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Preventing Colic in Horses
Colic is the leading killer of horses. Here are seven steps, including
feeding tips and parasite control, to help prevent colic in your horse.
By Jo Meszoly
Colic fits all varieties of abdominal distress our horses experience. The
causes of gut pain range from the passing discomfort of excessive gas to
life-threatening intestinal torsions. The majority of colics are mild, but
they're still troublesome, causing horses to pace, paw and roll while their
caretakers fret over their discomfort. In these cases, the digestive system
rights itself, given a little time or minimal medical attention.
Major intestinal disruptions, including blockages, twists and ruptures, are
usually fatal unless surgery to remove or repair the diseased area of gut
succeeds. Each year, hundreds of horses die on the operating table or
shortly after, due to the disease itself or to complications from it.
Researchers haven't found a magic serum to guarantee your horse a colic-free
life, but their increased understanding of equine digestion has allowed them
to identify many of the conditions that predispose horses to colic. Using
this information as the basis for preventive action, horse owners can take
control of the stabling, dietary and environmental conditions that influence
equine digestion for better or worse. By adopting consistent, rational
management practices and maintaining horses according to Nature's operating
manual, you can minimize your horse's risks of digestive distress.
THREE STEPS TO FEEDING RIGHT
Horses are designed to graze on an unvarying diet of fibrous, low-energy
forages for 12 to 20 hours per day. Unfortunately, domesticated living
usually challenges the horse's sensitive digestive tract with feedstuffs,
feeding schedules and ration portions that are far outside the norm of the
natural plan. One of the primary reasons horses colic is the disparity
between what the digestive equipment is intended to process and what it
actually gets. Start your anti-colic campaign by evaluating and, if
necessary, revamping your feeding practices.
1. Feed your horse only what he needs.
When it comes to maintaining digestive health, the best thing your horse can
put in his mouth is grass, a high-fiber, low-carbohydrate feed containing
eight to 10 percent protein. The second-best horse feed is grass in its
dried, stored form, otherwise called hay. The bulk delivered by a fibrous
grass/hay diet is a key weapon in fighting the colic wars because consistent
gut fill maintains a continuous level of digestive activity, free of
feast-or-famine stresses. Additionally, horses usually chew hay twice as
long as grain. The more they chew, the more saliva is generated and mixed
in, which helps buffer the stomach against acids.
This near-perfect grass/hay diet may not provide sufficient energy and other
nutrients for the daily demands placed on some horses. Enter concentrates,
feeds that boost one or more of the tissue-building and fuel-supplying
dietary components: protein, energy and fat. The grain mixes commonly fed to
horses usually include some combination of corn, oats and barley in pelleted
or sweet-feed form and coated with molasses to improve palatability. The
simple carbohydrates provided by concentrates--sugars, starch and soluble
fiber--are good horse fuel in moderation. But an excess of starches in a
horse's ration can upset the gut's delicate bacterial balance.
The digestion and absorption of modest amounts of starch occur in the small
intestine, then the ingesta enters the horse's cecum and large intestine
where fibrous particles are broken down. If a glut of simple carbohydrates
overwhelms the starch-converting enzymes available in the small intestine,
the remaining undigested carbohydrates pass into the cecum and large
intestine. Some microbes there prosper on the starch, producing a high level
of lactic acid as they break it down. This lactic acid kills key microbial
fiber digesters in the hindgut. The resulting by-product inflames the gut
wall and opens the way for absorption of toxins into the bloodstream.
"Normally, during fiber fermentation, these microbes produce volatile fatty
acid, which is good," says Stephen Duren, PhD, of the equine nutrition and
conditioning consulting firm Kentucky Equine Research, Inc. "In this case,
the bacteria are killed by their own end product."
To reduce the risk of intestinal distress, review your horse's diet and
feeding schedule, particularly his grain intake. Do you feed him grain
because his work demands it or simply because all the other horses in the
barn get grain? If you have a few companion ponies or pensioners among a
barn full of performance horses, for example, a handful of grain will keep
the nonworkers content at mealtimes without placing undue strain on their
digestion.
What is a justifiable reason for including grain in a ration, then? "Horses
are made to eat grass and hay, and they supplement their food with a variety
of plant material," says veterinarian Joyce Harman, DVM, MRCVS, of the
Harmany Equine Clinic in Washington, Virginia. "The reason for adding grain
is to make up the calorie difference. The goal is to feed to maintain good
body weight." Depending upon the horse's age, level of activity, lactation
status and innate metabolic rate, the additional grain required to maintain
an ideal weight may range anywhere from one to possibly 15 pounds a day.
The generally accepted maximum for concentrates in a horse's diet is no more
than half the total amount--by weight--of the ration fed. "If you've got a
1,000-pound horse consuming 30 pounds of feed, and he's eating 20 pounds of
grain, then you're looking at a colic risk," says nutritionist Sarah
Ralston, VMD, PhD, of New Jersey's Rutgers University.
