[Sandra-A1]

Alternative Therapies for Colic

By: Satin Zeine-Johnson and Ellen van der Laan,DVM

Alternate therapies such as herbal remedies and homeopathic remedies can save a life – in this case, your horses life! NONE of these
remedies or the information given here is to be used instead of calling your vet. Instead, these remedies can buy you time and make your horse
more comfortable until the veterinarian arrives.

We all know horses prefer to colic when it is cold, wet, windy and dark. Usually on a Sunday or Saturday night, so we have to pay those
extra farm call dollars. That is not the time to wonder where your emergency supplies are, so assemble your kit when things are calm.

Many things can cause colic. Weather changes, with barometric pressure rising or falling, moldy hay, stress, the list is endless. Impaction
is the most life threatening, but any colic can kill. Colic causes extreme pain and debilitation. Even if there is no impaction, as in spasmodic colic, if a horse rolls and causes a torsion (twisting) of the gut, that horse can die or cost thousands of dollars in surgery trying to save them.

So what to do? You walk outside to check the mail, and see your best four legged buddy head down, eyes glassy, perhaps sweating. Then you
see him lie down, get up, bite his flanks, kick at his belly. Uh –oh.

FIRST – call the vet. Tell the vet that your horse is colicing and you are heading for the barn, come right away! Be prepared to give a
detailed description of the symptoms your horse is showing. If you can, stick the phone in your pocket, grab a coat and your first aid kit.
Get a halter on your horse and walk them slowly. Remove all food and water for the time being. TIME IS CRITICAL! The longer you wait with
treatment, the worse prognosis for total recovery.

You open your kit and find just what you need, because you assembled that kit when things weren’t yet frantic. See how handy that was?

The first thing I do, always, when an animal is in pain, is pull down that bottom lip and give them some **Rescue Remedy. Rescue Remedy is
good for the shock and pain, and will calm a horse frantic with pain.

Once the horse has calmed just a little, evaluate the colic. Listen to your horses gut (you have a stethoscope, right?) and see if you have gut sounds. Check their last meal – is it gone or did they leave it?
Is there any fresh manure around to indicate they are not impacted? Is it solid or more like a cow-pie? Take their temperature and compare it
to their normal temp. You have a “well baby” sheet in the barn with that horses normal temp, respiration and heart rate, because you
carefully did one on each horse. If you haven’t done this for each horse you own, go do it when you are done reading this! Your “barn
book” should have the normal vitals for every horse you own. Then you know for sure if this horse is running a temp, or if their heart rate
is too fast (or too slow!) when the situation arrives.

Normal values are:
Heart rate – 25-40 beats per minutes
Respiration rate – 9-13 breaths per minute
Rectal temperature – 99.5-101.5 degrees F, with 100 degrees F being the average
Capillary Refill Time (CRT) – 1-2 seconds.

To check the CRT, press with your finger on the horse’s gums adjacent to the teeth and count how long it takes for the normal color to return.

So, what specifically can you do to help your horse while waiting for your vet to arrive?

If you have 2 strong people available to you, have them stand on each side of the horse and interlock their arms under the horse’s belly.
Lift up and jiggle the abdomen for 2-3 seconds. Repeat 10 times. This will sometimes relieve gas and may rearrange displaced intestines.

Acupressure can be a great relief to your horse. There are 4 basic points you can treat for any kind of colic, and a lot more that are
specific for different types of colic. To keep it simple, I’ll restrain myself to explaining the basic points.When using acupressure, stimulate each point bilaterally for 1 minute
with your finger at a 90 degree angle and with 1-3 pounds of pressure.

The first point to treat is called San Jiao (formerly known as Stomach

2). You can find this point by locating the vein that forms a “V” below the medial corner of the eye. Apply pressure to the vein and you’ll see it pop up. Right above where the vein forks, you can see and feel a small depression. This is where you want to be.
The second point is called Large Intestine 4. This is a very powerful point located on the inside of the front leg. In humans it is located
in the web between thumb and first finger. Now, a horse doesn’t have a thumb, so we’ll have to locate the point differently. In the horse it
is located just beneath the head of the medial splint bone.
The third point is called Stomach 36. This point can be a bit tricky to find. It is located on the hind leg, on the outside just slightly behind and below the stifle joint. Try to feel for the crest of the tibia and feel a small depression just behind the crest.
The last point is the easiest to find. It is called Governing Vessel 1, and is located right above the anus in the midline. Lift the tail up
and stimulate the point in the midline between the anus and the crease of the tail base.

As with anything you do to a horse with colic pains, please look out for your own safety first!

If you feel particularly daring, then there is one more thing you can do. There is a point on the tip of the ear called Er Jian. Take a
sterile needle and push it through the skin of the ear tip until you draw blood. Do this on both sides. It really makes a difference.

The last tip from the old Chinese is something I myself have not tried yet. They say to feed the horse a piece of its own chestnut. It can’t
harm the horse to try this, so if you need to keep yourself busy while waiting for the vet, feel free to try. Please let me know if it worked!

There are several basic homeopathic remedies you need to keep in your horse homeopathy kit.

Aconite: 200c, used at the onset of weather change colic.
Colocynthis: 200c, for severe spasmodic colic with obvious cramping.
Be sure to walk this horse!
Nux Vomica: Mild colic, usually not attempting to roll, may be from
stress..
Colchicum: Here’s your remedy for flatulent colic, usually with loud
gut rumbles and distention..
Chamomille: Is your horse irritable and very grouchy, instead of in
great pain? This is the remedy!
Gelsemium: 30c -For that mild stress colic where the horse sweats
around flanks and shoulders.

