About 90% of equine colics respond to on-farm treatment. Veterinarians should develop an efficient field colic exam they are comfortable performing, which enables them to move to indicated treatment quickly. | Photo: iStock

When horses colic, time is not on your side. Minutes matter, and often both veterinarian and owner must make quick decisions—the veterinarian about treatment and the owner about the financial risk and reward of paying for those treatments. Moving from field management to referral hospital, and potentially surgery, can improve a horse’s chance of surviving but isn’t an option for all owners.

Fortunately, up to 90% of horses respond to on-farm treatment for colic, said Anthony Blikslager, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVS, who heads the clinical sciences department and is a professor of equine surgery and gastroenterology at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Blikslager shared his decision tree for managing colicking horses in the field during the 2020 American Association of Equine Practitioners’ Convention, held virtually.

“I want you to think about those horses that may need more advanced care and to offer that to owners earlier and, therefore, get those horses to a referral center sooner in case more advanced techniques such as surgery are needed,” Blikslager said