along her diaphragm and her small intestines were twisted around her cecum. So she definitely had a displacement and was surgical.
Her foal was taken from her as she went into surgery. He was already eating hay and grain and grew as steady as the other foals from that point on. She must have known that we had to save her life because she was not upset that her foal was gone. She was milked out a little bit to keep from having utter pain while she was recovering from surgery but her utters dried up appropriately even with being stall bound. If we had left such a large foal with her during recovery she would have had to produce milk for the foal which is taxing on the mare's resources. The foal would have been fussy in a stall for a month and in the ICU would have likely tangled in the catheter line and cause issues with that.

Colic is never a good thing and there are sooooooo many causes of colic. So keep an eye on those broodmares, they have a lot more going on in their abdomens.