I remember the morning very well, I had just walked up to the field gate and about to take our dog for his morning walk. I always had a quick look at the horses in their field to see what they were doing, if it was winter they would always be close waiting for their morning feed. On this morning Megan was standing close by and looked a bit uncomfortable, couldn’t pin point it at this stage. As you know your horse, you can tell sometimes by their demeanour that they do not look right. I just took a mental note to check her
over when I gave her morning feed.
About 30mins later I mixed her feed up and headed for the field, Megan is a bit of a pig when it comes too food and she can’t wait to get at it. This morning she didn’t come forward and had started to pace about and look at her flanks also she had started to sweat up a bit. Instantly I could see she was in pain her muscles were very tight and she wasn’t happy. I had seen cases of colic many times but sadly only in their advanced state.
I called the vet out immediately, he was there in 15 minutes and diagnosed that she was in the early stages of colic and to not worry. Easy for him to say! He gave her a muscle relaxant and told me to watch her and to gently walk her for awhile. If the symptoms got worse or if I was worried to call him back. But he felt that we caught it in time and the prognosis was good.
She was not allowed her fed and as the grass wasn’t lush I just had to keep an eye on her in the field. After an hour or so she seemed a lot happier and had started to graze and along with her passing droppings, I knew we were lucky and she would be ok.
A lot of horses do suffer with colic and have to be put down, but if caught early your horse has a good chance of surviving. If you are covered by
insurance and the vet feels it will give your horse a chance an operation can be performed. But it is very costly and the vet will tell you it might not be the route to take. Trust your vet in these situations.
It is a term used when a horse as any form of abominable pain , what we would call a stomach ache.
The most common causes are
indigestion or worms. Indigestion to their
teeth needing attention (unable to chew properly) rapid changes to their diet, unsuitable food working too soon after feeding, too much concentrate, any of these can cause a stoppage in the intestines or a twisted gut both of these can be fatal. You can see now why it is so important to worm your horse regularly.
Colic can be very serious and needs urgent medical treatment, If the symptoms do not go away after 20 mins call your vet, it might save your horses life.
Once you have noticed the symptoms do the following:
