SARAH: "My horse recently colicked with an impaction
in her small intestine.
For several days before the colic,
she was sensitive in grooming on her upper left loin.
Is it possible for an impaction to build up
over a period of time?"
This is something I can relate to very personally, because
anytime my horse or myself have something bad
happen, I start thinking about, like,
could I have seen this coming?
You know, and you try to like read
into all of the things that happened in the days
leading up to it.
So, I understand where she's at.
DR LYDIA GRAY: If you use common sense,
it makes sense, because an impaction
is a build up of feed stuffs, ingesta,
in an area where the tubing--
the lumen of the intestine-- gets smaller.
SARAH: Tubing.
A very technical term.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So, it does take a while for food
to sort of back up and plug up the system.
Think of your drain--
you know, when you clog a drain, it doesn't happen overnight.
So, I can totally buy that maybe her horse
was giving her some signals.
But, I mean, they're so vague that there's
no way you would know what was going on.
She said that the impaction was in the ileum,
so that's small intestine.
You can have impactions in the small intestine,
in particular, that section of small intestine.
They're also common in the large intestine.
So where the left colon takes a turn, and not only a turn,
but it goes from fairly large to a really small diameter.
There's a drastic change and things begin to plug up there.
SARAH: Kind of like when you have
a lane merge on the highway.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
Like in that tunnel in Boston.
Yeah.
So, there's a couple of places in the large intestine that
happens.
Ileocecal junction is one of them,
and where the cecum goes to the right dorsal colon,
that happens.
So, you have to watch for those, but how can you prevent those?
And I don't know that her question
talks about preventing.
SARAH: It does not.
DR LYDIA GRAY: But I'm going to talk about it anyway.
SARAH: I think that's good.
I think that's great.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Hydration is one thing.
So, if you have feed stuff that is dry,
it's going to be more prone to pack up and harden,
and that's why we brought the SmartSalt pellets buckets here.
Salt will stimulate your horse to drink,
it will increase their thirst-- their feel for thirst--
and then they'll drink, and then hopefully hydrate from within,
and then not have feed stuffs get so hard and dry.
SARAH: Now, you pointed out SmartSalt pellets.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yes.
SARAH: And I have definitely--
I've been in the horse industry for a while.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Not going to say how many years.
SARAH: Yeah, not going to say how many years.
But, I've had a lot of people, and even friends to this day
who I grew up riding with, who say, well, my horse has a salt
lick, isn't that good enough?
And, in particular, they're talking about those big red
pressed form salt licks.
I know.
Your favorite.
DR LYDIA GRAY: You're making me break out in hives.
SARAH: Is it hot in here?
So, that is a question.
So I think a lot of people say like, oh, my horse has a salt
lick, that's going to encourage him,
he knows how much salt he needs.
These are a lot of things I've heard around the salt.
So, feeding a product like SmartSalt pellets,
I think a lot of people feel like, really?
DR LYDIA GRAY: That it's not necessary?
SARAH: Yes.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Au contraire.
SARAH: I know.
DR LYDIA GRAY: The nice thing about these, or any salt
product, is that you can top dress it on the feed,
and you know exactly how much the horse is getting.
With the salt lick, A) a lot of horses don't like it.
It wasn't made for horses, it was
made for the rough tongues of cattle, which feel great,
like when they lick you, but horses
don't have tongues like that, so they don't lick the salt block.
SARAH: If you've never been licked by a cow--
if you've been licked by a cat, you
know what we're talking about.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Only bigger.
SARAH: Yeah.
DR LYDIA GRAY: The other thing is they're red.
I don't care for the red, because if you're
thinking that you're providing your horse with micro minerals
or trace minerals with that, you're not.
You're mostly providing color, some iron,
which they don't need.
But you still have the problem with they're just
not getting enough salt. So, top dress it, and then you're sure.
SARAH: OK.
All right.
So we covered that.
And I do feel like I'm talking about a lot of things that
are already in existence, but she was asking about,
could this have been like a warning sign of colic.
And you have a really great blog and video,
I think, on warning signs of colic.
DR LYDIA GRAY: All the different signs.
SARAH: Yeah.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Like pawing and not eating.
SARAH: Yeah.
So you can find that on our YouTube channel
and also on our blog.