When you feed grain, offer it in two- to four-pound mini-meals spaced evenly
throughout the day. Mixing the grain with moistened, chopped hay or grass
also prolongs the horse's intake and modulates the amount of starch entering
the gut at any one time. Finally, oats are the safest of all the common
horse grains because they are highest in fiber and contain the most
digestible form of starch, making them the least likely to trigger a starch
overdose.
2. Stick with your feeding program.
Frequent or sudden changes in your horse's diet are enough to push him into
the colic zone, regardless of what the actual dietary ingredients are. It's
that tricky microbial balance again. "If the microbes in the intestines get
used to a food that isn't fed in an oversupply, the horse can adapt quite
well to his diet," says Nathaniel White II, DVM, of Marion duPont Scott
Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Virginia. "The problem comes if you
change the type of food or the amount you feed. Then the microbes are
unbalanced and upset."
Sometimes the dietary disruption is purely accidental, as in the case when
an owner runs out of his usual hay or grain and feeds a replacement that is
quite different. Or the horse may be moved to a stable or region of the
country where entirely unaccustomed feedstuffs are used. "Grains have
different amounts of starch, protein and molasses--different nutrient
profiles," says Duren. "The digestive system needs time to adjust to those
different levels."
Horses adapt to new grains and hay all the time, and some can accept major
and abrupt changes without any ill effects. But to be on the safe side,
convert your horse to different rations gradually over 7 to 10 days.
Reductions in ration size or nutrient levels can be made relatively rapidly,
in a week or less. But when you're bumping horses up to higher-powered diets
involving more carbohydrates, fat and/or protein, take at least 10 days of
incremental increases to give the intestinal bacteria time to acclimate to
the new diet.
When upping a horse's ration, suggests Kathleen Crandell, PhD, of Kentucky
Equine Research, Inc., begin by mixing one-quarter portion of the new grain
with three-quarters of the old grain for two days. Continue to increase the
new grain in the ration by a quarter every two to three days until the new
feed completely replaces the old grain. Crandell recommends a similar
stepwise process when switching hay. Horses who are accustomed to eating
low-protein, moderate quality grass hay and are switched suddenly to a
legume, such as alfalfa, often experience some degree of digestive
disturbance.
Colic is the leading killer of horses. Here are seven steps, including
feeding tips and parasite control, to help prevent colic in your horse.
By Jo Meszoly
Colic fits all varieties of abdominal distress our horses experience. The
causes of gut pain range from the passing discomfort of excessive gas to
life-threatening intestinal torsions. The majority of colics are mild, but
they're still troublesome, causing horses to pace, paw and roll while their
caretakers fret over their discomfort. In these cases, the digestive system
rights itself, given a little time or minimal medical attention.
Major intestinal disruptions, including blockages, twists and ruptures, are
usually fatal unless surgery to remove or repair the diseased area of gut
succeeds. Each year, hundreds of horses die on the operating table or
shortly after, due to the disease itself or to complications from it.
Researchers haven't found a magic serum to guarantee your horse a colic-free
life, but their increased understanding of equine digestion has allowed them
to identify many of the conditions that predispose horses to colic. Using
this information as the basis for preventive action, horse owners can take
control of the stabling, dietary and environmental conditions that influence
equine digestion for better or worse. By adopting consistent, rational
management practices and maintaining horses according to Nature's operating
manual, you can minimize your horse's risks of digestive distress.
THREE STEPS TO FEEDING RIGHT
Horses are designed to graze on an unvarying diet of fibrous, low-energy
forages for 12 to 20 hours per day. Unfortunately, domesticated living
usually challenges the horse's sensitive digestive tract with feedstuffs,
feeding schedules and ration portions that are far outside the norm of the
natural plan. One of the primary reasons horses colic is the disparity
between what the digestive equipment is intended to process and what it
actually gets. Start your anti-colic campaign by evaluating and, if
necessary, revamping your feeding practices.
1. Feed your horse only what he needs.
When it comes to maintaining digestive health, the best thing your horse can
put in his mouth is grass, a high-fiber, low-carbohydrate feed containing
eight to 10 percent protein. The second-best horse feed is grass in its
dried, stored form, otherwise called hay. The bulk delivered by a fibrous
grass/hay diet is a key weapon in fighting the colic wars because consistent
gut fill maintains a continuous level of digestive activity, free of
feast-or-famine stresses. Additionally, horses usually chew hay twice as
long as grain. The more they chew, the more saliva is generated and mixed
in, which helps buffer the stomach against acids.
