Question about colic..

[Switchthehorse]

If a horse had 4 x bouts of colic which was then found to be tapeworm related, the tapeworms treated and the colic stopped...

... would that horse then be more prone to general colic due to eg. spring grass - if they had never colicked before the tapeworm incident?

I know if a horse has colicked once it can be prone again, but does this still apply if the cause was something like tapeworms?

Thanks!

 

[MissTyc]

I have a 6yo gelding who colicked intermittently for a few weeks about 3 years ago - turned out to be tapeworm related, was treated, got better after a while (anemia, etc) and have treated him like a usual horse since. He doesn't seem more sensitive than others. I think as long as there is no long-term internal damage (scarring, etc), the horse should be at similar risk to any other horse, but I have heard of much older horses in theor teens suddently reacting to old worm-damage, scarring ...

 

[brightmount]

I would say the horse could be more susceptible to repeated bouts of colic from previous worm damage.

My horse had her first episode of colic after we had owned her several years. It came on after worming. So initially I put it down to a reaction to the wormer, and next time she was due to be wormed, I did a faecal egg count and an ELISA blood test to see if I needed to use a chemical wormer.

The ELISA test picked up tapeworm antibody, which remains in the system for a while after the tapeworms have been dealt with, so I believe the first colic instance was due to the action of the wormer on the tapeworm. But she has had other occasional instances of gas colic since, which she never had before, so I consider that she has a sensitive gut, and I am feeding her Coligone, which is fantastic for protecting against gassy colic. I recommend it if you think your horse could be susceptible.