can grazing on frost bring on colic in horses?

Q: Is there any danger in horses grazing frosted pastures in the fall? If so, how long would you wait?

A: Some deciduous leaves can be deadly after a frost or after they have wilted due to broken branches, fall leaf shed or storm damage. Leaves of greatest concern for horses are wilted maple and prunus species, including chokecherry, ornamental almond, and cherry trees. Horse owners should identify all such seasonally toxic trees on the property, and keep horses from their fallen or frost damaged leaves for at least 30 days. Even though these leaves are not commonly eaten, horses can accidentally ingest them, especially if hungry or bored.

Cyanide toxicity can also be an issue after frost. There are no reports of toxicity of horses grazing frost damaged grass, alfalfa, or clover. However, frost damaged pasture forages can have higher concentrations of sugars, leading to an increase in potential for founder and colic. To reduce the chance of adverse health effects, it is recommend that horse owners wait up to a week before turning horses back onto a pasture after a killing frost.

By Krishona Martinson, PhD, University of Minnesota

I don't think so, as long as she is drinking lots of water. Colic can be in many forms, we almost lost our old boy a few weeks ago because of a blocked colon. Our vet gave the following advice for our 37 year old male.

1. Drink lots of water, if water is cold, they can be bothered by that and drink less, we now provide a bucket of warm water daily.

2. Add corn oil to the pellet/oat mixture to give a bit of extra fat for winter, and aid in digestion.

3. Let him walk around, inactivity will prevent the bowels from moving.

4. Give additional roughage, apples, carrots to help.

I'd let her out, I believe that causing them stress of any sort unnecessarily is never a good thing. If she is going stir crazy, a nice roll will be just the thing to help. :)