Colic

Content

1. Intro
2. What to do while you wait for the vet
3. Useful info to give to your vet
4. Feeding recovering horses post-colic
5. If your horse has a poor appetite
   

Colic is the one issue that I’ll call a vet for. It can strike any horse at any time, and nothing in a herbal cupboard will help a horse quicker than a vet’s injectable toolkit. That said, once a horse is recovering, herbal support can be immensely supportive (more on this below).

Put simply, colic is all about a pretty major disturbance in the gut system's intestinal region. Anything from bloating, massively disturbed peristalsis, constipation, abdominal spasming, or positional changes where parts of the intestine are no longer where they belong, and can therefore be cut off from the blood supply - all typical reasons behind a colic episode.

Unfortunately, when colic hits, we can’t always tell what the trigger was, and how your horse presents also says nothing about the cause or severity. Hence why we should always call the vet immediately – every second may count, and far better to pay for a false alarm than overlook a severe colic.

What to do while you wait for the vet

1. First up, make sure your horse is warm. Colic can disturb a horse’s natural thermoregulation and may rapidly switch the body from sweating to freezing, so pop on a stable fleece.
   
   
2. Now to calm movement, as walking your horse will keep circulation and peristalsis going to ease the cramps, or at least keep them from getting worse until the vet arrives. Colic is also a highly stressful situation for the horse, and movement helps to regulate the stress hormones, helping very agitated horses to become calmer over time.
   
   
3. I know that to some of us this will now sound bonkers, but these days it’s now thought that we should allow our horse to roll if they want to. Reason being that previously rolling wasn’t recommended because it was thought that it could cause the gut to twist (torsion colic). Today numerous studies have shown that rolling doesn’t cause torsion, and a rolling horse during a colic episode is actually trying to ‘push’ a twisted intestine back into place.
   
   
4. Now to lying down – colic is exhausting for the horse, so if they want to lie down in between you walking them out, let them, but still motivate them to get up and walk around a bit to keep their circulation going.
   
   
5. Finally, and I know this is obvious, but it’s a No to any food or water. During a colic, neither food nor liquid will travel through the intestines properly – even a mash can make a progressing colic worse.

Of course you’re going to be feeling desperate – the last time Murf colic’d on me (2011) I was so all over the place that I couldn’t remember how to use my mobile phone to call the vet! But keep the faith – while we’re waiting for the vet the best thing we can do is keep our horse walking calmly, and make sure they’re warm.

Meanwhile here are some tips to help you give your horse some relief and get through the waiting time better.

1. If the colic’s been going on for a while it’s important to check their circulation. This can be recognised by your horse having pale gums and the capillary refilling time being prolonged. If your horse is already in colic, test this first on another healthy horse to see the normal refill time.
   
   
2. Lift the lip from the side, press strongly against the gum with your thumb, and count 3-seconds. Now let go to see how quickly the white spot turns pink again - the blood should start to flow back quickly as soon as you let go, again on a count of 3-seconds. If it takes longer, assume that there’s a circulatory issue.
   
   
3. You can now help get the circulation going with caffeine. Hopefully you’ll have a tea-room on the yard with some instant or ground espresso coffee – but don’t use decaf! Lift the lip again and rub the equivalent for one-cup of coffee into the gum crease with your fingers. Caffeine is permeable to the gum membrane so it absorbs immediately into the bloodstream, so your horse should react fairly quickly to the caffeine boost and their circulation should be restimulated. Don’t overdo it though – one coffee-cup’s worth is enough.
   
   
4. Studies (White 1992) show that up to 80% of colics are due to small intestinal cramping, hence why the vets’ antispasmodics work so well. Impaction colic is present in 20-50% of cases (Litzke et al. 1996, Cohen et al. 1996), although this can also be the result or cause of cramps, so there’s a clear overlap here, and more so in winter, as some horses may have trouble adjusting back to a hay diet, which means they might be at higher risk of impaction colic. Focus on hydration with added sodium to the diet to encourage drinking.
   
   I personally think having a gut 'bitters' tincture in my horse's first-aid kit is invaluable for colic - you can give your horse a shot of bitters via an oral syringe into the gum crease again as an immediate measure. In days of yore bitters were an old household remedy for colic, plus the shelf-life of tinctures is huge, officially around 3-years but unofficially they're still said to be absolutely fine for up to 10-years, a bit like a fine wine or brandy. 
   
