by Heather J Powell

Created on: December 12, 2006   Last Updated: June 25, 2009

What can Cause Colic?

We have already established that colic is caused by the food failing to move through the gut and continuing to ferment causing gas. So why would that food stop moving?

Probably most the prevalent cause of colic is dehydration. Many people would argue that dehydration is a by-product of colic, but in my experience of more than 40 years, the quickest way to induce colic in a horse is to reduce their water intake. Pretty much without exception a horse with severe colic will be dehydrated and is that because the digestive system has shut down or is that the reason the digestive system has shut down? Let's think about this logically.

As the food moves through the gut it gets squished along by the contracting muscles and is mixed in with the digestive juices produced by the system. Think about trying to squeeze the meat through the skin of a sausage. When the sausage is fresh and the meat is moist it can be moved along fairly easily. Now let's cut the sausage in half and put it in the refrigerator without wrapping it. The exposed end of that meat will dry out and become hard. Now when you try to move it along by squeezing, the chances are it will not move. The same principle applies to our horse's gut when there is not enough water present to keep the food content moist.

Another common cause of colic is a rapid change in diet. Think back a couple of weeks to Thanksgiving. Let's be honest, most of us overindulge during any major holiday and we all sit (or lie) around after the sumptuous meal regretting how much we consumed. The reasons for our discomfort are twofold we eat far too much and we eat food that is far richer than we are used to.

Because we feed our horses food that is not the same as they would eat in the wild and therefore is not what their systems were designed to digest, changing either quantity or type of the food is likely to lead the same condition as us after the holiday banquet. So when we move our horses to a different barn or we find out that there is a "better" feed available we rush to do better for our horses and switch them over to the new food. These sudden changes in food can cause a shock to the digestive system and can result in a temporary slow down resulting in - - - Colic!

Similarly, when our equine friend breaks out of his stall during the night and just happens to find himself with his head in the feed bin, he is likely to eat far more than he would normally eat. Then he gets the holiday bloating and the same digestive

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