Equine Colic Treatment

Causes

• The best treatment to colic is prevention. Foreign matter in feed can cause inflammation or enteroliths (stones formed in a pearl-like manner from a foreign body in the intestine), which lead to impaction. Other causes of inflammation are: salmonella, Potomac Horse Fever, clostridia, gastric and duodenal ulcers.
  Poor dental health, parasites, lack of water or poor-quality hay can cause obstructions. An abnormal accumulation of gas or altered motility causes colon displacement. Sometimes poor luck and chance come into play with the colon torsions and strangulation of the small intestine.
  Keeping your horse in good health and up-to-date on his vaccinations is the best route to preventing colic.

Common Colic

• The most common cause of colic is distension (gas). The horse will have some classic signs of colic (standing quietly in the back of the stall, lack of appetite, repeatedly lying and rising, pawing, turning its head toward the flank, rolling [not to relieve an itch]). A shot of an analgesic (Aspirin, naproxen sodium or ibuprofen are common) or hand walking will resolve this if it doesn't resolve on its own.
  Impaction is another common form of colic and will also have the classic signs of colic as well as fewer/smaller piles of manure. Generally, laxatives and water will resolve the impaction. Enteroliths will either roll free eventually, continue through the system to be passed out the rectum or require surgery to remove.

Moderate Colic

• An abnormally large amount of gas accumulation in the colon can cause colon displacement by lifting the colon free from its usual resting place. The most common displacement happens to the left where it gets caught over the spleen. For this type of displacement, a rectal exam is the best diagnosis tool (after evaluating classic colic signs), and medicine to shrink the spleen can be given. Then the horse can be trotted around in hopes that the movement will lift the colon free and have it settle where it belongs. A displacement to the right is diagnosed similarly but requires surgery to repair.
  Inflammation happens when any foreign body irritates the walls of the intestines. It is diagnosed with classic colic signs plus reflux (food cannot continue through the intestine and backs up into the stomach. This is diagnosed by allowing your vet to pass a gastrointestinal [stomach to intestine] tube). A shot of flunixin meglumine is often all that is needed to reduce the inflammation enough to allow the food to pass through the intestines.

Severe Colic

• Colon torsion is often associated with broodmares because of the excess space in their abdomens for the colon to shift around. Torsion happens when the colon or cecum displacement twists, which obstructs blood supply and kills the section of intestine that is unable to receive blood.
  Strangulation of the small intestine can be attributed to a number of factors, but older horses are more likely to experience strangulation due to pedunculated lipomas (hanging, benign, fatty tumors in the abdominal cavity) that can wrap themselves around the intestine and cut off blood supply.
  Both of these types of colic can be treated only through surgery.

Surgical Versus Medical Colic

• A surgical colic will have severe, unrelenting pain; even with pain medications, lack or diminished motility of the gut leads to reflux (back flow of intestine contents into stomach), malposition of a section of intestine or an organ, distension due to gas or absence of manure.
  A medical colic (one that can be treated with shots or home remedies) can also lead to reflux, so you should check symptoms and pain levels before deciding that the horse is not in need of surgery.

Warnings

• Be careful when walking your horse. Horses have been literally walked to death by handlers trading off walking the horse for 24-plus hours straight to keep the horse from rolling and twisting his intestines.
  You should call your vet if you think your horse is seriously colicky and again if the symptoms have not subsided within three hours of treatment.