Many horses brought to SPANA centres suffer from colic and need emergency veterinary intervention. Mabrok came to us in great distress – read how our vets stepped in to save the day.
Mabrok was brought to the Marrakech centre in great discomfort. That same morning his owner had looked out in to his yard to see his young male horse writhing in agony on the ground. Mabrok works six days a week pulling carts of vegetables to the market and is usually energetic and curious. But he could barely stand and was clearly desperate for the pain to stop. Mabrok’s owner loaded him in to the back of a truck and drove him to the SPANA centre where he was immediately assessed by Hassan, a SPANA vet. It was immediately evident that the cause of Mabrok’s pain was colic.
Mabrok was kept under observation at the SPANA centre for four days and his owner was given advice on how to supplement his animal’s diet with high fibre foods to help avoid colic in future. At the end of his stay, Mabrok was back to his old energetic self and completely pain-free.
Colic is a very common condition seen by our SPANA vets all over the world. The condition is caused when either food or other matter is compacted in the intestine, obstructing the animal’s natural digestion process. What’s worse, in many cases, colic is caused by animals eating inorganic materials like plastic bags which cannot be broken down in the stomach and in the worst cases must be surgically extracted.
Luckily, in Mabrok’s case, the colic wasn’t as serious and it was most likely caused by the wrong diet. As horses can’t vomit to extract the matter, the SPANA vets inserted a plastic tube down Mabrok’s throat to flush out his stomach – providing immediate relief to the suffering animal.
His owner said:
‘Without SPANA my horse would suffer. I am so grateful to SPANA for their help here.’
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