I had an interesting call from a friend and client Sunday morning. Brenda had put out a new round bale of hay for her horses and one of them was not wanting to eat and acting like he had a mild colic. It was pretty obvious from the behavior she described that Quatro had simply overeaten.

Luckily, Brenda had on had all the natural supplements needed to handle the mild horse colic. I prescribed alternating doses of the homeopathic remedies, nux vomica and chamomile. Brenda did not have any Pro bi or KLPP so I suggested she give several packages of bluegreen algae, probiotics, and enzymes. I told her if Quatro did not move around on his own she should walk him for 5 to 10 minutes each hour to stimulate gut motility.

A follow up call today yielded a positive report. Quatro had moped around for about an hour but with each dose of nux vomica his demeanor improved. By afternoon he was looking to pick at bits of grass. Brenda offered Quatro a tiny amount of grain with more essential capsules and to her surprise he picked out the capsules and left the grain.

I never cease to be amazed at the natural instincts horses have when they are sick. My mule rarely gets sick but when she does I can hold out a selection of bluegreen algae products such as probiotics, enzymes, CoEnzyme Q10 or sprouts and algae she will pick out what she wants and leave the rest. I particularly like to watch her munch the Q10 gel caps which are quite aromatic. You can see her lips pucker when she pops each one between her teeth.

Neutriceuticals or synthetic supplements do not trigger similar instincts. Most of these must be force fed and can actually upset the healing process in an acute illness. Horses in the wild know how to select herbs and leaves that will give the desired balancing action. If you don’t have your horse on native pasture keeping a selection of bluegreen alage whole food supplements on hand is a great substitute. Madalyn

That was delicious