This near-perfect grass/hay diet may not provide sufficient energy and other
nutrients for the daily demands placed on some horses. Enter concentrates,
feeds that boost one or more of the tissue-building and fuel-supplying
dietary components: protein, energy and fat. The grain mixes commonly fed to
horses usually include some combination of corn, oats and barley in pelleted
or sweet-feed form and coated with molasses to improve palatability. The
simple carbohydrates provided by concentrates--sugars, starch and soluble
fiber--are good horse fuel in moderation. But an excess of starches in a
horse's ration can upset the gut's delicate bacterial balance.
The digestion and absorption of modest amounts of starch occur in the small
intestine, then the ingesta enters the horse's cecum and large intestine
where fibrous particles are broken down. If a glut of simple carbohydrates
overwhelms the starch-converting enzymes available in the small intestine,
the remaining undigested carbohydrates pass into the cecum and large
intestine. Some microbes there prosper on the starch, producing a high level
of lactic acid as they break it down. This lactic acid kills key microbial
fiber digesters in the hindgut. The resulting by-product inflames the gut
wall and opens the way for absorption of toxins into the bloodstream.
"Normally, during fiber fermentation, these microbes produce volatile fatty
acid, which is good," says Stephen Duren, PhD, of the equine nutrition and
conditioning consulting firm Kentucky Equine Research, Inc. "In this case,
the bacteria are killed by their own end product."
To reduce the risk of intestinal distress, review your horse's diet and
feeding schedule, particularly his grain intake. Do you feed him grain
because his work demands it or simply because all the other horses in the
barn get grain? If you have a few companion ponies or pensioners among a
barn full of performance horses, for example, a handful of grain will keep
the nonworkers content at mealtimes without placing undue strain on their
digestion.
What is a justifiable reason for including grain in a ration, then? "Horses
are made to eat grass and hay, and they supplement their food with a variety
of plant material," says veterinarian Joyce Harman, DVM, MRCVS, of the
Harmany Equine Clinic in Washington, Virginia. "The reason for adding grain
is to make up the calorie difference. The goal is to feed to maintain good
body weight." Depending upon the horse's age, level of activity, lactation
status and innate metabolic rate, the additional grain required to maintain
an ideal weight may range anywhere from one to possibly 15 pounds a day.
The generally accepted maximum for concentrates in a horse's diet is no more
than half the total amount--by weight--of the ration fed. "If you've got a
1,000-pound horse consuming 30 pounds of feed, and he's eating 20 pounds of
grain, then you're looking at a colic risk," says nutritionist Sarah
Ralston, VMD, PhD, of New Jersey's Rutgers University.
When you feed grain, offer it in two- to four-pound mini-meals spaced evenly
throughout the day. Mixing the grain with moistened, chopped hay or grass
also prolongs the horse's intake and modulates the amount of starch entering
the gut at any one time. Finally, oats are the safest of all the common
horse grains because they are highest in fiber and contain the most
digestible form of starch, making them the least likely to trigger a starch
overdose.
2. Stick with your feeding program.
Frequent or sudden changes in your horse's diet are enough to push him into
the colic zone, regardless of what the actual dietary ingredients are. It's
that tricky microbial balance again. "If the microbes in the intestines get
used to a food that isn't fed in an oversupply, the horse can adapt quite
well to his diet," says Nathaniel White II, DVM, of Marion duPont Scott
Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Virginia. "The problem comes if you
change the type of food or the amount you feed. Then the microbes are
unbalanced and upset."
Sometimes the dietary disruption is purely accidental, as in the case when
an owner runs out of his usual hay or grain and feeds a replacement that is
quite different. Or the horse may be moved to a stable or region of the
country where entirely unaccustomed feedstuffs are used. "Grains have
different amounts of starch, protein and molasses--different nutrient
profiles," says Duren. "The digestive system needs time to adjust to those
different levels."
Horses adapt to new grains and hay all the time, and some can accept major
and abrupt changes without any ill effects. But to be on the safe side,
convert your horse to different rations gradually over 7 to 10 days.
Reductions in ration size or nutrient levels can be made relatively rapidly,
in a week or less. But when you're bumping horses up to higher-powered diets
involving more carbohydrates, fat and/or protein, take at least 10 days of
incremental increases to give the intestinal bacteria time to acclimate to
the new diet.
When upping a horse's ration, suggests Kathleen Crandell, PhD, of Kentucky
Equine Research, Inc., begin by mixing one-quarter portion of the new grain
with three-quarters of the old grain for two days. Continue to increase the
new grain in the ration by a quarter every two to three days until the new
feed completely replaces the old grain. Crandell recommends a similar
stepwise process when switching hay. Horses who are accustomed to eating
low-protein, moderate quality grass hay and are switched suddenly to a
legume, such as alfalfa, often experience some degree of digestive
disturbance.
All I'm saying is that a simple reference would have sufficed instead of three pages of thread. 
Brevity is a wonderful thing. 