My experience has been, when a horse begins to show signs of colic, one indication is to lie down and try to roll.

I've heard if they do this they can twist a gut.

Is this true or an old tale?

If you start to walk one and they start to lie down, should you allow them to lie down or keep them on their feet?

CRH, it can be impossible to tell the difference between a twisted gut and colic early on. i think you are better off to walk the horse anyway, as exercise will stimulate bowel movement if it is colic.a twisted gut will be determined by the vet, either palpation or syringe in the peritoneal cavity.
in answer to your first question i would have to say that,the theoretical gut was probably already twisted and not a case of colic. horses roll every day, i dont know why being constipated would cause it to twist.
liam

Colic is a term used to describe abdominal pain of ANY origin. In mild cases the horse is depressed, head is lowered, breathing is somewhat rapid, pulse is normal or slightly elevated, the horse may look back at his flanks or bite at his flanks, a male may drop his penis, appetitie is poor or absent although the horse may drink or play with water, manure may be absent or abnormal. If the severity of the problem increases so does the pain. The horse may then begin to show sweating, pawing,pacing,blowing respirations, elevated pulse,discolored mucus membranes(bright red or bluish), desire to lie down and roll or thrash. Severe cases are usually related to the loss of blood supply to a section of intestine, infection,inflammation of the intestine, complete blockage or to twisting of a section of intestine that also causes blockage. The horses system becomes toxic, the ear and legs are often cold and founder may set in.

These are not my words:). This is directly from a veterinarian. The term colic seems to carry such a broad meaning and any form of it should be watched closely. It is also key to get your vet involved as quickly as possible if you do not see results. I sadly have a friend that just had to put her horse down due to colic. It came on rapidly and too severe to treat. It was a horrible experience so I don't think you can take it too lightly. When in doubt have a vet check.

Thanks folks, good to know. Who knows what caused it but Rusty started acting like colic was setting on but we could hear a slight rumble on one side, the other was hard as a rock, but he kept trying to lie down. We gave him "immediate response" which my feed store carries, started walking and was on the verge of calling the vet (after about 30 minutes) when he started having good rumbles and calmed down and cooled off.
We later asked, should we have let him just lie down and roll?

Thanks for your responses

Could have been gas. Sometimes a trailer ride seems to help with some, I think it is the motion of the trailer, who knows. Anyway, I was told by numerous vets that when a horse is having colic type pains, you should not let them lie down and roll, no matter the cause. Twisted gut is when the intestine "rolls" over on itself, usually started by a blockage, and it is an emergency. (It happens in just about every life form, with different names for each species.) Usually the vet has to go in and surgically repair the problem, which is life threatening and very expensive. I am just glad yours got better!

Another thing that I have been taught by the vet is to check the manure to see if there is a lot of sand. To do this, you put any manure that the horse has been able to pass into a bucket of water. Stir it up to break it up, let it settle a minute then gently pour off the water and broken manure. If there is a lot of sand, it will settle to the bottom of the bucket. If there is a significant amount of sand left in the bucket, you are probably dealing with sand colic and need to feed some sand clear. I have been told that the gut can twist because it gets a pocket of air in it and with the rolling of the horse, the pocket always moves to the top. Much like a bottle of anything with an air pocket in it. The rolling from colic is completely different from the normal, "God this feels good!" kind of roll. They really thrash their legs and often will lay on their side, then thrash again. If you are walking, do not let them roll, the best thing to do is to keep them walking and if you can't get the guts to move, call a vet. A lot of times they will tube the horse and put in mixture of mineral oil and silinium sp? to get the bowels to move. If you can decrease their pain, that is the best to do, bantamine sp? works very well.

We discussed putting him in the trailer, because that is an almost automatic bowel movement, but didn't (maybe we should have). We don't have any sand here, so that was ruled out, but good to know for future. I watched and it took him almost 7 hrs to have a bowel movement and when it happened, he made up for lost time. I kept him stalled with a run in and he was pretty regular after that Today it was back to normal like nothing happened.

It was probably caused by stress from his injury in the fence and being cooped up, who knows, we also had a big rain (2.1") Friday night. All I know is next time it happens I will continue to walk him and if there are no signs of tummy noise, I will call my vet immedatley.

THANK YOU ALL!

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cowboys Restless Heart:
All I know is next time it happens I will continue to walk him and if there are no signs of tummy noise, I will call my vet immedatley.

THANK YOU ALL!

---

Glad he came back so quickly for you, I know how scarey it can be! Lost one to colic a few years back...one thing I thought I would mention on walking them.....let them have moments of rest when needed too, even lie down, just watch that they don't get to rolling. Exhaustion doesn't help a colicking horse, but walk with intermitant rests can. We also started using psillium (Wal Mart brand...as recomended by Horse-Journal) once a week. Good luck and prayers for no relapses.