Because of the organs involved in colic, there are many types of causes of colic.
 

The Organs Involved in Colic       A. The horse's small, one compartment stomach. B. Small Intestine C. Cecum  D. Colon  E. Small Colon F. Rectum

The main causes of colic are intestinal distension and reduced blood supply to the intestinal tract. Peristalsis (the waves of contractions along the muscular walls of the intestine that propel the contents along ) of the intestine is reduced and distention will occur due to reduced movement and absorption of water and nutrients. The pressure which results from this lack of passage of material through the digestive system results in a reflex action, which causes adjoining areas to contract in spasm. Distension and reduced blood flow may be due to an accumulation of gas fluid or feed, digestive disturbances, intestinal obstructions, internal parasites, or twisted intestine (torsion and volvulus).  Chronic distension may be caused by a horse constantly swallowing air "wind sucking". The primary causes of the abdominal pain is the distention of the stomach or intestines, pain is also produced when the peritoneum is stretched during attacks of colic. The first response the body makes to distension is to INCREASE the secretion of digestive juices, which increases the pressure, and causes dehydration and imbalance in the chemical systems of the body. This can often become a feedback reaction which can lead to shock , which must be treated as a separate syndrome by the vet, since it is frequently the cause of colic deaths. The paralysis of the intestine also allows toxic material to escape through the stretched walls and enter the abdominal cavity, where the horse can be poisoned by his own intestinal contents.

Signs of Colic will vary according to the severity of the particular conditions. In the horse, abdominal pain is usually sudden. Very few horses exhibit all the signs at one time. Signs associated with mild to moderate pain include:

• pawing the ground,
• sweating
• looking around at the belly,
• restlessness,
• lack of appetite,
• stamping the hind feet, and
• lying down.

• paw the ground violently
• appear drawn up or bloated in the belly,
• muscle tremors or straining,
• male horses may stretch out and relax their penis, without urinating,
• kick violently,
• sweat profusely,
• lie down and get up frequently,
• roll or lie on their backs,
• sit on haunches like a dog,
• have an elevated or below normal  ( with shock setting in ) temperature,
• have an increased respiration rate,
• have an elevated heart rate, or
• have few or no gut sounds.

• temperature, pulse and respiratory rate. ;
• color of mucous membranes and capillary refill time (tested by pressing on the the gums, releasing, then counting the seconds it takes for color to return);
• behavioral signs, such as pawing, kicking, rolling, depression, etc.;
• presence or absence of abdominal,digestive sounds or lack of them;
• bowel movements including color, consistency and frequency;
• any recent changes in management, feeding or exercise;
• medical history including deworming and past episodes of abdominal pain;
• breeding history and pregnancy status if the patient is a mare, and recent breeding history if the patient is a stallion.

Diagnosis

There are various causes of colic and since the prognosis and treatment varies greatly with each, early recognition and accurate determination of what type of colic the horse is experiencing is very important.

Veterinarians often perform a rectal exam, intestinal contents and their position can indicate to the Veterinarian presence or absence of intestinal motility and the location of the obstruction or impact. A stomach tube may be passed, stomach contents or gas can help the Veterinarian decide the type of disorder and the severity of the condition. Other symptoms your vet will note include pulse ( rate should be less than 80 per minute for a favorable prognosis), temperature, presence or absence of intestinal sounds. Generally, the prognosis is excellent when pain is due to excessive activity of the intestines, good for pain due to impaction, and very poor for pain caused by twisting or intusssusception of the intestines ( unless surgery is immediate).

Some Causes of Colic

There are several nutritional aspects of colic which can be managed, thereby reducing the incidence of colic.

Digestive colic may result from:

• a horse overeating,
• a horse constantly swallowing air "wind sucking",
• a sudden change in diet,
• consumption of moldy feed,
• turnout on the wet pastures of early spring,
• a heavy meal before work,
• feeding or watering before proper cooling after work.

Intestinal obstructions may result from sand impaction, retention of the meconium in foals, foreign bodies, and impactions caused by poor quality hay. Horses kept in sandy environments and fed on the ground or over grazed pastures are prone to consume more sand, predisposing them to sand impactions. Foreign bodies consumed by the horse may provide a nucleus where minerals are deposited until a large foreign body is formed. This foreign body is often referred to as enterolith (intestinal stone).  Mature, highly fibrous hay has been implicated in impaction colics. Water deprivation and stagnant warm water may contribute to impactions.

Parasitic load has long been stressed as a potential cause of colic. Internal parasites, especially Strongyles, cause severe damage to the intestinal arteries, reducing or blocking the flow of blood to segment of the intestines. Migration of larvae in the walls of the arteries causes the walls of the vessels to become roughened and scarred. Clots form on the roughened areas and may reduce the size of an important branch of the artery. Ascarids (roundworms) may cause blockage of the small intestine in young horses. Bots in large numbers may cause blockage of the stomach. Therefore, it is recommended that horses be maintained on a regular deworming program tailored to their individual parasite load.

