LAUSR

Colic remains a key health concern for horse owners and is one of the most common causes of death in managed horse populations.1 Intensive treatment for colic is required in 24 per cent of horses with colic seen in a primary care setting in the UK, and approximately half of these horses will undergo surgery.2 Since the 1970s, when colic surgery started to become more commonplace, advances in anaesthetic and surgical techniques, development of new pharmacological agents and improved postoperative care have led to significant increases in survival rates and reductions in postoperative morbidities.3 Colic surgery is now commonly performed in many equine referral hospitals and, for horses that stand following colic surgery, 74 to 85 per cent will survive to hospital discharge. Of these surviving horses, 63 to 85 per cent will return to their previous level of athletic performance.4 It can be difficult for first-opinion veterinary surgeons and horse owners to make decisions about the referral of a colic case and to estimate the likely costs of treatment – taking into account whether the horse is insured for treatment of colic. One of the challenges is that ‘colic’ is not a single disease but is a clinical sign of any one of 80 different conditions that can have different aetiologies and may or may not be treatable medically or surgically. Therefore, the likely treatment options, costs and prognosis can be difficult to predict in a first-opinion, non-hospital setting. Horse owners’ decision making regarding colic is also complex,5 and the …