Signs of Colic

The signs of a colic horse is complete loss of appetite, constipation and thrashing behavior. Identify the signs of colic in a horse, which can be life threatening, with helpful advice from a veterinarian in this video on caring for horses.

Hi I'm Dr. Joanna Robson. I'm a doctor of veterinarian medicine and I'd like to talk to you about recognizing signs of colic in your horse. Colic is one of those things that strikes fear into just about every horse owner, particularly if you haven't dealt with a colic case before. Colics can range from being very, very mild to being very severe and actually life threatening even requiring surgery to help your horse. However there is three or four most common signs to watch for. Number one most common thing, you come home and your horse hasn't touched his feed. Usually he's a pretty happy eater, loves his grain, loves his hay and you come home and find that they really don't want to eat anything or that they've left last night's dinner or this morning's breakfast, that's your number one indication that a horse might be having stomach problems. The second is that your horse hasn't pooped. We maybe clean the stall in the morning and then when you go back to check again you find that he hasn't defecated for a period of 6 or 8 hours, that can definitely be a problem. Third thing in more severe cases is a horse will actually start kicking at it's belly or turning around to look at it's sides, maybe he's even starting to breakout in a sweat. Most severe cases your horse will actually try to get down and roll, even throwing themselves to the ground, thrashing around. This is definitely a time to call your veterinarian and have them come out as quickly as possible. So to recap, the most important signs of colic, horse who hasn't been eating, not interested in food or not interested in treats. Horse who isn't defecating normally. A horse that maybe is kicking at it's belly, turning around to look at it's belly or pawing and in most severe cases a horse is actually throwing itself down to the ground or wanting to get down to roll. Please call your veterinarian if you suspect any of these signs of colic are occurring in your horse.