   You may have heard of 'Swedish Bitters' which you can find online; Amazon has a couple that pretty much match the original Swedish Bitters remedy, my personal preference being the Gutology one. If your bitters come with a pipette, all the better as you can administer them a pipette at a time. Like the caffeine, the alcohol is also permeable via the mucous membrane, getting straight into the bloodstream and quickly taking effect. The alcohol will have a muscle-relaxing effect on the cramping, and the bitters will help stimulate peristalsis. You don’t need much – 30ml max, similar to a Schnapps' shot glassful.
   
   Again, don’t overdo it though - if 30ml doesn’t have any effect, you don’t want to be giving any more. Rest assured though, this won’t interfere with the vet’s therapy.

Meanwhile, continue to walk the horse to continue stimulating peristalsis and circulation till the vet arrives.

Useful info to give to your vet

• What were your horse’s symptoms?
• How long have they been colicky?
• Have they poo’d since you called the vet?
• Has their behaviour changed since the call, and if so, how?
• What have you done to help them, i.e. rugging, walking, caffeine or bitters.
• Did these have an effect, and if so, how?
• Has your horse colic’d before, and if so, what type, when, and what treatments?
• Have they ever had surgery for colic before?

Feeding recovering horses post-colic

It goes without saying that careful refeeding support for horses following a colic is vital, especially for hospitalised horses following colic surgery.

However, we need to be mindful that while a horse needs nutrients for healing and immune function, loading the gut with feed carries the risk of increasing the chance for further intestinal shutdown, possible colic relapse, and even breakdown of any abdominal surgical incision.

If we’re talking a severe colic episode, it’s generally been common practice for vets to withhold feed initially and provide only water and possibly intravenous fluids and electrolytes, before slowly reintroducing forage. If your horse has had surgery, normal feed practices are usually withheld until it’s clear that intestinal motility has been restored, and even then, only small amounts of forage are recommended to be offered at frequent intervals, or offering grass turnout for 20-30 minutes intermittently, i.e. 4 to 6-times/day, gradually increasing steadily based on how your horse responds.

However, if your horse has had a straightforward, easily resolved colic, usually they can return to a their normal diet, carefully reintroduced of course.

If your horse has a poor appetite …

Try a mash. The original concept of a mash dates back to WW1, to get very exhausted/ sick military horses that had no energy left, to eat. The traditional mash consisted of wheat bran (which horses love), crushed oats, linseed and salt; there may have been a glug of Guinness added too, but if an army horse was totally exhausted and had lost its appetite, it was the wheat bran got them eating again.

For the record though, mashes aren’t the best fuel to feed, as by their very nature the composition is dust-like so very little to no digestion occurs, but post colic that’s kind-of the point. A mash literally passes straight through the GI tract and out the other end, so there's very little nutrient absorption, if any. But - a mash should get your horse eating, with the main purpose being to stimulate the action of peristalsis again.

There’s always a worst case though. For a severe colic episode you may be looking at assisted feeding, which means administration by stomach tube of energy-dense soaked feed, or even parenteral nutrition, which is given intravenously through a catheter. This form of nutrition is particularly valuable for horses recovering from enteritis (intestinal inflammation) or from surgery, particularly if a portion of the small intestine has been removed.

Once intestinal motility is restored with no further reflux, it’s recommended to feed a highly digestible diet using fresh grass or soft first-cut hay and/or feed mashes, offering only very small meals every 3-4 hours. Careful clinical monitoring is important to avoid stomach distention and/or intestinal shutdown, but your vet will absolutely guide you if this is the case.

Regarding hindgut disorders such as an impaction colic, feed is generally recommended to be withheld until the impaction has cleared, and regular healthy droppings are coming through again. If hindgut surgery was performed, it’s important to monitor for diarrhea, so best to avoid grass and feed soft hay instead, alongside a feedbowl mash.

Finally, be mindful that horses have long memories and traumatic events will not be forgotten quickly. The good news is that the world of phytonutrients has a selection of nurturing support to help your horse’s gut post-colic and relax their nervous system, to allow them to naturally recover and strengthen.