what causes colic? what are your experiences?

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jen1

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Reading the post below re colic, and the sad news that YORKS had to have her horse PTS I thought I would ask the question what causes colic?

A Shetland at the yard I am at had colic last week, thankfully she came out of it fine but the little girl who owns her asked what causes it. I said it could be a number of things, stress, eaten something that doesn't agree with her, etc but I found I couldn't really elaborate on the etc!

Now I am worried that I should know more about it, what can be the cause of colic or is it sometimes just unknown? I would like to think that I would be able to spot symptoms in my own horse as I know him well but any comments on if/when your horse had colic and what you first noticed and how it progressed and was treated would be really interesting and informative.

Years ago (and this is showing my age) it was normal to have a colic drench as part of your first aid kit, I was always told never to let the horse roll and to walk it round while waiting for the vet.
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My vet is unsure what caused my horse to have colic a week ago. He has taken bloods to check for tapeworm and ulcers. Personally I suspect she pigged herself on fresh grass. I'm still waiting for the blood results so we shall see.

Nothing really to add except that my stable routine includes watching her over the stable door for at least 5 mins after I have finished all my jobs. I do this every day, just to see her settled and be sure she is ok. I have learned a lot about all my horses by doing this. Let's you spot any slight nuances or variations from the ordinary.

Her colic symptoms were extremely discrete, so if I hadn't spent that time assessing her that evening I could have theoretically haven lost her. I think it's time well spent.

Jo x
 
I think stress can cause horses to colic, along with sudden changes to their routine/diet. And in the case of our donkey who used to get colic, his was caused by lovely members of the public feeding him windfall apples - thanks for the vets bill guys!

Ours always have access to grass, all year round and are out 24/7 in the summer. I think a high level of fibre in the diet can help prevent certain types of colic and fingers crossed ours (bar the donkey) have never suffered. Our grass is a mixture of grasses and herbs, not a pristine pasture and isn't massively rich, although is more than enough for ours. The fresh green stuff in spring certainly seems to go through them
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My horse has had colic twice this year, but she hadn't previously had it in the three years we had owned her. The common denominator was worming, though I don't know why this should suddenly be a trigger as she has always been wormed 4 times a year which is the compulsory worming programme on our yard, and with the same products that set it off - Equest and Equimax.

I don't think it was a worm burden because (a) she is wormed regularly, and (b) the vet did a rectal and said there was no blockage. The colic was gassy and once she was given Buscopan and a relaxant and had a good f*rt she chilled out and was over it by the next day.

I fed bran mash for a few days after.

Keeping her from rolling though was very difficult and stressful. Some people say it's OK for horses to roll as long as it's in a safe place. On my yard they are of the "whip 'em till they get back up" school
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My horse used to get colic quite often. I noticed that whenever we had a lot of rain it seemed to affect him. So no I try to to make sure he has hay rather than too much grass when we have a good downpour, although the field is not particularly lush we do strip graze to be on the safe side. If it's just light rain it doesn't seem to affect him. I always keep at least one syringe of Coligone in my first aid kit which has proved invaluable. At the first sign of him looking uncomfortable I give him one of these. Luckily he hasn't had a bout of colic for the last 4 years - she says touching the nearest piece of wood!!
 
My friends horse can't be wormed for this reason, he his a delicate digestive system (so he's has any new food or change in eating routine introduced over weeks rather than days!) the wormer we give not only kills any worms or eggs it also kill some bacteria in the gut, hence they are unable to digest food properly for a few days. For most horse this wouldn't bother them at all but if your horse has any other digestive problems (new grass, new hay, new feed) at the same time as being wormed it can caused colic or colietas (spelling) which is an inflammation of the gut (causing the horse to show signs of colic but still be abel to poo!)
 
eating bedding, change in diet, worming, drinking stagnant water are some of the causes. i lost my mare to it a year ago. rip misty mare...
my little welsh section a started showing colic symptoms last winter but they were totally different to misty's typical symptoms (rolling, sweating, watching her stomach,running about) he kept lying on the floor and getting up, trying to kick his stomach, and he would stand there stretched out as if he was trying to wee. i kept him in our barn for the night instead of his stable so i could see him out of bedroom window, he only did one poo all night but in the morning gradually returned to normal - a mild case but totally different symptoms - vet said it was probably because he was on such short grass that he was eating soil along with the grsss. there was me thinking i was doing the right thing watching his weight and then this happened.
 
Thanks everyone for informative replies, I felt a bit of a numpty asking the question as I thought you'd all think I was a bit novicy!! But you have all replied with great information!

I don't think anything was changed re the Shetland, same routine, feed, wasn't just wormed so who knows? It does show though that it's good to know your horse and spend time just watching them when they are 'normal' so that you can spot symptoms early on. Apparently she was fine when she was turned out and within 10 mins started getting symptoms, lying down etc.

