Sand Colic in Horses
By: Dr. Lydia Gray | Updated March 21, 2025 by SmartPak Equine
What is Sand Colic in Horses?
Colic is any pain in the abdomen. Sand colic is pain specifically caused by a build-up of sand in the large colon.
Signs of sand colic can be the same as any other kind of colic:
- pawing
- looking at the belly
- lying down and getting up
- rolling
- not eating or drinking
- not passing manure
- sweating
- depression
- elevated heart and respiratory rates
Some horses with sand colic develop diarrhea because the sand rubs the lining of the GI tract, causing inflammation.
Treatment and Prevention
Call a veterinarian right away if a horse shows any of the signs listed above. Most sand colic cases respond to medical treatment alone, which consists of pain relievers, fluids to hydrate the horse, and laxatives such as psyllium to help move the sand out of the GI tract. If the horse does not improve, surgery may be necessary.
How to Prevent Sand Colic in Horses
Anyone keeping a horse on sandy ground needs to take special precautions to help prevent this particular form of colic. Hay should not be fed on the ground but rather on mats or elevated feeders with mats underneath them. Horses should only be allowed to graze pastures with solid plant growth, and they should be turned out after feeding so they are not as hungry.
Psyllium seed husk may be added to the diet to help prevent the build-up of sand in the colon, and appears to work better when combined with pre- and probiotics. Continue learning by reading our article on equine colic and digestive health.
Video on Avoiding Sand Colic
In this Ask the Vet video, Dr. Gray gives some tips for how to help your horse avoid an episode of sand colic.
SARAH: How can sand colic be avoided in the months with less rain for fresh grass?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Hmm, sand colic. This is kind of a two-part question, too. You want to prevent it. And then you also-- if you can't prevent it, you've done everything you can and you're still worried about it, or you know your horse is still getting it, then how do you help manage it, or resolve it?
SARAH: So prevent the sand-eating, but if you can't do that, you also need to manage the sand that has been eaten.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And most people I know do both, it just helps them sleep better at night. So preventing it is obviously, not feeding your horse on the ground. So I know people that use rubber mats, they use hay feeders, they use hay nets. They just don't allow their horse to eat off the ground and consume-- while they're trying to get that last little shnivel of grain or hay or whatever, they don't pick up some dirt or sand at the same time. So that's the first thing.
The second is do what you can to maintain healthy pastures. So avoid overgrazing too many horses in one area. Rotate when the grass gets low enough that they're ripping it out by the roots and then getting some dirt in it. You know, maintain your pastures with watering and fertilizing and all those things. And I know it's different in different parts of the country. So some people are like, "What? My pastures are this tall!" And some are like, "Mine is eaten down, dead." So a little bit of that.
But there are also things you can do if you keep your horse full when they go out to pasture, they might not just attack it. So feed them before they go out and they'll be like, well, I'm going to nibble and graze and walk around, but I'm going to, you know, go for it and gorge myself. That that could help.
And then the second part is, what do you do also at the same time? You feed them psyllium. There's lots of research on psyllium alone, and psyllium with some other things like pre and probiotics. And the thing is--
SARAH: What is psyllium?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, so with the beet pulp, we talked about soluble fiber. So it's another kind of soluble fiber. You can also call it a mucilage. The thing about psyllium is, and I tried to get some, but it really made a mess. So I was thinking of you today.
SARAH: Ha ha, thank you.
DR LYDIA GRAY: When you wet-- when you wet psyllium, and by wetting psyllium, I mean once the horse eats it, because you feed it dry. It turns into a gooey, slimy mess, which is great, because then it gathers up the sand. Collects it as it passes on through and takes some out, that's how it works. But only if you feed it in a relatively large amount once a day for about a week or seven days a month.
If you feed psyllium daily, so you'll see it in some hindgut support supplements. If you feed a small amount daily, it acts more like a prebiotic, which is the food for the microbe organisms that live in the gut. So don't feed psyllium daily if your intention is to gather up sand and move it out. Because the bacteria and the other organisms in the gut will then take it and use it, and then it's not available for the sand. So you want to just use it sporadically in larger amounts to gather, collect up the sand and move it on out.
SARAH: If you're feeding it daily in like, a hindgut support supplement and the bacteria are used to eating it, and then you do want to do one of those purges because you're introducing it in larger quantities, would that be OK?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
SARAH: OK, so you can use the two in conjunction, OK.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Absolutely and there's one more test that I didn't do today that we could have. You can gather up about five or six fecal balls, gather from the middle of the pile and let the ones that are touching the ground, because those are contaminated.
SARAH: Already sandy.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, more contaminated. And then put them in some sort of container, add a quart or so of water, stir, let it sit. And then if there's sand, because it's heavier than the manure, it'll sink to the bottom and then you'll know if your horse has sand or not. It's kind of a crude test, but it's fun to do, except not here with our--
SARAH: Probably not in the studio and probably not at the office, when you have to go in to a meeting right after this.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
SARAH: That's less great. And use a different spoon than you use for your beet pulp. Your horse will thank you.