Question
Over the years, I’ve heard that changes in weather can be a cause of colic. Do you think this is true?
Answer
Veterinarians and owners frequently associate weather changes with increased frequency of colic, but many studies have been unable to find statistical evidence of increased risk.
Reports from Europe in the early 1980s suggested weather changes were associated with the highest incidence of colic, specifically changes to cold and damp conditions or to warm and wet during advancing weather fronts.1
A later study in Texas found an increased risk of colic associated with weather changes as recalled by owners of horses with colic.2
Cold weather, which affects water intake, has been linked to increased impaction colic. When examined as a direct exposure factor in a Virginia-Maryland study in the late 1990s, weather did not appear to be related to colic.3 When events were investigated further by looking at a 14-day window preceding colic episodes, low humidity and snow marginally increased colic risk.
In a different study in Virginia4, seven cases of colic occurred during a heavy snowstorm over a three-day period. This was unusual as there were only 104 cases of colic in approximately 1,000 horses monitored for the full year. Changes in management due to the snowstorm occurred on the farms with the colicky horses. Horses were kept in stalls, rather than being turned out, and the diet was not altered, even though horses had no turnout or exercise. The focal increase in colic episodes in this study was most likely not directly related to the weather but rather due to management changes caused by the weather.
Further, a significant correlation was not found in measuring temperature variations and barometric variations in the 24 hours preceding a colic crisis.5 No association was found between rainfall or temperature and the incidence of colic.6
Some of the information provided here was extracted from Colic Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Prevention, authored by Nat White, D.V.M., and published in Advances in Equine Nutrition IV.
1Barth, R. 1980. Statistical surveys on colic in horses, with special reference to the influence of meteorological factors among horses seen in a Munich practice. Inaugural Dissertation, Ludwig Maximillians Universitat, Munchen, Vol 144.
2Cohen, N.D., P.G. Gibbs, and A.M. Woods. 1999. Dietary and other management factors associated with colic in horses. J. Amer. Vet. Med. Assoc. 215:53-60.
3Tinker, M.K., N.A.White, P. Lessard, C.D. Thatcher, K.D. Pelzer, B. Davis, and D.K. Carmel. 1997. Prospective study of equine colic risk factors. Equine Vet. J. 29:454-458.
4Tinker, M.K. 1995. A farm-based prospective study for equine colic risk factors and risk-associated events. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg.
5Foreman J.H., and N. White. 1986. Incidence of equine colic in the University of Georgia Ambulatory Practice. Proc. Equine Colic Research Symposium, Athens, Georgia, p. 31.
6 Proudman C.J. 1991. A two-year survey of equine colic in general practice. Equine Vet. J. 24:90-93.
