At 21:52:26 on 23.11.09, dottyalice wrote:
our young horse (4yrs.old) died 2 weeks ago. twisted gut. sent for major surgery. cut out 14' of small intestine and then haemorhaged badly and died in recovery. the farmers had harvested a field of maize adjacent to ours several days before. My question is could she have eaten some of the corn kernels and had this caused an obstruction. i found some kernels in our field the next day, (bought over by rabbits or foxes.?) i nearly lost a labrador years ago because he had a kernel stuck in his intestines. have you any knowledge of any such incidences?

At 14:43:39 on 01.01.10, luckylucy wrote:
Very sorry to hear about the loss of your young horse. We had a horse with a twisted gut in oct 07. He had a similar operation and survived. I was feeding simple systems at the time and they suggested a recovery mix of herbs and I also fed Slippery Elm from Equus Health. I made a paste with honey and he had it twice daily making a full recovery. I always have it handy in case a horse is looking gutty, slippery elm is a muculage which helps the gut with acid problems and complications. This might help if you are ever in this situation again.

At 08:51:30 on 02.01.10, Mystic Echo wrote:
My daughter's event horse had a twisted gut (colon torsion) - survived emergency surgery. Luckily nothing needed to be cut away. She was in the equine hospital for 11 days after the op. We never could work out how it happened (I did beat myself up over what I might have done so wrong!). Her routine had not changed at all............ so it was just 'one of those things'....... All that was 3 years ago - she's since gone on to breed us a beautiful foal........ and is currently in foal again !

At 18:24:12 on 05.01.10, HorseVet wrote:
Unfortunately there are many causes of colic and it is still unknown what causes a twisted gut. There are frequently management issues but that doesn't mean an owner of a horse with colic is negligent - you don't know what management practices will trigger colic in an individual until it happens, and what triggers it in one horse will not trigger it in another one. I suppose it just bears out how individual horses are and how we need to be extra vigilent when we first get one until we get to know them. The important message is to work out what management issue might have caused colic if you get one and make sure you don't repeat it. Best wishes HorseVet
http://www.naturalhealingsolutions.co.uk

At 23:46:01 on 23.01.10, welshcobs wrote:
We lost a mare from this aswell, i was only young so cant remember it. I always thought it was caused by a horse eating its feed then being turned out or rolling right after or not giving the food time to digest. There is so much that can happen to a horse, you would think a animal the size of a horse that nothing would affect it. Sorry about your young horse xx