The correlation of weather changes with the incidence of colic in horses

Abstract

Reasons for performing the study: The connection between colics and weather is not proven yet and not much studies exist so far. To know about the responsibility of weather in this matter would help horse owners and veterinarians to be prepared better, and to have a better chance to catch the colic early enough. Objectives: Determination of Parameters which are in connection with the appearance of colic symptoms in horses. Hypothesis: Horses are responding to some weather situations with colic, like humans do with headache and other health issues. Methods: 285 Colic horses, out of 1089 cases, of the Szent Istvan University large animal clinic in Üllö of the year 2007/2008 were compared with the weather parameters of that years. All this datas will be statistically evaluated by exploratory analysis to find out if there is any connection between the weather and colic in horses. Weather-parameters chosen were, Temperature, air pressure, synoptic wind and the different fronts. Each of this parameters and there influence were looked at the day of the colic and 24h as 48h before the colic, to find parallelisms. Results: The most significant effects on horses showed the air pressure and temperature in this study. The barometric pressure range shows significant importance 2 days before (Nagy; 2012). Air pressure on the same day and the day before the appearance of colic seems to play an important role. If the air pressure increases, the risk for colic rises as well about 2-3 percent. Changes of air pressure are only relevant one or two days before, and will not lead to colic on the same day. Temperature showed high effectiveness at cold days. As well as temperature changes, it is only from importance one or two days in advance. But as significant it was, temperature can not be taken for sure in this study. Different fronts only seem to play a role in that matter one or two days before, also not on the same day. Mixed fronts are here the least responsible ones (Abonyi-Toth; 2012). Conclusion: The results of this survey brought results we expected. The goodness of the first model showed us, that the size of the study was a little bit to small to get a really accurate result. However the connection between the weather parameters, mentioned before, and the appearance of colic in horses can not be denied. But more surveys are definitely needed in this field.