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BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF COLIC
·Horses Eat Grass:
Horse’s digestive tract is designed to graze on grass all day.They get the nutrition of supple grass, which is high in water content.This would easily travel through the curves of the digestive tract through peristalsis.Peristalsis is the wave like movement of the intestines that makes the chewed food travel to the other end and out.Also, the surrounding muscles help with food travel.
·Man Feeding Horses – The Cause of Colic:
To save time and pasture space, man has placed horses in stalls, pens, and paddocks where grass is not available.Man needed then to create a simple way to take the place of the grass.So they came up with the idea of grains mixed together to make sweet feed or crushed up grains called pellets.By man-made intervention we designed concentrated feeds to replace the nutrition of fresh growing grass.This feed is fed twice a day so we would not have to keep horses in a big pasture.To replace the grass roughage we give hay (dry grass).
·Causes of Colic
Horses’ digestive tracts are designed for them to graze on grass all day.Because of the man made feed, they are now consuming approximate 1 – 6 lbs of concentrated feed in 30 minutes or less.After they eat their concentrated feed, they then munch on their dry hay.That one big meal is now being pushed through the digestive tract with the help of dry grass.Horses’ digestive tracts were designed to graze slowly throughout the whole day.No wonder there is so many impaction colics!
What Increases the Chance of Colic
1.Weather Change – The horses will drink 20 – 25 gallons (or more) of water on a warm day and 10 – 12 gallons on a cool day. During Spring we will have cold fronts that come in. It may be very warm one day and then overnight, the temperature drops 20 degrees.On the day of the sudden cold snap, the horse does not seem to be thirsty.By not drinking adequate amounts of water, there is less moisture in their digestive tract and the food they have eaten does not move along adequately for the normal digestion process.The gut peristalsis cannot move the food efficiently. Often times, it slows down to a stand still; the peristalses can no longer push down the highly concentrated food. This is what causes an impaction.
2.Riding your Horse for Long Periods without Offering Water – Always keep a water bucket with you in the trailer.Your horse needs to be offered water whenever possible during the day.If you are showing or riding always offer water every hour.
3.Horses Need Fresh Clean Feed and Hay – Colic may be also caused by moldy or bad horse feed. Horses cannot throw up! Once the food has been chewed and swallowed, it needs to go through the entire digestive tract and then out the other end.Horses kept in large pastures will smell of the molded hay and feed and not eat it.But, when kept penned up and that’s the only thing to eat; they will eat it, just to survive.
4.Worm Regularly to Prevent Colic - Colic may also be caused by worming, when horses are not on regular schedule.If a horses is wormed with Ivermectin that kills many different types of worms, all the dead worms that were in the digestive tract start being moved out of the intestine just like their grains and hay.If all the worms are traveling together in one lump, this can cause impaction colic.If a horse has not been wormed in a long time, start with a wormer that kills just some types of worms and then finish up a few weeks later with one that also kills the full spectrum of different worm species.Worm horses every 3 months with wormer paste, this can be purchased from a feed store.Squirt accurate amount between cheek and teeth or towards back of mouth.Some wormer medications are apple flavored and taste good.
Symptoms of Colic –
1. Horses will not eat their feed.If you have a horse that will not eat, you have a very sick horse.He may have colic or something else may be wrong.
2. Horse will be lying down.If you make them stand up and then they start lying down again, this is an indication that they are in pain.
3. If your hose usually stands quietly when he is tied, but then you notice him walking back and fourth or digging.That is a sure sign of colic.Because as soon as you unsaddle and take him back to the pen, he will lie down.
4.Horses will bite or kick at their belly.
Care & Treatment of Colic –
Why Treatment Needs to be FAST: When your horse has colic, by the time you see the signs of it, the progression is already under way.You may have little time to spare.Because of the impaction (clog) in the intestine; as more and more food travels from the front part of the intestine to the back, the impaction starts to build up more and more.Think of a car wreck on a major highway with ice on the road.One car crashes up ahead, but there are also cars traveling behind it that also crash, one at a time until there is a big pile up.Now think of that in terms of a horse’s digestive tract.There is an impaction and then all the food in front of it is trying to travel down the digestive tract and out, but there is a pile up, the road is blocked.
Use a bottle of Equine Colic Relief – Proven product that is 100% fail proof for colic impactions. It is called Equine Colic Relief (ECR). ECR is very simple to use. Just lift your horse’s head up and with an open end syringe (like a wormer) squeeze in the horse’s mouth and watch him swallow the sweet tasting nectar. That’s all there is to it! You will hear gut sounds return or become stronger on both sides of abdomen within 10 to 30 minutes. Use as your first defense. ECR has a shelf life 13 years! Keep this on the shelf at all times and take it with you if are traveling with your horse.
 $85.00 per bottle - 2-3 day priority Ships Free
ECR cannot be returned under any circumstances.
This ensures that you receive the product integrity
and guards against tampering.
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