Twisted intestine is a condition in which a portion of the small or large intestine is twisted on itself partially or completely. Twisting may result from rolling or from another cause such as a buildup of gas causing the distended intestine to twist. There is no simple cause effect explanation of colic, because many of the effects on the stomach, small intestine and large intestine are related. For example, blockage or impaction at the junction of the small and large intestines may be due to reduced blood flow because of strongyle larvae migration or due solely to sand impaction.

Diet and Management

Anatomically, horses have developed a specialized digestive system which allows them not only to survive, but also to thrive on high fiber diets   Studies have shown a decreased likelihood of a colic problem if horses are allowed to graze. However lush, high moisture spring pasture can also be a colic risk in horses. Colic problems in horses consuming large amounts of high moisture, low fiber grass virtually disappeared when horses were offered dry hay while grazing these pastures. Therefore, from a colic management standpoint, it is recommended that horses have access to pasture whenever possible, and be provided with additional dry hay when pastures contain a high moisture and a low fiber content (lush spring pasture).

Since horses are anatomically designed to digest fiber, the addition of grain concentrates to the diet is a potential risk factor for colic. Normally, grain concentrates contain large amounts of starch that are absorbed in the small intestine. Starch which is not digested in the small intestine spills into the large intestine where it is fermented by bacteria. One of the end products starch fermentation is lactic acid, which irritates the gut lining and decreases intestinal pH. The increase in acidity causes other more prevalent bacteria to die and release potentially fatal endotoxins. All of these situations can potentially cause the horse to colic. Using processed grains ( Steam crimping/rolling and grinding or pelleted), limiting the amount of grain provided in a single meal and the use of dietary fat as an energy source  to reduce the amount of grain concentrate needed in the diet all will help reduce grain induce colic.

Horses confined to stalls have an increased likelihood of colic (Reeves and Salman, 1993).  First, horses are designed by nature to consume forage in a continuous manner; however, stalled horses are routinely fed their hay and grain in two distinct meals (morning and evening). Second, stalled horses may not be receiving adequate forage to maintain proper gastrointestinal function. This may be especially true for horses being fed alfalfa hay. Alfalfa hay typically contains more calories per pound than grass hay. Therefore, horses fed alfalfa would be provided fewer pounds of hay per day than horses consuming grass hay. Not only are horses fed alfalfa receiving fewer pounds per day, reducing the amount of time spent eating, but alfalfa hay also contains less fermentable fiber than grass hay. The quality of fiber fed can also influence colic potential. Moldy hay, hay containing blister beetle contamination and hay with low digestibility can contribute to instances of colic. Since horses seem to have an absolute requirement for forage in the diet to prevent colic, it is recommended that a minimum of one pound of dry forage (hay/pasture) per 100 pounds of body weight per day is provided. For horses confined to stalls, the selection of lower calorie hays (grass type) will provide the horse more pounds of hay and mimic the continuous feeding behavior during grazing.
 
 

You can keep incidence of colic to a minimum by following sound management practices such as:

• supply plenty of fresh, clean drinking water, (The only exception is when a horse is excessively hot. Then it should be given small sips of lukewarm water until it has recover.)
• set up a regular parasite control program with the help of your equine practitioner. Utilize fecal testing to determine its effectiveness,
• using processed grains ( Steam crimping/rolling and grinding or pelleted),
• avoid medications unless they are prescribed by your equine practitioner, especially pain-relief drugs (analgesics), which can cause ulcers,
• limiting the amount of grain provided in a single meal , divide daily concentrate rations into two or more feedings rather than one large one to avoid overloading the horse's digestive tract.
• avoid feeding excessive grain and energy-dense supplements. (At least half the horse's energy requirements should be supplied through hay or forage. A better guide is that twice as much energy should be supplied from a roughage source than from concentrates.) Hay is best fed free-choice.
• make dietary and other management changes as gradually as possible avoid sudden changes in diet,
• reduce stress. Horse's experiencing changes in environments or workloads are at a high risk of intestinal dysfunction
• feed at regular times and intervals,
• feed good quality forages free of mold, weeds and foreign objects, feed a high quality diet comprised primarily of roughage where possible.
• check hay, bedding, pasture and environment for potentially toxic substances, such as blister beetles, noxious weeds, and other ingestible foreign matter,
• offered dry hay while grazing high moisture pasture,
• provide exercise and/or turnout on a daily basis. Change the intensity/duration of an exercise regime gradually.
• check the teeth routinely and float file, if necessary,
• minimize unnecessary stress, and
• know what is abnormal and normal for your horses.

