Treating Colic
Spasmodic colic is treated by medications that relieve the spasms and by walking. The horse will sometimes need more than one dose of medication, but this type of colic generally responds to treatment.
Impactions rarely require surgery, but clearing them may take anywhere from a day to even a week. Pain medications like Banamine will help relieve the horse's discomfort, and may be needed more than once a day. To clear the impaction, your vet will administer mineral oil or stool softeners, fluids, and electrolytes via stomach tube. Fluids may also be given intravenously to help rehydrate the horse. Some vets use enemas as well to help break up the blockages. However, some impactions may be too extensive to break up without surgery, so you and your vet will want to closely monitor the horse's progress. Grass is the ideal food for a horse with an impaction, and regular walking or turnout will be encouraged. Otherwise, vets vary in their feeding recommendations. Soupy meals of soaked hay pellets or beet pulp are usually recommended rather than dry hay.
Enteritis does not require surgical treatment, but often the horse is in so much pain, with dehydration and changes in the gums, that a decision is made to do surgery just in case there is something going on that requires it. Once it is clear what the problem is, the treatment becomes intensive fluid therapy and antibiotics plus anti-inflammatories.
Surgical Solutions
A horse with a displaced or twisted section of bowel whose blood supply is compromised will need surgery to correct the problem. Horses with large enteroliths or abdominal abscesses also need surgery,
If it becomes clear your horse does need surgery, you'll want to know what his chances of survival are. Some formulas have been developed that are fairly accurate (75% to 90%-plus) at predicting survival rates. Theses point systems rely on blood and abdominal fluid tests performed in a lab, and some of these tests are only available at full-service hospitals or clinics. So the bottom line is, your vet just won't be able to answer that question for you at your barn. Once you get to the hospital and the tests are in, you'll have some idea of the odds for your horse.
Reducing the Risk of Colic
Because of the complicated nature of the horse's digestive tract, and the fact that much of the bowel is essentially floating loose inside the abdomen rather than securely held in position, some colics are basically accidents that you cannot prevent. That said, several studies have identified clear risk factors.
Inadequate water intake. The horse's intestinal tract can hold as much as 35 gallons. Until you get to the very end of the gut, a large percentage of that is water. Much of the fluid in the gut comes either from saliva (a horse produces about 10 gallons per day), or fluids secreted along the intestinal tract, but the water in those secretions has to come from the horse's diet or water bucket.
The horse's natural diet, grass, is at least 80% water. When the horse eats grains or hays that are less than 10% water, he has to make up the difference by drinking. For optimal digestive tract health, a horse on a "dry" diet needs to take in at least 8 gallons per day of water. In summer heat and when exercising, needs are considerably higher. Insufficient salt is a common reason why horses don't drink enough water. Make sure your horse has access to salt and also make sure he's actually taking it in. He needs at least 1 ounce/day in winter, 2 to 4 ounces/day in hot weather.
Feed changes. While we've been repeatedly told to make any switches in grain slowly, fewer may realize that changes in hay can have an even greater impact on our horses' health. Hays can and do vary tremendously in the levels of sugar, starch, protein and fiber types they contain. All these different nutrients are fermented by different types of organisms in the horse's intestines. When you make a sudden change, they may not be able to adapt. Even if you always feed the same type of hay (such as orchard grass), there can be sizeable differences between cuttings and hays grown in different locations. Always try to make changes gradually, over about a week's time.
Too much grain. Grains are low-fiber, high-starch feeds that are more suitable for humans than horses. The horse has a limited ability to digest starch due to a relatively short small intestine where that digestion occurs. Sugars and starches that don't get digested end up in the large bowel and can cause serious problems. Equally bad is that horses eating grain do not take in as much fiber from hays. Most horses are fed way too much grain. You should only feed grain if your horse can't hold a normal weight on hay alone. Limit grain feedings to 3-5 pounds, at the very most, per feeding. Remember, too, that brans and pelleted supplements often contain considerable amounts of sugar or starch, anywhere from two to three times as much as hay.
Inadequate deworming. The problem of parasites as a cause of colic, especially chronic, recurrent colics, has dropped considerably since the modern paste dewormers came on the market, but parasites still can be a problem. This is particularly true of roundworms in foals and tapeworms or small strongyles in adults. Young horses require more frequent dewormings than adults. Small strongyles are now resistant to many of the paste dewormers, so if you are using a rotational deworming plan, you need to talk to your vet about periodic fecal exams to make sure the products you're using are getting the job done. Tapeworms aren't sensitive to most of the common dewormers, so you need to attack these twice a year with either an ivermectin or moxidectin combo product labeled for tapeworms, or a month of a daily dewormer containing pyrantel tartrate.
Inadequate exercise. Exercise encourages good intestinal motility. A horse confined to a stall is a colic waiting to happen.
Through proper management practices, you can reduce your horse's chances of colic and ward off tummy troubles that otherwise could threaten your horse's life.
