5 quick changes you can make today to reduce the risk of colic

If you have experienced a horse suddenly pawing, sweating, repeatably lying down, kicking, or biting at their flank then you know how quickly colic becomes a stressful situation for you and your horse.

Urgent veterinary care should always be your first priority when these signs appear, but afterward, you may be wondering what you can do to reduce your horse’s colic risk in the future. While it’s impossible to eliminate all risk and sometimes you may not even find the true culprit, colic can be heavily related to diet and there are a variety of nutritional strategies that can decrease your horse’s risk. These are also things you can easily start implementing TODAY!

1. Maximize water consumption

Maximizing your horse’s water intake can make a big difference in curbing colic. The best way to promote hydration is to have free choice salt available at all times and/or to add salt or an electrolyte supplement to your horse’s ration. If possible, monitor your horse’s daily water consumption and identify what their “normal” is. This way you will quickly identify if they’re drinking less or more than usual. If you are traveling, horses tend to be quite picky with water sources other than the ones they are used to at home. Take water from home during your travels to reduce the chance of them refusing a new water source when they arrive or bring a flavoring agent along with them that you know they like.

Handy tip:  Always provide free choice salt and/or add it to your horse’s daily ration to encourage water consumption.

2. Make gradual dietary changes

Your horse has a very sensitive gastrointestinal (GI) tract that does not respond well to rapid changes. Rapid changes in feed and hay present the highest risk for GI upset and/or colic. Slow and steady is always best when it comes to dietary changes. As a rule of thumb, do not introduce more than 1 lb. per day of new feed and you can also go slower if desired. Hay changes are best if done gradually over the course of multiple days to a week if possible. Introduction to pasture should also be a very gradual process that lasts a few weeks until full access is achieved.

You might be thinking, ‘Why is this important?’ There is a delicate balance of the microflora in the GI tract that is largely tasked with fiber fermentation. A sudden new diet can cause the balance to shift and all chaos to break loose! To keep this balance happy and functioning optimally, we need to give the microbiome time to adjust to the new diet. This is why nutritionists recommend changing to a new feed or hay over multiple days (7-10) to reduce the risk of GI upset and colic.

3. Offer quality forage at the right amount

We don’t need to remind you that meeting your horse’s forage requirements is essential, but it’s sometimes confusing to know how much your horse should receive. Horses will eat forage fairly continuously throughout the day and a bit through the night. This means their digestive tract lends itself best to maximized fiber intake (without promoting obesity of course!). The aim for daily forage intake should be 1.5% of your horse’s bodyweight up to free choice. Use their body condition score as a determining factor of how much they should get per day.

Another consideration when it comes to forage is quality. Overly mature forage can present an increased colic risk and should be avoided or evaluated by a nutritionist prior to feeding. Forage should also be free of excessive dust, mold, or foreign material to ensure it doesn’t increase illness and colic risk.

Handy tip: Aim to feed a minimum of 1.5-2% of body weight per day in forage for a healthy GI tract.

4. Watch those non-structural carbohydrates

If you are feeding moderate to increased non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) feed as part of your horse’s diet, be mindful that if your horse eats above 5 lbs. of grain high in NSC (~30% +) in a single meal, this could lead to an increased risk of colic. This can happen when a large amount of starch is ingested and not adequately digested and absorbed in the foregut, causing it to spill over into the hindgut. As a result, the starch is rapidly fermented by hindgut bacteria and can lead to the hindgut becoming abnormally acidic. In these cases, hindgut acidosis occurs and the good bacteria can die off as a result. The resulting cascade of hindgut events can then cause colic or other metabolic disruptions in the body.

Handy tip: Keep grain meals moderate in size and keep an eye on the NSC level. Aim to not feed more than 0.5% of your horse’s bodyweight of feed in a single meal.

5. Try a quality gut supplement!

When you choose a daily high-quality gut supplement like PROTEK HG, your horse will thank you for helping them improve fiber digestion, optimizing GI function, and for stabilizing the microflora so they can handle small changes and hopefully curb colic!

The ingredients in PROTEK HG that will deliver better gut health to your horse are:

1. LIVE enteric-coated yeast probiotics. These stay alive during the manufacturing process and reach your horse’s GI tract to help it cope with diet, stress, and management changes. They are the reason the delicate microbiome balance stays intact. But what if your horse is already struggling with GI issues such as diarrhea? The specific prebiotics and probiotics we have chosen help firm up manure!
2. Melon-derived antioxidant. And yes, you read that right! The chosen antioxidant we use is the first line of defense when fighting the production of free radicals caused by everyday equine life. This antioxidant protects the cell membranes from oxidative damage which can present itself as poor immunity and lack of recovery post-exercise.
3. Digestive enzymes. Help increase fiber and total diet nutrient digestibility, so your horse gets the most out of what you are feeding.

In some cases, when stomach health is significantly impacted and causing stomach ulcers, this can increase the risk of colic. If this sounds like your horse, you’ll need to reach for PROTEK GI to be part of your daily routine.

The research shows that daily supplementation with PROTEK GI  reduces the incidence and severity of gastric ulcers.

All these changes can be implemented today! Even if you make a small change in management, your horse will thank you in the long run.

If you have questions about your horse’s current situation or how PROTEK GI or PROTEK HG can help? Send an email to info@kelato.us and our team will be happy to help!