Association of age, sex and breed factors in acute equine colic: A retrospective study of 320 cases admitted to a veterinary teaching hospital in the U.S.A.

Risk factors associated with colic in horses

“…Generally, no significant difference was found in the distribution of colic according to sex [6,7,20,25,30,34]. However, these results are still controversial: in a study conducted on 3 848 horses, the geldings appeared to be less affected than the stallions [16] whereas, during the same year, the opposite result was shown in a study conducted on 1 214 horses: geldings were more likely to colic [5].…”

“…The case-control studies were the following: the first case-control study of colic used a teaching population at a hospital in Minnesota that was examined over a period of 10 years [25]. The study included 320 cases of colic and 3 610 controls and measured the association of colic with in trinsic factors and medical management.…”

“…Reeves et al [25] specify it as "abdominal pain of digestive origin" and Kaneene et al [16] relate it to distension of the stomach or intestines. Other authors do not give a precise general definition of colic but list either inclusion or exclusion parameters.…”

“…In another study, the risk for colic was multiplied by 1.5 for horses older than 10 years, compared to horses of 1 to 5 years of age [7]. Certain types of colic are more frequent in certain categories of age [6,20,25]: colic resulting from the obstruction of the intestine by enteroliths is frequent for horses over 11 years of age [12]. Large colon impaction and displacement seem to be more frequent in horses aged from 7 to 8 years whereas torsion and strangulation of the small intestine, large colon and small colon obstruction decreases with age [4,33,34].…”

“…Although 75% of the colic cases were solved in less than 24 hours, 67% of the horses with colic were examined by a veterinarian, of which 85% received a treatment [30]. The mortality rate for the horses referred to veterinary clinics can be high [25,34,35].…”