Blanketing

Stabled horses need blanketing when they're turned out during the day, but the best blanket for an outside horse is his own full winter coat. If you do blanket your horse, make sure you take it off and brush him often. Also, realize that a blanket that is not warm enough is worse than no blanket at all. In cold weather, the hair coat stands up to trap additional warm air close to the body. A blanket keeps the coat flat.

Feeding

When temperatures dip, the best heat source for your horse is extra hay. The first step to winterizing, which you've already taken care of, is to get in enough good hay to last through until next year's hay crop. To calculate how much you need, figure on half a square bale per horse per day then add some to cover for the occasional moldy bale or extra cold weather. It's a good feeling to look at that stack of green, sweet smelling hay safely under a tarp and know that the horses won't go hungry.

For some folks, winter means feeding in the dark before going to work and after dark again when they get home in the evening. To guard against accidentally feeding a moldy flake which you didn't see in the dark, put aside any hay that doesn't smell nice until you can inspect it in daylight. It's also a good idea to shake out the flakes in case there's any dust in them.

To make sure all your horses get their fair share of hay, spread out one more pile than the number of horses. That way, when the boss horse keeps thinking another pile looks better than the one she's presently eating from, the other horses can move to new piles too.

A horse shouldn't lose weight in the winter. In fact, a little extra layer of fat to fend off the cold won't hurt. A thick winter coat can easily hide weight loss so it's important to use hands as well as eyes to monitor winter weight. By the time you see that the horse is getting thinner, it's too late.

Water

Watering horses in winter is a little more difficult than in summer. In winter, you can move your water trough up to the front of the field so the hose, which you can keep inside, will reach from the house. When it's time to refill the trough, you can use a hairdryer to melt the outside tap, bring out the hose and fill the trough. A stock tank heater keeps the water above freezing.

Some people believe horses can get by on snow. "Get by" they might, but so could we. Horses require a lot of water to digest dry feed. How much snow would they have to eat to provide the 2 to 3 gallons of water they need? If you're not convinced, ask your vet about the greater risk for impaction colic.

Horses Feet In Winter

 If he's barefoot, spraying the sole with a nonstick cooking product, or even coating it with old fashioned vaseline, can help prevent the snow from balling up. In any case, don't expect your horse to walk on high heels. Carry a hoofpick with you and be prepared to stop periodically and pick out the icy build up.

Be careful bringing your horse into the barn after being outside. Snow ball feet are very slippery. Preferably, dig out the snow at the barn door. If you can get the hoofpick under the snow pack at the back of the foot, you can often pry it all out at once, especially if you coated the sole as suggested above. Be careful you don't dig into the frog, though. If you can't budge it, chip off the snow until it's even with the hoof wall and then wait for the hooves to warm up before removing the rest.

Beet pulp is a byproduct of the sugar beet industry and is predominant in the upper Midwest, Michigan, and California. Sugar beets look a lot like turnips that have been taking growth hormones--they are very large. The beets are grown and processed not so we have something to feed to our horses, but for the sugar content. After the sugar is processed and removed, the pulp is left over. Recently, the use of shredded beet pulp has become increasingly popular as a feed ingredient; first in the pet food industry followed by the horse feed market.

Today, about 90% of the beet pulp produced is sold to the export market in the pelleted form. The shredded beet pulp market is primarily domestic. Up until the last couple of years, shredded beet pulp was only available in bags, but now feed mills using it as an ingredient can buy it in bulk form.

Initially, consistency of particle size and stem and root contamination were a concern. Stems and roots look like small pieces of balsa wood and are typically about 1 to 2 inches in length and about a 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 inch in diameter. Utilizing improved screening systems the industry is continuing to do a better job of making the product cleaner and more consistent.

Beet pulp is often referred to as a "super fiber" due to its high digestibility and ease of fermentation. The reason is the lack of lignin in the fiber. Tall pastures and overly mature hay cannot be digested well by horses because of the high lignin content in the plant to give the stalk strength. In addition, high lignin content fibers like peanut hulls, oat hulls and rice hulls have very low fermentation properties and are, therefore, very low in caloric content.

Beet pulp, on the other hand, has about the same caloric content as oats. It is unusual to have a fiber product that is easier on the horse's digestive system and still provides the calorie content of a grain product. Furthermore, in the shredded form, the beet pulp provides some additional fiber length, often referred to as scratch factor, which is lacking in many alternative fiber sources and explains why shredded beet pulp is preferred over pelleted beet pulp in equine diets.

