11/12/2024
*** COLIC MYTH - IT’S ESSENTIAL TO WALK ANY HORSE SHOWING SIGNS OF COLIC ***
I’ve unfortunately seen 5 colics in the past two weeks, so I thought I’d start some colic posts again.
I think one of the main myths surrounding colic, is that you must walk them, even if they don’t want to walk. There are definitely some types of colic when movement is good/essential for the horse, but there are equally many occasions when it’s actually detrimental to keep the horse moving.
Before knowing whether or not you need to keep your horse moving, you need your vet to diagnose what is causing your horse to colic. If your horse has a classic “twisted gut” then no amount of movement will help. In fact, forcing horses to walk if they’ve got intestinal torsion will result in extreme pain. If surgery is an option, then continuing to walk a horse with intestinal torsion (twisted gut) will also wear him out, and potentially cause even more damage to the gut itself, reducing the odds of surgery being a success.
My general rule of thumb for any colicking horse is to allow them to do what they want to do whilst waiting for the vet. If they are standing quietly, then that’s perfect. If they are down in the field then I do normally advise getting them up and to somewhere easily accessible for the vet. If they are thrashing about in a stable and could hurt themselves, then getting them out and into the safety of a lunge pen or arena is a good idea, as long as you don’t risk injuring yourself. If they want to march around, then let them walk. It’s a complete myth that a horse rolling around will result in him twisting his intestine; we’d obviously be seeing hundreds of colic cases daily if this were true.
To conclude, walking a horse with colic MAY be advisable, but you need your vet to diagnose the cause of the colic first. If your horse is reluctant to walk, then definitely don’t force them to move.
