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HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Colic, Diarrhea, GI Tract » Colic in Horses » An Overview of Colic »
  Discussion on Prevention of 'minor' Colic.
Author Message
New Member:
Steven

Posted on Monday, Jan 19, 2004 - 6:39 am:

Could anyone suggest what might be best to prevent slight colics. I am emailing from the UK, so apologies for not using quite the same terms as everyone else! I have a 15.2 welsh-cob cross thoroughbred who normally is a fantastically good 'doer' who survives well on grass alone in the summer. He lives in a yard and is stabled overnight unless it's warm enough in the summer for them to live out all the time, which I much prefer. During our incredibly wet winters here, we have to preserve as much grazing as possible, otherwise we have nothing in the summer. So, the yard rule is that we can only turn-out every other day. The fields are not too bad but there is a lot of mud round the gateways and only a covering of grass in the rest of the field. My gelding has a lot of hay and some Alfalfa based chaff with a general mix (er, kinda like pellets I guess). His hay is steamed and feed is always quite damp and he is in generally good health. He is wormed regularly, more in the winter. A couple of times now he has had a very mild colic, he has not needed any drugs. Both times he has sorted himself out within 12 hours and appears slightly uncomfortable but is not sweating, pawing, rolling or anything like that. It is usually a reduced number of DrOppings and a subdued look on his face that gives it away. Does anyone have any suggestions for anything that would help prevent these minor-colics? We cannot turn-out any more than we do already; if the field is muddy is he better off in or out in the long-run? I have read on some messages about "mineral oil" I am not sure what you mean by this!! In the UK, Parafin is commonly used to 'help things along'.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Jan 19, 2004 - 10:13 pm:

Hello Steven,
Really the only way of stopping recurrent colics is identifying the cause and addressing it. Of course not every recurring colic is a management problem but if you cannot id a specific cause on the physicals you are left with the only practical approach being constantly evaluating management. I would start with the articles on overview of feeding and deworming.

I believe your parafin is our mineral oil.
DrO
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