What is a good indicator for Impaction Colic in horses before you may have major symptoms? Here’s what to watch for…
Dry Manure
When I muck my horses stall or pick manure outside I look for moisture content in their manure. The balls should have enough moisture in them that when you step on them…a bit of water should come out and they shouldn’t be overly hard to separate with a fork for example. They shouldn’t feel hard under your foot there should be some give – not like a hard ball…too mushy not good either but if you do this daily you will know what a harder one looks and feels like. Hard dry manure usually means your horse isn’t get enough water or something is going on. This is where you act now – you can give a Homeopathic medicine (based on totality of symptoms) and give a very soupy meal (I like hay cubes with lots of warm water). And see next steps…
Less WATER consumption
Water is critical any time of year but when it gets colder we have to make sure of a few things. Firstly, is EACH horse drinking enough. Even in winter a 1000 lb horse should drink almost the same amount as in summer. Close to 1.5 to 2 (5 gallon) buckets a day. Sometimes a bit less sometimes more. Some horses bully others so they don’t have proper access. Some horses won’t drink if water is too cold. Others will get picky if it is dirty in some way. Water troughs/buckets need to be cleaned daily even in winter. Fresh water is important to horses. I offer luke warm water buckets to each of my horses a couple of times a day at least (this is in addition to their regular heated bucket they already have) to make sure the temperature is what they feel comfortable drinking. Better a bit more work now…then dealing with Colic later. We must make sure they are drinking!
Not enough salt or no access to salt
Don’t forget the SALT! Make sure you provide free choice sea salt LOOSE! If you want to use a natural Himalayan Salt lick in addition to the loose salt that is fine but don’t use only a lick. Sometimes your horse may need up to the equivalent of 2-5 TBS of salt and how much licking would they have to do before their poor tongue gets raw? Too much work and it hurts – so they’d end up getting less than they need. Better to offer free choice loose sea salt that is unprocessed (not white). And as far as regular salt licks go please do not use them. The lovely Blue, Red, Brown and White salt licks are full of Aluminum (all processed table salt has it) and the few synthetic minerals that some have actually cause nutritional imbalances more than they fix. So better stick to what mother nature provided in perfection already – unprocessed salt.
HAY…hay is fiber…
Horses are essentially fiber eaters. This is what they live on. If horses don’t get enough hay (that means access to it 24/7) and 2-3% (I prefer 3%) in body weight of consumption we are going to have problems. Any disruption to the hind gut bacteria means you can cause colic. Horses may reject certain hays for several reasons so watch for body condition – if your horse is starting to drop weight or looks nervous looking for food but only takes a nibble. You may have mold or a quality of hay that your horse doesn’t like. Very fibrous hay (stalky) is hard on horses with ulcers. Imagine your throat and tummy having inflamed ulcers what would you prefer softer or rougher hay? If you have a horse with possible ulcers you may have to watch them carefully that they are actually eating the stuff and not taking a few strands here and there. Remember you will spend way more on Vet bills later than finding a good hay. I once had to get hay from 5 different providers one year because my mare refused to eat it. They aren’t stupid animals. Their bodies are very sophisticated and they know what is good and not good for them. We want to make sure there is always a steady supply of good hay going into them close to 18-20 hrs a day.
So to recap.
We make sure that the manure coming out of them is not too dry and in sufficient quantity. We also make sure the horse is drinking, consuming salt and eating lots of hay. More often than not if you watch these things carefully you can prevent Colic from occurring in the first place. Horses have a delicate gastro-intestinal system. In the wild they’d take care of themselves quite well but in our care they rely on us 100% so making sure their needs are met is very important if we want to prevent Colic.