What should you do?
Prevent Horse Colic With Equine GutFlush
Its 2 am., and you’re awakened by a loud noise at the barn. Panic hits as you drag yourself out of bed, and you hope your horse hasn’t become colicky and is now thrashing in the stall. As you near the barn, you see him lying down, covered with shavings and obviously distressed. You know you treat your horse with a daily dose of tender love and care, so how could this colic have happened?
And what do you do now?
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
As you take your horse out of the stall, should you administer Equine GutFlush?
Yes – Give him a 120 cc of Equine GutFlush
Should you walk them until the veterinarian arrives or put them in a round pen and keep him at a trot?
Can he become worse if he rolls?
Unfortunately, there are no clear answers but some guidelines that should be considered. Let’s compare your horse to a person with severe abdominal cramps. Normally, a person would seek a comfortable couch or bed and try to find a position that minimizes the pain.
In many cases, a colicky horse is trying to find a comfortable position.
So if they are standing or lying quietly – let them be.
If the horse is lying quietly, either on its side or sitting up, let him relax. This might be in contrast to what you have heard over the years, but lying down is acceptable, and it is unlikely your horse will twist the intestines by rolling. Remember: horses dealt with colic before domestication.
Their actions of lying down and rolling are natural – not suicidal.
Your 1st line of defense is reaching into your horse remedy kit for a dose of Equine GutFlush. This should stop the abdominal pain and give you quick control over a normal horse colic episode by working with the equine’s body to bring it back into balance. It is an alternative as well as a preventative to help in an emergency situation. Equine GutFlush works with the horse’s body, not against it, as you are not giving any drugs. EGF will work in unison to stop the pain, trauma, or duress of horse colic within 45 minutes.
Unfortunately, some horse colic’s continue for hours with significant pain. Equine GutFlush should ease the pain and bring back normal gut sounds in 25-120 minutes. This means the horse needs to tap into all his energy and endurance, and walking him for an extended period of time can reduce his strength needed to survive. If the horse is rolling violently, he should be walked slowly, but do not excessively whip the horse to get him up or to keep him moving. Remember that when a horse is rolling, his main focus is not on the environment or on the handler. He can lie down next to a fence or trailer and get a leg caught underneath or roll against the handler and cause significant harm to the person trying to care for him.
By now the Equne GutFlush has worked (wait at least 45 minutes before giving your equine anything else, unless it’s another dose of Equne GutFlush). When your veterinarian arrives, let him know what treatment you gave your horse. Hopefully, he will hear good gut sounds on either side at this time and no further treatment will be necessary for your horse. You then get a chance to catch your breath and consider what caused this colic. Was it something your horse ate or didn’t eat? Was it something you did wrong? Were the moon and stars lined up in the wrong orbits? Or was it just plain bad luck? Why was your horse one of the just over 4 percent of horses that colic annually in the U.S.?
Water Wash
Colicky horses frequently suffer from reduced water intake. Because horses are primarily made of water, drinking less water makes the feed and hay mixture in the intestine thicker. The 100 feet of intestine in your horse has many turns and changes in diameter, and it makes the horse more prone to having that mixture get “stuck” or impacted. The impaction usually consist of coarse hay or sand, but not always. Providing plenty of clean, fresh water is the first step in reducing colic. I also recommend adding electrolytes to grain. In Southern states, add one ounce of electrolytes twice daily during summer months and once daily in winter.
Forage O’ Plenty
Equine’s have evolved eating frequent meals of quality pasture grass. This frequent grazing promotes digestive health and supplies the fiber requirements in the intestinal tract. As a general rule, a 1,000-pound horse on a tradition hay and grain diet should consume around 2 percent of his body weight, or 20 pounds of roughage per day.
This roughage has many positive attributes in maintaining your horse’s internal health. First, the fiber is the natural stimulant in the large colon for normal peristalsis. Digestible fiber is necessary as a source of energy for microorganisms in your horse’s cecum and large colon, and it provides a source of dietary energy for the horse. Indigestible fiber is also necessary and required for the maintenance of normal gastrointestinal pH, function and motility.
In addition to these factors, feeding adequate amounts of hay or roughage and feeding at frequent intervals can decrease aberrant behavior such as chewing up board fences, cribbing or eating potentially toxic, colic-causing weeds. Due to overgrazing, bad teeth, allergies, use (such as stalled, athletic horses) and injuries, pasture grazing is not always available, so it is important to provide adequate roughage to these horses through alternative sources. Alternative sources include quality hay, hay cubes, and chopped, bagged forage.
