Colic is a dreaded event among all equestrians; the mere mention enough to make many of us twitch. But why? What is it about colic that’s so horrible? Is it the hours of endless walking, the nights spent sleepless while babysitting the sick creature? Or maybe, the associated vet bill?… I think it can be generally agreed that most of us are willing to do any amount of work to care for our beloved horses. So the work or lost sleep isn’t the main issue. And the vet bill is forgotten quickly once your horse is healthy, and the bill is paid. I propose what we really dread most is the complete lack of control we feel watching our horses suffer with often quite limited influence over whether they will live or die from this event. Out of control as we may feel during a colic, there are a few things we can do to prevent emergencies and put us back in the driver’s seat.
Gas Colic
In order to prevent something, we must first understand what it is and what causes it. Equine colic is a general term for abdominal pain that can be caused by a number of different situations. Your horse could simply be gassy. That sounds trivial and amusing because we humans have the ability to burp and regurgitate if needed. Horses cannot reflux gas or food matter back towards their mouth to alleviate the buildup of pressure. Therefore if food and gas cannot pass through the digestive tract, the intestines will eventually rupture, and the horse will die. Gas colics are often seen in the spring with rich spring grass being a big instigator. But any change in diet increases risk of a colic – gas or otherwise.
Impaction Colic
The “impaction”, which can be paralleled to severe constipation, describes a complete blockage of the intestines. Impactions occur most commonly during the winter months when horses eat almost exclusively dry hay and grain. Horses are also more prone when there are big temperature swings such as during the spring and fall. If a horse becomes dehydrated, either due to sweating or lack of drinking, impaction is a higher risk.
A Twist
Either of these first two types of colic can lead to the other main type, a “twist”. A twist can also happen apparently on its own. A horse experiencing abdominal pain will often roll on the ground, trying to get rid of the pain. Rolling can cause a piece of intestine to flip over itself and pinch off the flow of material through the gut. You could imagine a kink in a hose. Once a horse has twisted, surgery is the only hope of saving them.
If the blood flow is also cut off to that portion of intestine due to the degree of twist, called “strangulation”, it will begin to die which makes surgery more involved, riskier and lessens the likelihood of success. Also, like a kinked hose, once a horse has gone through a twist, even if surgery is successful, they are statistically more likely to colic again. Depending on the work that was needed to fix them the first time, they may have even more limited options to save the horse again. Colic surgery typically costs in the $10,000 range and can be cost prohibitive to many owners, not even considering the extensive rehab required after.
So that is the whole grim picture of potential escalation to worst-case scenario. It’s important to remember that with speedy identification and treatment by a vet, many colics are not fatal. You never know exactly what is causing your colic or how severe it is until the vet has assessed the situation. Even then the horse’s status can change rapidly for better or worse – hence our trepidation. But they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and I agree that is absolutely true here.
Prevention, Step 1 – General Care
Firstly, try to keep a consistent feed schedule. I don’t mean that grain must be given at exactly the same time. But rather that if a horse gets grained 1 scoop/once per day, it would not be wise to jump him to 2 scoops/twice per day without some transition. If a horse is accustomed to getting his allotment of hay daily, jumping to putting 3 days’ worth of hay down because you will be away may not actually last 3 days and leave your horse with an extended gap of no hay at all. Changing types of grain can be a trigger as well, so transitioning over a few days to a new grain is a nice idea.
Making sure your horse has access to drinkable water and that he knows where it is, is huge for just general animal care. Also offering free access to a salt or mineral block is advisable to keep your horse hydrated.
Now to talk about forage; grass is sometimes the instigator of gas in the spring but generally speaking, grass is good in the world of colic prevention. It is moist forage providing much of its own hydration. When grass is not available, alfalfa hay or wetted alfalfa pellets are also a good addition for forage as it is known to keep horse’s bowels loose and motile. There are many reasons for choosing different kinds of hay for forage but if colic is the subject matter, alfalfa is the way to go when fresh pasture grass is limited or unavailable.