Individuals mixing their own rations need to understand that beet pulp is a very dry product at only about 5% moisture. If a horse consuming beet pulp does not chew long enough or provide enough saliva, the beet pulp has the potential to cause choke. This is why most horse owners soak the product in water prior to feeding.

One of the advantages of feeding a beet pulp based commercial feed is that the addition of oils and molasses eliminates the need for soaking. Also, beet pulp is lacking in nutrients such as Vitamin A and selenium. In a diet where a significant amount of beet pulp is fed, balancing nutrients can be a challenge. When used as an ingredient in manufactured feeds, the supplier can properly supplement for these critical nutrients.

With the current focus in the horse industry on lowering non-structural carbohydrates in equine diets, it is important to note beet pulp has an average NSC of around 12%. This fact, combined with its good calorie content and ease of fermentation, this makes it an excellent ingredient for formulating high fiber, low carbohydrate diets.

These beet pulp based diets can benefit not only older horses but also horses suffering from gastric ulcers, respiratory issues, metabolic diseases and many other feeding situations. For horses with poor quality fiber sources, beet pulp based feeds can provide a consistent, cost effective, and convenient forage alternative.

What is an RH Factor Foal? The common "layman's" term usually referred to with humans is a "Blue Baby". It is when the mother's blood is RH negative and father is positive, and the baby ends up also being positive. The mother's antibodies are set up to work AGAINST the baby's. When this occurs with equines, the technical term is "Neonatal Isoerythrolysis" (NI). The following paragraph briefly explains:

Equine neonatal isoerythrolysis (NI) is a condition of foals that are born healthy, but develop a possibly life-threatening hemolytic anemia within hours to a few days after the ingestion of their mare’s colostrum. This condition occurs as a result of a hypersensitivity reaction between the mare’s antibodies in the colostrum and inherited antigens from the sire that are present on the foal's red blood cells.

To read more on the clinical description of the condition, we recommend reading the link provided:

http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/clerk/Bouchelle/index.php

Simply put, it's the antibodies in the mare's colostrum that is actually working AGAINST the newborn's. So, the colostrum will KILL the foal. This means locating colostrum from a different source and hand feeding the foal for the first few days of its life. It also means milking out the mom's colostrum until her regular milk is in. You do NOT want her to dry up. It can take up to three days of milking to be sure there is no colostrum remaining. The mare's regular milk is not a problem for the foal.

As with all of these "abnormal" circumstances, it is important to keep in touch with your vet. We, plus other breeding farms, have more than one mare birthing out during the season. This makes it a little easier to carefully take some colostrum from them during the first 24 hours of their foalings and freeze it for emergencies just like this. Another source for colostrum may be through your veterinarian who should know of horse breeding farms that can provide the Liquid Gold to your little one.

We advise people who have a mare due, to check with their vet regarding colostrum sources BEFORE the mare is close to foaling. There can be other situations with foaling where having a back-up is necessary -- One being, the mare has not bagged up!

How do you know if your newborn is a "RH Factor Foal"? How WE figured it out when it happened to us, was by observing the foal's behavior.... Each time the little one nursed, we started noticing that the foal would become lethargic and just wanted to fall asleep. A healthy foal would be more and more energetic and just take short naps. It only took a couple of nursings to make us realize that we needed to jump in and take action. Another symptom a person may notice is the foal appears jaundiced. (Yellowing in the white's of the baby's eyes and perhaps gum discoloration.) This indicates that the anemic reaction is occurring, as discussed in the article linked above.

There is also an easy "at home" test that some people like to do immediately after each birth: In a small CLEAN dish or cup, take a few drops of blood from the umbilical cord off the placenta (which may still be hanging from the mare) and add a few drops of the mare's colostrum. If it separates (curdles), you need to find a different source of colostrum.

While milking the mare out for those three days, some people like to muzzle the foal. This allows the pair to remain together and bond. For us, we didn't have a small enough muzzle, so kept them together, but built a separation between them with straw bales. They were kept under constant surveillance either in person and/or by camera. And since we were hand feeding the baby every two hours, this wasn't too difficult.....just tiring.

By recommending the three day milking of the mother, we are being cautious. We want to ensure that there is absolutely NO colostrum remaining mixed into her regular milk. Normally, a foal's system only receives the benefit of colostrum during its first 24 to 36 hours of life, but every foal is different, so we feel it's wise to play it safe.

For hand feeding, our vet has always advised to do it every two hours (at least) around the clock. Having a second person to assist is a life-saver. We have used a human baby rubber "ear syringe" to feed with good success. Other people prefer to use either a medical syringe or a baby bottle. The amount can vary between from 2 to 4 ounces per feeding, depending on the baby. We let the foal tell us how much it wants.

Again, the above is based on our OWN experience. Please be sure to always check with your veterinarian for advice.