So, I was paging through the local equine rag, and there is an ad for this stuff. Looked at the website, more because I thought “who would use something like this instead of calling the Vet?” Many years ago, Phyllis Lose VMD had an elixir that she sold and also swore by, and it seemed to work, but she was also three minutes away when I tried it. No clue as to what was in it, but at least it was recommended by my Vet. Has anyone heard anything about this? It just seems so…shady?
Well aware of ECR, it has been around for decades. There is also another similar product from a different maker with the same claims.
There is no way to prove or disprove that it works. If you dose a colicky horse and the symptoms then resolve, was that going to happen anyway? Getting over it is the usual outcome of an equine tummyache. If the horse gets sicker, then the dose wasn’t given until the symptoms had progressed too far anyway.
In all honesty ECR is no better or worse than the supplements that many of us feed. None are truly scientifically proven – but most things we use in our daily lives aren’t. We either think we have good evidence of their efficacy or else we are just trusting that they are doing what is claimed that they do.
There is no regulation on natural/homeopathic ingestibles. For horses or humans.
There is also no way to prove or disprove the testimonials that are used to market the product. And this is just as true of many human ‘natural’ products as well, including a lot of OTC products sold in national drugstore chains.
Years ago I had a barnmate who pressed me to use ECR on an uncomfortable horse and I did, because I had seen her use it on her horses with no ill effect. Horse was quickly fine. Thanks to the ECR or his own resilience? Dunno.
Some people keep ECR or the other similar product on hand to use for an uncomfortable horse, in hopes that the horse is soothed and a more serious issue is avoided. It’s a personal choice.
My guess was “well it’s probably flavored oil” and… https://equinecolicreliefusa.com/what_it_does.asp
not quite, it’s glycerine. But peppermint flavored, with some other things.
So if you’ve got one with a mild colic, it doesn’t look like anything in there is going to cause harm, and it might help, who knows. As @OverandOnward said, no worse than the expensive pellets and powders and pastes many people feed. 
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“Previous studies on ionic solutions established them as acids, bases and salts that exist suspended in fluids. In horses when the longitudinal and circular muscle layers lining the bowels become dehydrated, these solutions die and destabilize conductive energy within the cells.”
Umm, ionic solutions are, by definition, those formed by dissolving substances which ionize in water.
Solutions are not alive, so they cannot die.
“Motility (movement) then slows or goes into a state of stasis, ingesta impacts and a bout of constipation (colic) clinically begins. 90%+/- of horses in this condition that die, after being treated by a vet, upon a postmortem exam, had a simple ingesta impaction that formed within the Pelvic Flexure.”
I want to see studies with real numbers to back this up.
"The following conclusions were reached on each part, its process and effect within the body, using the written records and visual observations of 8 observers during 31 bouts of colic.
Part 1 and its process in the formula was acquired from the research notes of the Doctor of Marine Biology who developed it. He concluded as it was quickly absorbed by samples of hard dead organic or inorganic tissue, food, grass, dirt, etc. it reduced them to a pudding consistency causing no further degradation of each sample as the process within it ended."
This is gobbledegook.
“Part 2 and its process, drew fluid into the dehydrated bowels. Dehydration halted Motility before or after each impaction formed and destroyed ionic solutions. As the process ended, hydrated bowels were ready for replacement solutions, gums turned pink, but no movement was noted until the process in Part 3 began.”
One can draw fluid into the lumen of the GI tract with Epsom salt, amongst other things.
And how does an impaction “destroy ionic solutions” aside from by simply absorbing the water?
“The Process in Part 3 restored necessary ionic solutions to regain Motility. This was noted by bowel sounds, returning or growing stronger within an average of 10-30 minutes. Bowel activity continued to increase every 20-40 minutes, indicating this was the final process needed to end the bout as the softened impaction, gas and other bowel contents passed from the anus.”
"The Process in Part 4, as the body integrated with it, throughout a bout, continued to dissipate and pass excess methane gas and relieve distention and pressure as visually noted by a reduction in a subjects distended abdomen. As the gorged bowel distend outward, crushing of the blood supply to adjoining organs, the dying nerve endings within these organs will increase abdominal pain levels. We instructed observers how to measure this factor so it could be added into our final evaluation by setting it on a scale of 1 for mild discomfort to 10 exhibiting violent behavior with mutilation. Visually what occurred in impaction subjects as distended abdomens returned to a normal state, pain subsided and various amounts of gas were passed even after a bout ended.
This was not evident in subjects with gas colic who passed gas, returned to good health the 1-2 hours latter passed normal manure indicating the bout was not impaction based.
During the 31 bouts, bowel motility returned to normal within 10-30 minutes, bouts ended within 52-200 minutes and each horse quickly returned to good health. The urine and blood samples tested clean of drugs in each subject and 6 subjects had a bout of impaction colic before a show or race the competed in after their bout ended!"
This crap is a prime example of selling nonsense to a scientifically illiterate public.
An impaction colic should be treated with copious amounts of water and IV fluids as needed.
Neither water, fluids, nor this nostrum will “cure” a displacement, strangulation, or enteritis.
Better to spend the $85 for 4 ounces of this stuff (!)
on a visit from the DVM.
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