Quality and sufficient roughage might reduce chances of your equine developing gastric ulcers and eating sand or dirt. Sufficient roughage intake is far more important in the prevention of sand colic than bran/oil mashes and psyillium products. Think about the bulk roughage of 20 pounds of hay versus 8 ounces of psyllium as it moves through the intestine. Horses normally ingest sand as they pick up grain, pellets or hay, or as they graze off sandy soil. Weanlings, yearlings, and sometimes nursing foals are more inclined to eat sand preferentially. Always feed horses in an environment where the grain, pellets or hay leaves fall on a firm surface.
If you feed outside, arrange a harder surface (such as rubber mats) underneath the feeder. Allow horses to graze only in pastures with adequate growth so that ingestion of sand is minimal. Feed horses grain and hay before turnout, so they are not so hungry, which might reduce them ripping up the grass with the sandy roots. Several clinical signs might tip you off to excessive sand ingestion in your horse. In about one-third of affected horses, a persistent diarrhea develops before the onset of colic symptoms. The sand is gritty and irritating, which abrades the lining of the intestinal tract, impairing absorption of nutrients and fluids, causing diarrhea to develop. Supplements & Additives, Feed additives are another way to reduce the incidence of colic by promoting digestive health and efficiency. Probiotics (which mean “for life”) and yeast cultures place microorganisms in the intestine that improve digestive efficiency and correct imbalances that could be present.
As researchers learn more about equine digestion, probiotics and yeast culture are consistently connected to improved health. Amending the Diet can be a huge factor in colic prevention. Abruptly changing grain types increase risk. Any dietary changes should be made over a five to seven day period, adding a little more of the new grain to a little less of the old grain daily. This allows adequate time for the digestive tract and microorganisms to adjust to the new source of nutrients. When horses are introduced to new pasture, they go through the same adjustment period as with grain. Allow 30 minutes grazing time on day one, one hour on day two, and so on. Fertilized pastures with lush, green grasses are the most dangerous and can cause grass colic as well as grass founder.
Lock the Door
Colic caused by horses overeating grain is preventable and management-related. Make it impossible for your horse to get into the feed room by latching the door securely. Ingesting large amounts of grain can overwhelm the digestive tract and lead to two very serious conditions – colic and laminitis. Both can be fatal. Overeating grain can take several hours before real symptoms show up, so don’t hesitate to get Equne GutFlush and orally administer this to the horse immediately. Call the veterinarian and let him be aware of the situation in case follow up is needed.
If you feel it is necessary then the veterinarian should administer medication to reduce the intestine’s ability to absorb potentially life-threatening endotoxins. Twisted Intestine Twists (volvulus), strangulations and entrapments are the most menacing forms of colic.
In these situations, no amount of walking will help or Equine GutFlush. The only treatment is surgery, which must be performed as soon as possible for a good chance of survival.
Defense
No one knows what causes these forms of colic. For years, horse owners thought it resulted when horses rolled on their backs, but researchers discovered this is seldom the cause, because your horse rolls virtually every day. Research shows that when twists are involved, they usually occur before the horse ever lies down and rolls. In other words, if the horse requires surgery and you insist on walking it for several hours before calling for veterinary help, you might literally be walking the horse to death. Colic is a serious, sometimes fatal situation, and every horse owner wants to minimize its chances.
Reach for a dose of Equine GutFlush as your 1st line of defense to treat abdominal distress or colic.
EGF helps in medical colic’s to bring a horse’s body back into balance in cases of normal colic. Remember, I said a medical colic – not surgical – It will not help equine’s with bowels that are twisted, torsion, knotted, ruptured, blocked with objects, gravel, stones, tumors, excessive sand or having massive spasms!
Provide plenty of clean, fresh water and electrolytes daily. Give adequate amounts of quality roughage, probiotics and periodic laxatives. Exercise daily, make feed changes slowly and check for sand every two weeks. Deworm on a regular schedule, feed horses away from sandy areas, and keep that feed room locked.
While there are no guarantees, good management will help you avoid this frightening problem. So keep Equine GutFlush in your emergency kit so you never let abdominal distress or colic get out of hand and put your horse at risk of surgery or death.