I had 4 horses in my field 3 cobs and 1 morgan they have all had more hay to eat than they could manage and a good bucket of feed a day .the 3 cobs look great but the morgan became to loose weight 3 weeks ago so i bought him a new rug and upped his feed to 2 buckets a day i just thought that that would do it i also gave him another wormer in case it was worms but he still lost weight on thursday this week he became tangled into his rug and a vet was called the vet noticed that he had a blood discharge from his privates .

He later died of colic this friday morning he had a few episodes of colic over
the last few years and muscle damage for this last year on his rear quarters since he got himself caught up in his stable ,the vet has taken a lot of blood tests but i feel awful as people thought that he must have been starved but he always ate more than the two mares put together please could you let me know if you know what is was or has anyone had this problem.

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Vegetable Garden + Home Garden = My Garden
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Hi,sorry for your loss.it sounds like he had some serious underlying medical problems,maybe something with his liver or something,without a postmortem you will probably never know.some horses are just more prone to colic than others,i wouldnt dwell to much on it,you did all you could

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A+P Fabrications,quality stabling/Round pens/ stocks/gates/kennels,puppy pens and catteries.Also ornamental/estate fencing,gates and railings.

So sorry for your loss My friend lost her gelding a few weeks ago and he had similar symptoms to what you describe, and blood tests showed that he had liver damage due to ragwort poisoning. She felt awful but he had never been near the stuff while she had him; apparently it can be in the system for years before it shows any symptoms. I really hope you get some results to put your mind at rest *hugs*

I am sorry to hear that you have lost your horse to colic.
I notice that another poster has also posted information relating to another horse that had died through ragwort poisoning.

I believe that the symtoms of both colic and rw are pretty much the same in the early stages.

I am still astonished at the number of horses I see that are in fields with ragwort on the perimeters. Also need to mention the importance of keeping a horse moving whilst waiting for a vet with colic.

Sorry to have posted on your thread, just wanted to highlight these two dangers that many people (sadly) are so often unaware of.

Once again, I stress my sorrow to you having read of your tragic loss.

As has been said without a postmortem it would be just guess work.
It could well have been a worm burden that caused not only the weight loss but the colic aswell.
Did you ever have a worm count done and what is your normal worming regime?

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Hi really sorry to hear about your loss. as i posted on the poo picking thread. we used to poo pick every day with a worm count twice a year and 1 worming dun a year about october. if the test came back with a worm count we would worm. we did really well this year all the horses came back with a zero worm count. it cost £10 per horse for a worm count here. cheaper than a wormer. just more hard work