After you drop a few of the little white pills into their bottom lip, continue to walk and reassure your horse until the vet arrives. If you have a cooler, throw that over the horse so they don’t get chilled, especially if they are sweating. Check their gums periodically. Check
respirations and heart rate regularly. If the remedy is having a good effect, give more in 15 minutes. If the remedy is having no effect,
you may have chosen the wrong one. When the vet arrives, tell your vet everything you have done, report the vitals and assist them in any
way you can.

Keep Castor Oil on hand if you have foals around. If your foal has a mild, uncomfortable colic, rub some around their umbilical area in slow circles.
Chamomile (dried or fresh) can be fed by hand (about a cup) if the horse will eat and the colic is mild.

Several essential oils are handy, Chamomile will help sooth spasms and Lavender is always calming. Be sure to get essential oils and not
scent/perfume oils! With the oils, put a drop on your finger and dab it just inside the nostril.

Remember, in an animal, pain is debilitating. An animal with a non-life threatening injury and is in great pain, can have a very poor prognosis if they go into shock.
Keep Rescue Remedy and your kit either in the barn or close at hand. Don’t waste time looking for it!
If you can’t find anything else, Rescue Remedy will deal with shock, reduce pain and panic.

If you are lucky and have help, have them write down everything you administer, including the amount and the time. Then when the vet arrives, you can hand them the history instead of trying to remember everything when you are pretty frazzled yourself.

As always, the best cure is prevention. A horse that is prone to bouts of colic may do very well on Thorne Research’s “Easy Digestion” Formula. Feed wholegrain products; they are healthier, more natural, and better digestible than pelleted food. Make sure to do feed changes slowly over a 2 week period. Have the horse’s teeth checked and floated on a regular basis by a knowledgeable person, preferably a veterinarian specialized in dental care. Incorporate an appropriate deworming
schedule, diatomaceous earth is an excellent holistic option.

**
What is exactly rescue remedy and essentials (oil)and how does it work etc?? :
Here's what the manufacturer has to say about Rescue Remedy...

"...is the most famous of the remedies, but in fact is not a remedy at all,
but rather a mix of five different remedies (Cherry Plum, Clematis,Impatiens, Rock Rose and Star of Bethlehem) which together help deal with
any emergency or stressful event. Taking a driving test, exam nerves,speaking in public, after an accident or an argument - there are countless uses for Rescue Remedy.

In an emergency Rescue Remedy can be taken neat from the bottle, four drops at a time, and as frequently as required. Otherwise put four drops in a glass of water and take frequent sips until the emotions have calmed."

It's excellent for any sort of shock or stress in people or animals. I've used it for everything from injury to illness to foaling with dynamite
results. Go to:

http://www.bachcentre.com

To read more about Dr. Bach and all of his flower remedies.

[Blistering Winds]

And what ever you do, TELL YOUR VET before he administers ANYTHING to your horse because something might react with the drugs that the vet will want to give the horse.

Which is usually Banamine or something similar.

[tn walker]

Putting a needle through the ear tips??? Never heard of that before (not that I'd go out and try it wink ). hm. wonder if it works, and HOW it would work to help colic????

[Midnight Felicity]

Sandra thank you so much for agreeing with me on the bleeders post on herbal remedies. I hate it how people are so negative and biased towards herbs. I love using alternative methods to treat things i think of it as being more natural.

[Sandra-A1]

No problem Midnight! Like you I was just stating my opinion and there is nothing wrong with that!
I feel there are alternatives out there for those people who are interested in learning about them and using them.
More and more Vets are also adding herbal remedies and massage to their methods of treatment as well.
I think the less chemicals we have in our lives and use on ourselves and our animals the better we will be. While I am not ready to move out into the woods and become a hermit without my electricity, indoor bathroom and local hospital nearby, I do try to use a lot of the natural herbs and remedies as well as therapeutic and accuepressure, when ever possible! wink
To each their own I say and if you don't care for it then no one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to try it!

<small>[ January 22, 2004, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Sandra-A1 ]</small>

[monica-n-shiloh]

No offence, but why are you dragging one topic into another thread?? Midnight you could have thanked Sandra in a PM or even in the bleeders thread.
Its just kind of confusing when thread topics jump into other topics.

[Sandra-A1]

Monica it's alright...
I think this topic is related..it is about using Herbs and other methods too!
Honestly, I see no problem here.
So why not just let things drop now.... wink ... ....

[monica-n-shiloh]

You might not see a problem because she was talking to you, but us other people dont know what goes from post to post sometimes.
I just was raising a valid point. Thats all. Even if it was related to herbs it should be kept in the topic it originated from.
Also, I'm not tryin to start trouble, sounded like you think I was trying to. I was trying to clear things before people end up confused. Thats all.

[Dawn]

That's a very good point Danielle. Not only does it drag things up that usually do not need to be drug up, it is very confusing, cluttering, and annoying to people that do not read all the posts or members who might be new.

Just a little almost completely useless FYI, herbals are chemicals. Everything is a chemical or a variety of chemicals. Even water. So, if you aren't in support of introducing chemicals into your horse's body. Good luck.

[Sandra-A1]

Ladies..it all goes with a public forum...it happens everyday on forums all over the WWW and this one is not any different.
The key is if you don't like something it is best to over-look it and not post a response at all as it is only human nature to want to defend ones opinions, beliefs and themselves. To post any sort of reply is, to some, an attack and they will rise to their defense.
The best thing you could have done is simply ignored the post if you did not like it and not call anymore attention to it than was already there....you didn't and you can see the result.....but this is..as always...just my opinion!