Comparison of psyllium feeding at home and nasogastric intubation of psyllium and magnesium sulfate in the hospital as a treatment for naturally occurring colonic sand (geosediment) accumulations in horses: a retrospective study.

Ritva Kaikkonen,Kati Niinistö,Tiina Lindholm,Marja Raekallio

doi:10.1186/s13028-016-0254-z

Abstract

BackgroundIngestion of geosediment (further referred as sand) may cause weight loss, diarrhea and acute or recurrent colic in horses. Our aim was to compare the efficacy of three treatment protocols in clearing colonic sand accumulations in clinical patients. This retrospective clinical study consisted of 1097 horses and ponies, which were radiographed for the presence of colonic sand. Horses included to the study (n = 246) were displaying areas of sand in the radiographs of ≥75 cm2 and were treated medically monitoring the response with radiographs. The horses were assigned into three groups based on the given treatment: Group 1 was fed psyllium [1 g/kg body weight (BW)] daily at home for a minimum of 10 days (n = 57); Group 2 was treated once with psyllium or magnesium sulfate by nasogastric tubing followed by daily feeding of psyllium (1 g/kg BW) at home for a minimum of 10 days (n = 19), and Group 3 was treated by daily nasogastric tubing for 3–7 days with psyllium and/or magnesium sulfate (1 g of each/kg BW) (n = 170).ResultsThe initial area of sand did not differ significantly between the treatments. Group 3 had significantly less residual sand than Groups 1 and 2, and the proportion of resolved horses was higher in Group 3 than in Groups 1 and 2.ConclusionsDaily nasogastric tubing with psyllium and/or magnesium sulfate for 3–7 days removes large accumulations of sand from the colon in horses more effectively than feeding psyllium for at least 10 days.

Highlights

Ingestion of geosediment may cause weight loss, diarrhea and acute or recurrent colic in horses
The most common reason for abdominal radiography was acute colic, but there were various symptoms in the horses presented to clinics
In Clinic A most of the acute colics were treated with daily nasogastric tubing, whereas in Clinic B acute colics were often treated with one nasogastric tubing and further feeding of psyllium

Summary

Introduction

Ingestion of geosediment (further referred as sand) may cause weight loss, diarrhea and acute or recurrent colic in horses. Our aim was to compare the efficacy of three treatment protocols in clearing colonic sand accumulations in clinical patients. This retrospective clinical study consisted of 1097 horses and ponies, which were radiographed for the presence of colonic sand. Further referred as sand, is a geographically specific problem [1,2,3]. In a radiographic study horses with colic attributed to sand had larger sand accumulations (median height 9 × length 26.5 cm) than asymptomatic control horses (median 0.9 × 8.3 cm) [10]. A significant relationship between acute colic and the size of the sand accumulation has been demonstrated [4]

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