Prevention, Step 2 – Watch Manure Production
This one may sound gross, but next comes awareness of what your horse produces; take notice of his manure. You won’t be able to judge much by old piles. But when you handle your horse and he leaves you a present, it’s a good time to look at color and texture. This will vary some by season and what they are eating. Try to get familiar with normal so that you will notice when the lumps are dry and spongy in texture, have a greasy appearance, or are particularly dark in color. All of these can indicate dehydration and/or spending extended time in the digestive tract.
Also noting quantity is important. A horse should poop about once every two hours. So a horse who is stalled overnight should have anywhere from three to six piles in the stall. If you only find one pile you may rejoice at the minimal effort to clean the stall but you should begin getting concerned about the horse. In this instance I personally would go right to a double dose of electrolytes in a handful of wet grain and only soaked alfalfa hay for forage. Additionally I would keep the horse in a clean stall to observe ins and outs. And that’s even if he seems to be otherwise fine. Horses are prey animals and many of them are very good at hiding their ailments until it’s nearly too late.
Prevention, Step 3 – Recognize Behavior
Third is being aware of your horse’s behavior. If he strikes you as acting odd, trust your instincts. Observe whether anything else is out of the ordinary that you might have overlooked. Common pain signals can include a wide range of behaviors, including:
- not eating his grain or hay
- laying for an unusual amount of time or in a stiff uncomfortable-looking position
- pacing
- stomping
- biting and kicking at his own belly
- repeatedly yawning and/or lifting his upper lip
- gnashing his teeth together
- abnormal sweating
- flared nostrils
- increased respiratory rate
- repeatedly rolling on the ground, whether violently or not
Evaluate Gut Sounds
If you are feeling suspicious, you can confirm by placing your ear against your horse’s stomach behind his last rib. Listening for gut sounds on each side can tell you a lot. If you become familiar with normal gut sounds when your horse is healthy, then you will be able to identify if it is muffled, less than normal or worse, non-existent. If no gut sounds, there should be an immediate call to the vet. Normally a horse’s gut makes frequent, nearly continuous gurgles as gas and material moves along. An absence of sound means absence of movement.
Extra Tips for Prevention
To recap what we have said so far, we should all be conscious of our horse’s ins and outs and learn to read his behavior and listen to gut sounds for confirmation of your suspicions. Beyond basic good horse care and awareness, I add a couple of super-easy prevention steps to my daily routine.
When we have big temperature swings, I have sweated my horse up, or observe something that makes me suspicious of dehydration, I make sure to add water to my grain as a start. This minimizes the “sponge” effect the dry grain has when it is being digested. If you have ever wet down your grain and let it set, you will have noticed how the pellets fall apart and the grain swells in the bucket. It does the same thing in the horse’s stomach. If it is wet when it goes down, there’s at least some moisture supplied in the eating of the grain, and it doesn’t suck all that moisture from the horse. This is a good idea for older horses whose ability to chew properly is in question, regardless of other factors. If a horse isn’t able to chew effectively, their stomach must do even more work. Wet feed will begin to break down quickly on its own and save the horse the extra effort.
Finally, if I’m particularly concerned about dehydration, such as I see a horse’s manure was dark and spongy-textured or a horse didn’t drink in his stall overnight, I will add electrolytes to my wet grain (read your individual container for dosage), and only give enough grain to get the electrolytes into the horse. If he’s dehydrated and food is moving slow, he doesn’t need masses of more material backing up – remember grain swells when it first hits the stomach.
Conclusion
There is surely no total prevention of colic and it’s important to note that I am not referring to treating an active colic event here. That is firmly in the realm of calling your vet. I am talking about everyday horse owners and caregivers knowing how to support our horses to stay healthy where illness might be preventable.
I personally have found that these actions give me peace of mind that I’m doing all I can to get ahead of a situation. It only takes seconds out of a day to add water and/or electrolytes to my horses’ feed when needed. A tub of electrolytes is a super-cheap product compared to the vet bill and/or loss of a horse. On the occasion that one of my horses does colic, in spite of my efforts, I don’t have a sense of guilt that I didn’t do enough. Peace of mind is probably nearly as valuable as the actual prevention is to you as well.
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