Equine Colic Comes in Many Forms, But Has Fewer Causes

Equine colic tends to be abdominal. The intestinal tracthorses are under. Being a prey animal, they are very
goes into spasm causing a great deal of pain. Theeasily frightened. They have evolved to be on alert all
horse may roll or groan, lie down or pace about. Allthe time, otherwise they may be eaten. This applies as
horses are different and so all equine colic is different.much in today's domestic horses as it does in wild
There is no one solution.horses.
But there are generally only three causes:I once recall a veterinarian commenting on the fact
that horses tend to colic more at the weekends, than
1. eating too much grain, for example, getting into theduring the week. He put it down to the fact that it's
feed binonly at weekends that people see their horses colic.
2. sand colic, where there is a lot of sand in theHe assumed that they suffered just as much during
digestive tractthe week, but dealt with it themselves.
3. stressI disagree. Most horses are worked or shown more at
All three causes need to be treated differently. Andthe weekends, putting them under much more stress.
the horse will exhibit their own unique and personalSo the first thing to do is to recognize that a horse
symptoms. The first cause is best dealt with by thegets frightened very easily. And doesn't recover from
use of homeopathic medicine. The second is bestthe fear quickly. Punishing them or causing pain by
prevented by a daily dose of psyllium husk in the diet.rough treatment will only exacerbate the problem.
The third cause is probably the most common and theThe homeopathic medicine Aconite may go a long
most disturbing equine colic. It seems to appear for noway to settle the fear. This, in turn, is likely to calm the
reason.colic.
Few people really take into consideration the stress