You walk in to your horse’s pen with his evening feed and instead of coming to you he stands off in the corner and paws the ground. For most of us this creates an immediate fear reaction. Oh my God, my horse has colic. But then, after taking a deep breath, you regroup. Your horse is on a holistic management program, he gets daily prebiotics and he lives a natural lifestyle. He is not likely to colic under these conditions. Sure enough you check and he has good gut sounds and normal manure in the pen. So what else could his symptoms be telling you?

Before you launch into your homeopathic colic remedies or reach for the Banamine, you want to make sure you are really treating colic. There are other possibilities to consider. Possible conditions that present like colic:

• Respiratory Infection
• Ovary pain
• Kidney pain
• Musculo-skeletal pain

Respiratory infection can cause your horse to have a sore throat and fever that will keep him from eating. A quick check of his temperature will help rule this out. Also ask yourself if he has been around any new horses that could have exposed him to infection. A horse with flu symptoms can feel sore all over and be reluctant to move around.

(Excerpt from the Holistic Horsekeeping Newsletter – November 2012)