Examination of horses with acute colic: clinical and legal aspects

The article provides hands-on advice and scientific background information regarding the management of the equine acute colic patient. It summarizes essential information on the patient's history, clinical examination, and legal aspects. The scope of the history is based on the clinical appearance of the patient. In horses with violent and barely controllable signs of pain, it is limited to colic-associated information such as onset, course and severity of colic signs, and the last time of defecation, as well as prior therapeutic intervention. In these patients, the clinical examination is focussed primarily on the assessment of cardiovascular parameters, rectal temperature, and the patient's behaviour. The nasogastric intubation is an essential part of the examination of a horse with colic to prevent a gastric rupture due to gastric distension. Transrectal palpation is equally important and should always be performed unless there are important reasons to object to this procedure. In most cases, a thorough patient history and clinical examination of an acute colic patient allows the examining veterinarian to make a tentative diagnosis and a prognostic evaluation. This helps with the decision to start a conservative or a surgical therapy. Due to the existing obligatory documentation requirement and the duty to inform patient owners, it is of utmost importance to promptly document one's findings, therapeutic measures, consultations, and information of the patient owner in written form. This supports further therapy and it can also be of relevance in a potentially resulting lawsuit.