Cube colic
Irwin, D.H.; Howell, D.W.
Journal of the South African Veterinary Association 49(4): 317-319
1978
ISSN/ISBN: 1019-9128 PMID: 752079 Document Number: 133354
Paper described 3 types of "cube colic" in horses, one being acute gastric overload and often fatal, all associated with acidosis and 2 of them causing a characteristic odour of lactic acid through the stomach tube. In trials, 4 or 5 horses were fed with increasing amounts of cubed diet and decreasing hay, or were given hay alone or starved for up to 72 h then given cubes freely, and exercised. Some got cubes soaked in water. They ate up to about 7.5 kg cubes twice daily. Apart from soft faeces with a high proportion of cubes in diet, there was no digestive disorder or cube colic. The horses grazed 155 days between the 2 trials to remove any adaptation to cube diet. The authors examined a stable of 30 horses which earlier had had an outbreak of supposed cube colic. No horse there got over 2.4 kg cubes daily and hay was always available. Worms, and ingestion of sand, seemed to have been the cause of the disorder. At another stable, poor condition and listlessness was attributed to putrid drinking water.