New Hay!!! The good, the bad, and lessons learned

Things here in NE Texas are not ideal for keeping a horse right now.  Lack of rain and good temperatures have no grass growing at all.  Hay is in short supply and is VERY expensive.  I feel worse for people in other parts of Texas because they have it much worse, but still ... it's not a nice situation we're in.

Fortunately, thanks to my Aunt Karen, I was able to get in touch with a hay guy up in Little Rock, AR.  After a month of plotting, planning, and co-ordinating, I was able to hire a truck to drive up to Little Rock, and bring 34 bales round bales of Bermuda grass (with some sage grass) home.  There were 4 people who went in on this load, and it worked out great.  The truck driver, Jaice, with Sheffield Trucking, sent me this picture of our hay before we hit the road heading our way.

Now that is a pretty sight!  A load of fresh cut bermuda!!

As you can imagine, the horses were also VERY excited about the new hay.  To stretch till the hay truck came, I had them on minimal hay rations and grain.  In the past, I've never had to worry much with the Belgians on changing food and what not.  The drafts seem to just handle that stuff very well.  So, I put out a round bale, and the horses went to town on it.  They were all very happy, and I was too.  Things were great ... or so I thought.

Yesterday I came home to find Nellie laying down.  I noted that half of the round bale was gone (in 1 day).  I walked out into the pasture and she stayed laying down.  She wasn't rolling or anything, just laying.  While looking at her, Pam laid down next to her.  This was odd to me.  I took the picture below:

Nellie and Pam laying down, with upset stomachs

 I got on the phone with some friends to brush up on my knowledge of colic.  I was told to watch for rolling and thrashing, and to also watch for them to bite at, or kick at their bellies.  The horses didn't seem to be in pain, so I went about my daily routine and just kept an eye on them.  As the afternoon/evening passed on, I noticed Nellie was laying down more often than standing. 

At 8:30PM I went out to check on the horses, and Nelle was not doing so well.  She had abrasions on her whithers, hips, and the sides of her neck and head from rolling/thrashing on the ground.  She was moaning with each exhale, and she kept bumping her belly with her nose.  At this point, I knew things were not well, and I called the Vet.

I got a halter on Nellie, and was able to coax her into standing.  I then led her out, and was walking around with her a bit while we waited for the Vet to arrive.  The vet took a look at her, and noted that she had a raised pulse, and that her gut sounds were not well.  He gave her a minor sedative, and then administered bantamine into her vein.  Within minutes she was breathing easier, and calming down.  She decided to lay down at this point, and laid flat on her side.  The vet told me that the next step would be to tube her to check her stomach contents.  He did that, and out came a gallon of gross smelling watery stuff.  It also relieved a lot of gas.  He told us that the gut sounds, plus the stomach contents led him to believe she was in the beginning stages of an impact colic, and that we're lucky to have caught it early.  From what I understand, impact is where you get a total blockage and this requires surgery to fix.

Nellie was calm and easy to work with.  I think it was 60% on board drugs, and 40% her desire to be made well that made her easy to work with.  My horse that hates needles was just fine with all the injections that were being made.  I was shocked.

The Vet added a gallon or so of water, and a gallon of mineral oil to her stomach.  He then told me that my job was to keep her moving for the next 2 hours.  He said I could do that by walking her, or by loading her in the trailer and driving around.  Due to the price of fuel, I opted for the first.  He also told us to pull the horses off the hay, and only let them eat it a few hours a day for the next week.  He also instructed us to give grain daily with 1 cup of mineral oil added for all horses.  He wasn't too concerned about Pam, and said that the mineral oil in the grain will help her, and if she did get worse, to call and we'd do the same thing we did with Nellie.  We thanked the vet for coming out, and I went to work walking Nellie.

She walked very easily.  She never fought me and kept her head right near me.  Pam was still in the field laying down a bit, so I decided to keep them all walking.  I opened the pasture gate, and walked out to pasture with Nellie.  All the other horses followed.  I then shut the gate, keeping them away from the hay.  Then the 2 hours of walking started.  I just did laps around the pasture.  Over, and over, and over again.  Nellie was awesome and followed my lead.  She never complained or acted up at all.  I think she must have made some kind of connection between me and the fact that she was no longer in pain.  At one point I stopped to turn on the hose and fill up a bucket of water, and she stood perfectly still in the pasture, and waiting for me to return.  She was calm and seemed to be on the rebound.

One interesting side note ... all the mares followed Nellie.  I was essentially walking the herd.  Nellie is alpha, and Pam and Whinnie followed behind her.  Then there was Buck.  He was the boy.  Ever since a nice blog article by Bob Skelding (the wagonteamster), I pay attention to how the herd acts.  Last night, the girls all fell in line, following Nellie.  Then buck ran around the entire pasture, kicking and bucking, with his head down.  It was interesting to watch.  He'd be grazing somewhere, then suddenly I'd hear the thunder of hooves, and here he'd come, running at full speed bucking occasionally.  At one point, he ran close to Nellie, and then he stopped about 10 feet on front of her.  I then learned that a lead mare who isn't feeling good can still flip 180 degrees around me in an instant, and deliver a 2 footed cow kick to a gelding who is acting out.  :)  Buck was much less crazy after that.  LOL.

At about 1:30 AM, Nellie had to stop for a potty break, and I noticed the oil working it's way out.  YAY!  That made me very happy about things.  I was scared of a blockage.  After the 2 hours was up, we gave her another dose of the mild sedative to help her through the rest of the night, and then I went to bed.  By that point, I was walking like I was drunk.  My legs were worn our, and I was a tired boy.  Walking straight for 2 hours is not something I'm used to. 

This morning all the horses were up and grazing on what grass they can find in the pasture.  They all seem to be well.  I'm very relieved.  Hopefully we're done with it.

Lessons Learned:  Even draft horses can colic from feed changes.  The Vet said this was caused by them eating too much of a new feed too fast.  When changing hays, you should not allow a horse to have free access to it.  Work them into it for a week first so their body can get used to the changes in the grasses.  I won't be making this mistake again.  The old farmers tale that draft horses aren't suseptable to this is FALSE!