The owner of the Shetland called the vet who had said to monitor her and if she got worse he would come out, I wonder though if you suspect colic if the vet should come straight away regardless of symptoms?
 
If I suspected it again I would certainly speak to the vet straight away again. That way you can give them baseline readings and they can decide whether to come straight away or for you to monitor for a bit.

I get the impression that a vet would rather have a phonecall out of hours and give advice than be faced with a seriously ill horse as soon as working hours restart.

I personally treated it as an emergency. I know I can be a bit quick to phone the vet, but this time I was right!

Jo x
 
I have no idea what caused my horse's colic last week
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, there was no change to his feed etc; the only thing I can think is that he got stressed while being lunged as he was fine beforehand then as soon as he was back in his stable he started rolling / lying down stretched out & grunting / sweating buckets & high temp.
 
Colic is another name for stomach ache, it is the name of the symptom, not the cause. The cause can be fairly minor and the horse will quickly get over it, through by various degrees to major and the horse will die.

Lots of horses are saved now that in previous years would have died or been put down.
 
I lost my horse to colic last year (RIP Jake). The vet believed it could have been caused by a tumour. He started to become unwell 3 months before he died although we hadn't realised the cause. He would hack out fine for about an hour but then walk very slowly with very short steps. I assumed it was his saddle so I had that checked, I had a chiropractor check his back and the vet too. I rested him for about a month then rode him again in a different saddle. At first he seemed fine but then became very lethargic after about an hour.
I rested him again then rode him for about a week when he seemed to be totally fine again.
Then the day before he died I went on a fab hack with my friend and he was really keen to have a good canter along the bridleway. I noticed on the way home he was more sweaty than usual and the walking wasn't cooling him down but put it down to the fact that it was a hot day.
The following morning I arrived at the stable to see him in a right state. The vet could do nothing except sedate him to relieve the pain as he was in no fit state to travel so he was pts.
I wish I had probed further into his illness earlier on as everyone put his behaviour down to a bad back but it was obviously something far more painful. He did however continue to eat healthily but suffered more with scouring so perhaps that should have rung more alarm bells.
He was such an honest little horse, he just didn't complain enough.
 
My horse suffered from 3 colic attacks in a 3 months period resulting in him losing 12' of his intestine.

He had an epiploic (sp?) entrapment. The neighbours had heard him carshing around in the stable for about 1 hour before we heard him. Went out and I though wow look at the mist off the river - it was actually the steam off my horse!!

I ended up having 2 vets there (10pm) plus 6 friends helping and nothing we tried could get him up. In the end we got the lorry ready and I took my whip to him. As I'm sure you can imagine I had to hit him hard enough to get though the pain of the colic. But we managed to get him on the lorry. Luckily the surgery is 3 miles up the road.

The finished operating at 4am.

An epiploic entrapement normally occurs in older horses (mine was 3). There is a natural gap between the stomach and the liver (think these are the correct organs!!) and as the horse gets older the gap increases. Sometimes the intestine works its way into the gap and then it gets trapped and dies.

His second colic epsiode was very minor. I spotted him looking odd in the field but called the vet immediately. He had painkillers and then he stettled fairly quick.

During the third bout the painkillers didn;t work. It was nowhere near as bad as the first but we took him up to the surgery again. I was warned that they might not let him wake up. after another long surgery I got a phone call to say that this colic had been cased by the intestine wrapping itself around the adhesions (caused by where the intestine had healed previously from he surgery). There was a long stretch of intestine that was bruised however the vets made the decison not to remove it as he had already lost so much.

TOUCH WOOD he has not colicked since. He is now 7, and has travelled away to shows and lead the life of a normal horse.

rountine wise though I make sure that he has small feeds and often and is fed lots of fibre with constanst access to fresh water.

I believe that the survival rate of this sort of colic is not that high. I am very lucky to live close to an equine specialist surgery that can perform the operations. Plus my boy is tough - he tried to jump out of the stable 2 days after the surgery!!

I hope that helps and I hope you never have to go through it. But if you are ever in doubt just call the vet asap. too many people lose horses from colic becasue they wait too long to call the vet.
 
I have a horse that has had several colics over the years, always in late spring, so presumably down to a flush of grass but we still cannot predict when they will happen. Some years we get lucky and don't have any. I have always found it surprisingly easy to spot - there is just that difference, once you know your horse. I've been told that walking round or not depends on what type of colic it is - yes for gassy and no for some others, so if in doubt wait for the vet.

It does seem different horses have different trigger factors. Have you seen:
http://www.liv.ac.uk/equinecolic/
 
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