Colic

Colic assessment, intensive care and surgery

Signs of colic are most commonly caused by problems with the intestines and most frequently involve a form of obstruction. A successful outcome will depend on early diagnosis, the type of colic and rapid referral to the hospital. Our specialist surgeons carry out around 150 colic surgeries per annum, and we additionally see many more non-surgical ‘medical colics.’

Our medicine and surgical teams are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. With access to high quality ultrasound imaging, specialist medical expertise and our in-house diagnostic laboratory, management decisions can often be established quickly.

It is important that all horses exhibiting signs of abdominal pain should be examined by a veterinary surgeon as a matter of urgency to allow a prompt diagnosis as some patients can deteriorate rapidly. While the majority of colic cases can be treated with pain relief and other medication, some will require referral for more intensive treatment or emergency surgery.

Surgery will need to be performed under general anaesthesia and patients will enter our intensive care facility once they have recovered, where they will be given intravenous fluids and a range of drugs depending on the cause of the colic and the surgery undertaken. Our hospital has 24 intesive hour care provided by our teams of specialists, interns, nurses and technicians.

Laparoscopic (‘keyhole’) investigation of the abdomen can be carried out using local anaesthesia and sedation. This can be useful for investigation of horses that suffer chronic and recurrent bouts of colic, as it allows inspection of a significant part of the abdomen without the need for a midline incision and full ‘colic surgery’ under general anaesthesia.