09/08/2024
**** COLIC = CALL THE VET! ****
Having just been alerted to the most terrifying FB post I’ve seen for a while, with someone asking for advice for their poor horse with “mild” colic, I feel the need to share a bit of advice.
If your horse has ANY kind of colic symptoms then DO NOT ASK FB FOR ADVICE; CALL YOUR VET!!!!!
A horse that is going down unless forced to walk does not have “mild” colic; he has extremely obvious colic that may be fatal within hours.
I am still shocked when I hear people state that the horse won’t eat, is pawing the ground, even going down, but because he/she isn’t thrashing about then it isn’t colic.
The most common early symptom of colic, is a horse that doesn’t want to eat. He may just be standing there very quietly, and yes, may also have a “twisted gut” that requires surgery. It is actually very rare for me to see a colic, even a surgical colic, that is thrashing about on the floor. More often, it’s a quiet horse, off food, intermittently going down.
Also please DO NOT GIVE YOUR HORSE ANY DAMN BUTE!!!! This will make it tricky for your vet to assess the severity when he/she arrives 30-60 minutes later, as it will have started to work.
I’ll do some more colic posts soon, but the important message this evening is:
IF YOU HAVE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST SUSPICION THAT YOUR HORSE HAS COLIC, CALL YOUR VET IMMEDIATELY. Leaving a horse in agony with “belly ache” is just as bad as an elite competition horse working 1.65 degrees overbent. Welfare starts in the stable. But that’s another post.
