TDK conference 2018

The term colic describes a symptom that refers to abdominal pain. Disorders leading to colic signs are common in horses and in several cases these disorders could be fatal. Since these colic events are often detected too late, many horses are in lack of timely medical help. Any delay in detection and treatment of such an event can end up in a more severe intestinal damage, worse prognosis, increased costs of treatment and horses spend more time with suffering. One of the best possible ways to increase survival rates and reach better prognosis is the twenty-four-hour surveillance of animals. Nowadays, in stables and clinics this is managed by human resources with periodic checking, however, it is an expensive, subjective and impractical solution, and colic events may occur between checking periods, so personnel often miss the chance to detect the event early. Therefore, monitoring devices have both stable management and clinical relevance. The idea of these tools are based on the operational basis of some foaling monitor/alarm systems, however, in many ways, these foaling monitors are unsuitable for detecting colic events. There are some similarities between the motion pattern of a foaling mare and a colicing horse, but during a colic event the horse can show more diverse, complex motion patterns and sometimes much lower motion activity than during foaling. The aim of my study was to decide whether different colic motion patterns can be reliably detected, by using a MPU6050 containing device produced by Steed company. I recorded the typical movements of acute colic (pawing at the ground with a forelimb; reaching around with the head to the flank; rolling, lying down, getting up and down kicking at the belly, and Flehmen reaction) with sensor technology while simultaneously taking video recordings. I triggered these movements on 15 clinically healthy horses (aged 3-20 years), while the device was glued to the crownpiece of the halter of the horse on the poll area. Results of subjective and statistical data analysis supported the theory that this device is suitable for detecting typical colic movements. Based on this study an algorithm can be designed for a reliable colic detecting device.