# my horse has not had a poo in over 24 hoursmy f



## kim walsh (5 February 2012)

My friends.horse has not had a poo in over 24 hours. She has been kept in for 2 days. She has her haynet during the day and two small feeds a day once a day about 9.30 am and 5pm. She regurly pops which are healthy.  I checked her yesterday I went up yesterday afternoon about 5pm and there was only one poo when I went up this morning. I went up again usual time today.andshe has not had a crap. I have asked YM to check her stable for poo this evening. She said there was no poo. She seems fine in herself and was interested in her dinner but not.interested in her hay. Any advise. She has been her usual self all day.


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## merry mischief (5 February 2012)

Call vet ASAP she's colicking!


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## Goldenstar (5 February 2012)

for heavens sake call the vet sounds like an impaction colic


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## neddynesbitt (5 February 2012)

Yep sounds exactly like impaction colic to me too. They don't always seem ill at first, the first warning that they are brewing this is they don't poo. Good luck with the vet, keep us updated


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## WHISKEY (5 February 2012)

call the vet now!!! after my pony had surgery he stopped poohing - i lunged him for 5 mins and it shifted it!


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## Magnetic Sparrow (5 February 2012)

Agree. Vet. Emergency.


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## ILuvCowparsely (5 February 2012)

yes get the vet!!!!!!!!!!!!! TONIGHT.  dont wait till tomorrow   


 1 late vet bill £££   is better than one vet to late to safe horse.

 she will need  something to shift it, My vet said there will be allot of impaction colics as troughs are frozen and horses are not drinking enough . If you dont get vet asap  it could get fatal.


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## Moment_of_Joy (5 February 2012)

Exactly, call the vet immediately if you haven't done so already!!!
While you're waiting for the vet to arrive you might also want to lunge the horse or walk it around the yard to try and get the guts active again. 
Best of luck!


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## kim walsh (5 February 2012)

my friends yard manager has gone to check on her about 20 minutes and she has had a poo.


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## merry mischief (5 February 2012)

Keep a very close eye on her if she shows any pain signs (yawning, lip curlin, flank watching, pacing stamping or kicking belly) get vet ASAP my horse has just had colic surgery and was still passing occasional poo's despite 2 impactions, also if the poo was not 100% normal, get the vet! I know this may seem dramatic but I know from experience how nasty colic is! X


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## meesha (5 February 2012)

just a thought, is she eating her own poo ?  some horses do this, not nice but not always a sign there is a problem.  However, I would call vet asap if in any doubt and maybe change her hay if not eating it and add a bit of warm water to her bucket to encourage her to drink is she is not drinking much.

Hope all is ok.


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## flintfootfilly (6 February 2012)

Agree with the others.  This IS an emergency, and you NEED a vet now.

If the number/volume of poos is less than expected for the weight of food fed, the horse DOES have a serious problem, and I would not be feeding significant amounts of food until the "blockage" has been cleared.

If the horse is not pooing enough, then undigested food plus digested food will be decomposing in the horse's gut, resulting in distension due to the gases released.  You may see the horse look much bigger in general around its abdomen (with one of mine, the girthline expanded by several inches and my girl weightaped at around 585kg instead of her normal 520kg.  The "weight gain" was purely distension due to the gut system grinding to a halt.  She had a surgical colic and needed URGENT treatment.

If you fail to take action, a blockage in the gut can lead to a ruptured stomach (fatal and acutely painful) and other severe problems.

It really isn't something to delay on.  It's an emergency.

Sarah


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## NOISYGIRL (6 February 2012)

I've seen a few deaths from colic with people not getting the vet in time, I'd much rather get the horse checked just in case, soon as possible, I'd have got the vet as soon as it was noticed things weren't normal


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## forestfantasy (6 February 2012)

Here's hoping you have had the vet by now??....

1 Poo is certainly not enough compared to an average horse which will do 10-15 poos a day if not more.
Especially when she has still been eating - do you have an update?


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## kim walsh (6 February 2012)

i would like to post an update on my friends mare

she went up last night to check her again and fed her a sloppy feed. i posted in another forum and they said that it can be due to not drinking enough fluid due to icy weather. she had some more poos last night and some this morning. she was given a soupy breakfast and a soupy dinner. she has soaked her hay and mixed her water with warm water from the kettle and she has been drinking better. she is also being fed bran mash to help her. she has been put in the school twice to stretch her legs and have a good walk around. her mare is still her usual self. she has been very interested in her surroundings and her dinner. she is keeping a very close eye on her along with her yard manager.

she has not showed any signs of colic.


