Colic from frozen grass

[sunny]

I've never heard of that. It must have been very frightening. But the pic of her is beautiful. Glad she's made a full recovery

[lucydales]

So glad Becky is okay.

Mine are on foggage which will be frozen and haven't started feeding anything else yet as I can't see any ribs!


This is really worrying for me given my management regime. Was it your first frost??

[cadeby]

Becky is back to normal now and thrilled to have been presented with a massive round bale of hay for her to fill her face whenever she wants!

Lucy it was our first hard frost - there had been a few feeble ground frosts a few nights before, but on this particular morning the grass was rock solid. I was thinking to myself how beautiful it all looked before I found her rolling round on the floor

I have never experienced anything like this before, so I wouldn't worry too much about your management regime. I think Becky was just unlucky She is the one in our herd that will always be at the centre of any trouble or incident!

..and despite all the needles, tubing, drips, rectal invasions etc..etc.. she is still an affectionate cuddle-monster and doesn't bear any grudge - a typical, stoical Dales

[lucydales]

Bless her!!

[dalesponyrider]

So pleased Becky is ok again and enjoying her cuddles. What a worry, D and Saturn have hay but prefer to nibble the frozen grass too! I hope you'll forgive me, but I'll try not to think about what's happened to Becky too much or I'll be white rather than grey!

[manorian]

I am so pleased she is Ok now Helen. Frosty grass is a nightmare. I have two friends who have lost ponies because of eating frosty grass. One a Dales and one a Welsh D.
I have always been told to feed hay when it is frosty. We feed ad lib in the field and they just eat until they are full so don't worry about them getting any fatter.

[mickey]

Glad she's ok.
Mickey looked colicky tonight- though Ive put it down to little grass in the field so he came in and gorged a full net of hay down quickly. Going to put him adlib out now. He's not colicked before (that I know about) and Ive had him 10.5 years. Thankfully he seems ok now

[hannahj]

Glad to hear she is now ok!


You are not alone with that! A few weeks ago Rocky got colic too. Again, it was the first real frost really, and it was at the end of the day, when he had been out grazing all day. I called the vet quickly, they diagnosed gassy spasmodic colic and gave him some pain relief and an anti-spasmodic drug. Thankfully he was back to normal very quickly after that, and when the drugs wore off he was fine. The vet had been called out to a few cases of it that day!

[diamonds]

Glad she"s better now, sounded really scary. My 2 both prefer frosted grass rather than the hay I"m giving them. Typical! I had been a bit worried about feeding the hay as they are both a bit "rotund" still and worry about laminitis as one of my friends ponies had it last spring. I am giving hay in the mornings only so hopefully we will be ok.