Well it is nice to see folks reading such an old posting! I did want to mention that REGULAR, DAILY Bran mashes are now considered bad for horses. Bran is an old-time traditional feed for horses, but actually does nothing nutritionally as a feed. A horse with very loose stools from eating bran, is actually LOSING valuable winter water AND minerals from his system. The bran makes horse use lose more water out of his body system, than horse normally would without the bran. Few horses drink additional water to replace that water loss. The bran intake often, allows minerals to leach from the body and mineral loss is also a problem to the horse. I know I heard lots about feeding Bran mash in winter, how good it was for horse. Now has all proven to be a total fallacy in horse feeding. The wet beet pulp with hot water, hot water on hay cubes, add your snack bits of apples or carrots, is MUCH better in food and water intake value, than bran mash. Bran is actually harmful to horses when fed regularly and often. Does smell good though, about the only good part. Our horses LOVE the warm, wet beet pulp we feed at night. Do pay attention to individual horses. One of ours quit drinking inside. Daughter mentioned seeing her roll the evening before, as they lined up to come into barn. Odd timing for that to happen, so I was lookin at her hard when I did AM chores. Full water buckets in stall, 2nd morning in a row set off the alarm for me. I was watching her MUCH more closely when I turned her out that day. She was "off", didn't eat much hay, no drink from tank. I started doing hourly checks on her outside. She has always been a problem drinker when she doesn't feel perfect. She is atypical in her signs, still pooping and having gut sounds while acting out pain, usually laying down, not rolling. We NEVER do the "wait and see" with her. As she started acting odd, Husband came home and gave her a pain shot. Vet came and pumped her full of water mixed with a new med to break up forage material in her gut. This horse goes off and shows it VISIBLY at a very early stage, not a stoic pain endurance animal. We did everything right, she came around, but it was a LONG 24 hours before the wait was over. She still didn't drink well for another 2 days, ate some snow, was not offered much feed like hay. We wanted her gut more empty, easy to move what forage was in it. Wet beet pulp stayed in front of her, along an electric warm water bucket, She was turned out on small grassy paddock where she dug for old grass and ate snow. Room to move helps gut work. Alone in paddock allowed us to find and count poop piles to ensure she WAS going, gut was moving food. Just wanted to make sure you are checking individuals and each equine's water intake. We know our Princess well, her visible pain reaction EARLY, prevented her from being a statistic. Over this last weekend, the Vet said they lost 6 others to Colic, impaction from not drinking enough. One was the my kid's 4-H leader's horse, who showed no signs early. He was too far gone when found in the AM, rolling terribly, had twisted his gut along with impaction. Quite horrible to find, had to be put down. We think that mare was having a painful heat cycle, with new longer sunshine days getting her back going. Painful cycle probably was the origin of not drinking. She is in full heat now. Other folks have said they noticed colic problems with huge temp swings from cold to almost hot of early Spring or thunderstorm activity with pressure changes. Keep an eye on your animals, know what is normal for them. React quickly when they quit being "normal", before it is too late. Hope you all have NO PROBLEMS with your 4-legged friends.

Oh Nana so glad to see that Ingeorgia has come thorough to help! Chiropractors are amazing when it comes to babies. My DGD had colic for months and DD finally took her to a Canio Sacral therapist many miles away to help with the colic. They lived with us for 6 months mostly because of this and DGD was born 3 months premature. Another thing everyone needs to know is chiropractors can help little ones who have bed wetting issues. What I've heard is their little hips are out. Once put back in place, no more issues. Colic is so hard on ALL involved. Our little one we lost had colic too. Sure hope this passes for all of your sakes. I've heard 3 months is the norm too so hope that's the case with Caroline. Let us know how things work out. Knowledge on all things makes life so much nicer. Punk

It wasn't putting him down that bothered me. It was how hard he struggled when we were trying to get him out. If I could do it over, I wouldn't have put him through it as long as we did. We thought we could get him out, but it was impossible because not only was he in deep, he had his butt to the door so he would have to turn around and there was no way he could have done that. The sadness I felt was not that we had to shoot him...mainly that we didn't realize what we were up against and do it quickly. I never want to see any animal suffer, so it would have been a kindness to him, to comfort him, give him water, and put him down immediately.

Kathy, I can just imagine the tears that fell on your cheeks as you wrote this story. I think I'm crying as much now as when it first happened. Banjo is such a beautiful creature. Thank God he had you and Lucky to take care of him. I hope you will be generous about showing us pictures of him and your new mare. The love you feel for your horses comes through in the posts you write and I never tire of hearing about your beauties.((((( Kathy and Banjo )))))) Linda