A severely colicking mare struggled for life in the emergency room in our last installment from the Eclipse Press book Equine ER by Leslie Guttman. Today, we find out whether her owner decided to send her to surgery. 

The owner was having trouble comprehending that she had to make a decision fairly quickly that she could not undo. It was hard to take it all in.

“Sometimes the least expensive thing is to go to surgery,” Dr. Rolf Embertson said. “If we wait, then put her through all that pain, and then decide, the bill is even higher.”

At the end of another hour, Embertson needed to know how to proceed. The horse wasn’t improving, her pain increasing. Surgery now looked like the best option to save her