LATE on Friday evening, the phone jumped into life with a frantic call. It was a pony with colic and could I come out to see it straight away? The pony was a middle-aged gelding who was loved to bits by his doting owner. She had thought he was a little bit lethargic earlier in the week but now he was inclined to go down and was looking quite out of sorts for himself.

Bruno looked a bit quiet when I arrived and a thorough clinical examination did not shed much light on the situation. Apart from being a bit stiff and having some dry faeces in his bowel, it was hard to pinpoint any real cause of colic.