Treatment for Horse Colic

Since there could be many things that are causing your horse to colic, as soon as you suspect that your horse has colic you need to call your vet. Only a vet will be able to examine your horse and tell if the horse has an intestinal obstruction or if the horse will need surgery to relieve the colic.

While you’re waiting for the vet the first thing that you can do is take the horse’s temperature if you know how. The vet will need to know the horse’s temperature to know if the problem is being caused by a virus or an infection. It will also help the vet diagnose the cause of the colic if you can remember if the horse has had any different food in the last few days, or gotten into something that it shouldn’t have like the grain bin, or has been eating its bedding for the last few days or anything like that. The more details you can give the vet the easier it will be for the vet to diagnose the horse.

In the meantime, while you are waiting for the vet to arrive, get your horse up and walking. That will distract the horse from the pain it’s in and if the colic is due to an intestinal twist or an intestinal blockage or even gas then walking can help and sometimes can cure the colic. Don’t walk your horse so much it becomes exhausted but try to keep the horse walking as much as you can. Enlist the help of other people to help you by walking the horse for you if you are getting tired and don’t think you can keep walking the horse.

If the vet determines that the colic is caused by an intestinal blockage, the vet may have to do surgery on the horse to remove the blockage or untwist a twisted intestine.

If the vet doesn’t think that a blockage is causing the colic then the vet may just give the horse a muscle relaxant and some pain medication to calm the horse down and to see if the colic will subside when the horse relaxes. If the colic is a result of stress or a clenched intestinal muscle then the colic should go away once the drugs begin to work.

Colic can be a very scary thing for horses and for the horse owner. You should take all the precautions that you can to avoid colic. If your horse does get colic the best case scenario is that your horse will be uncomfortable for a few days and you will have a large emergency vet bill to pay.

The worst case scenario is that you might lose your beloved equine companion and still have a large emergency vet bill to pay. Colic is a very serious thing and you should take precautions to try and prevent your horse from getting it.