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## neddynesbitt (6 February 2012)

Sorry but still think your friend should be seeking advice of a vet rather than forum members no matter which forum that may be!!

When I took a horse to Liphook with an impaction the only signs right at the very beginning were reduced amounts of droppings. They reduced so much in the end that my vet wanted to send the horse to Liphook.

I explained to the vet that the reason his droppings were probably reduced was because he wasn't eating, the vets reply was "that is wrong to assume that, although it sounds as if that would be the reason, it takes a whole week, YES ONE WEEK to completely empty. So even if your horse hasn't eaten for 3 days, they could still pass droppings for another 4 days"  That is not me making this up, it is exactly what the vet told me!! 

Therefore, if your friends horse is eating and nothing at all is wrong, there should be NO reduction in droppings unless there could be an impaction building up.  The only sign would be a reduction until in the end it would build up to such an extent that it would create a blockage = IMPACTION. That's when the colic symptoms start.

I cannot understand why on earth your friend doesn't just call the vet for advice even if she doesn't wish to have the horse looked at.

If she were 100% honest with the vet, then the vet could advise on if they felt the horse needed looking at by a PROFESSIONAL. It is only the cost of a phonecall and if the worst comes to the worst the cost of a callout is a lot less than it costing the horse dearly with it's life.

Sorry if it seems like we are ganging up on you but your friend needs to get in the real world and just ring the bloody vet.


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## Goldenstar (7 February 2012)

kim walsh said:



			i would like to post an update on my friends mare

she went up last night to check her again and fed her a sloppy feed. i posted in another forum and they said that it can be due to not drinking enough fluid due to icy weather. she had some more poos last night and some this morning. she was given a soupy breakfast and a soupy dinner. she has soaked her hay and mixed her water with warm water from the kettle and she has been drinking better. she is also being fed bran mash to help her. she has been put in the school twice to stretch her legs and have a good walk around. her mare is still her usual self. she has been very interested in her surroundings and her dinner. she is keeping a very close eye on her along with her yard manager.

she has not showed any signs of colic.
		
Click to expand...


Your friend horse has had colic the sooner you both accept this the better just because the horse is not sweating and flinging its self around does not mean its not colic.
Not drinking enough if a cause of colic and it is common at this time of year and us sensible horse owners take steps to stop it happening as soon as the weather changes.
Your friend has been lucky this time. 
You both need to wise up quickly


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## flintfootfilly (7 February 2012)

Yes, drinking insufficient water at this time of year (whether it's because it's become frozen, or whatever) is well recognised as being associated with a higher number of impaction colics.

I found this article really helpful, when I was trying to understand the various types of colic more fully.  The figures/tables are well worth a look.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1570133/

Lack of poos is never to be taken lightly.  Interestingly, one of my girls had been eating/pooing/behaving normally one morning in December.  I'd let her out with the others, and she seemed normal.  By lunchtime I brought her in for her lunchtime haynet and she ignored it, and was breathing very fast and shallow.  She did a normal looking poo as I was with her.  I rang the vet straight away and they were there within half an hour or so.  Turned out to be a pelvic flexure impaction and required fluids tubing into her stomach.  It was 9 hours later before she produced another poo, and obviously I restricted her hay until she was pooing again because you just CANNOT risk packing more food into a horse whose gut is already blocked.

I honestly urge anyone whose horse isn't pooing, or who isn't eating their normal food, to ring their vet straight away.  So much the better if you can provide their temperature and pulse too, as they can give an indication of pain levels and help the vet decide how urgent it is.

Sarah


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## kim walsh (7 February 2012)

i have told my friend about what people have advised on here and that is to call her vet for advise. if it was my own horse i would call my vet for advise on the situation. the horse does not belong to me. it belongs to my friend. she asked me to put a post on here for her for peoples advise and this is what i have done.

i will keep u all posted. 

thank you for all of your advise


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## cands (7 February 2012)

chill out people!

i would not be panicking at this stage. a horse at my yard had a similar thing. she got injured in the paddock and had to be boxed (which she wasnt used to). was fed hay and more hard feed/bulk. she didnt poo much in the first couple of days either because of the change in diet from green grass to hay and bulk feeds. constipation in horses is not always a biggie - just provide your horse with more green grass which will get her bowels moving again. 

its the same with humans. if you eat lots of meat, lack of veges and fibre you get 'blocked up'. 

i would only call a vet if she got colicky, or continued to not poo even after shes had a couple of hours at grass


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