Are you ready for an equine colic emergency?

Read through to the end, there’s a freebie for you down there 👀

Let’s be real - horses are one of the most poorly designed animals on the planet. 1,000+ pounds on 4 toothpicks!? No ability to throw up!? The inability to feel full while also getting incredibly sick if they eat too much!? Come on, are we getting Punk’d here?!

We love them, but man - it’s amazing they survived and evolved in the world this long.

Just this week I had a sobering reminder of how delicate horses can be… I had a really busy day on Saturday: 4 clients, a business meeting, barn chores, a Memorial Day barbecue, and a graduation party. I was in go-mode as I spastically rushed to the pasture to start on my barn chores mid-afternoon and was shocked to find my mare laying in the dirt, mouth open, grunting, groaning, and taking big labored breaths (they always pick the worst times to get sick, right!?).

I stood there with her for a minute to observe. Maybe she was just realllllllly sleepy? (denial) but finally conceded that something was actually wrong. She isn’t much of a daytime napper anyway and the grunting and labored breathing had me concerned. Colic.

I immediately knew I needed to get to work. Chores and parties would have to wait (#HorseMomLife). I reached into my brain toolbox and established the following plan:

1. Get her up off the ground and walking (if I could).

2. Take her vitals and send them to the vet.

3. Get her some pain relief and hydration.

4. Separate her from her pasture mates to monitor water intake and bowel movements.

I was (thankfully) able to get her up and walking with some coaxing and we took a nice slow walk to the tack room to gather our supplies to take her vitals.

Now, being around horses my whole life, I’ve taken a lot of vitals. But… I never was a great student when it came to memorization and as I rummaged through my tack room to find pain meds, my thermometer, stethescope, etc. I was thinking to myself:

"Okay her temp should be 99-101°, right? ……Wait or is it 98-100°…… shit.”

So I did what any of us would do and turned to my trusty friend Google. Ha! I was right (okay, right-ish), 99.5-101.5°.

So, I went ahead and took her vitals (heart rate, respiration, temperature, capillary refill, hydration and gut sounds), texted my vet, and my sweet sweet vet texted back to let me know she was out of town but still gave me instructions on next steps (thanks, Dr. Jen, you’re the best!) and I proceeded with giving pain meds and an alfalfa cube “soup” to get some hydration in her.

Then, we waited. She ended up pooping within the next few hours (several times) and her vitals returned to normal fairly quickly. It was either a very mild colic or we just caught it early enough to make a quick difference. Either way, she pulled through like a rockstar, thank goodness! (Oh, and I made it to my social engagements 😉).

But, the moral of the story here is: we can never be prepared for our horse’s next equine emergency if we didn’t take the time to prepare ahead of time! We will never know when to expect an emergency colic situation, but we can almost always guarantee it’s not going to happen at a convenient time.

The best thing you can do for your horse is to contact your vet immediately for further instructions and your vet will love you if you can include as much detail as possible in that communication (cough their vitals cough).

This experience reminded me that I can’t always rely on my memory… but logic also tells me that I can’t always rely on my cellphone either. So, I’ve prepared for you (and me) and handy Equine Vital Signs freebie printable for you to print and hang in your tack room, trailer, or barn. Shoot, print 3 and hang one everywhere!

I hope it brings you a little bit of comfort and confidence on those scary days with your horse. Just remember step one is always: take vitals and call your vet!

You got this!