01/04/2026
***Colic is an emergency***
If your horse is not eating, not drinking, not pooping, acting uncomfortable …. Those are all signs of potential colic and are an emergency. Today. Not wait and see if they are better tomorrow. If it is below zero outside, then it is even more of an emergency. Today. Not when you get off work in the evening. Today. Banamine may be helpful temporarily and obscure these signs. Temporarily. If the horse relapses after the Banamine wears off it is likely to be far worse of a situation. Especially if the horse is an older horse.
Banamine I routinely dispense to regular clients for the purpose of buying time in emergencies until I can get to see the horse or the owner can bring the horse to me. It is not intended to cure your situation. It is intended to buy a brief amount of time. Loaning your prescription medication without these parameters to work with with a regular veterinarian is a recipe for disaster. Recently, we have had multiple animals who have died because they did not have follow up medical attention after the Banamine that they had borrowed from their sister‘s cousin’s neighbor’s friend. It is very wonderful that people are helpful, but it is very terrible when that helps delay the necessary care that the horse needs.
It is a very difficult subject to discuss. I am not sure what the right answer is besides all horse owners need to have a regular veterinarian and arrangements for emergencies. Especially horses and their owners that live in Anchorage or in far out places. Horses in Anchorage have literally hundreds of trucks and trailers that can bring them to the valley for care. Last year, someone was nice enough to set up a list of people on the Alaska equestrian page files that were willing to haul horses in emergencies in the winter for people that did not have a horse trailer available. And sometimes I can put out a request for help.
If you have a horse trailer. Keep it in decent repair. Fix the trailer door that is broken. Don’t park it behind the boat that you can’t move until next year. Keep the registration up-to-date. Keep the lights working. Keep the floor in good shape. Keep the horse trained to load in it or get a different one that the horse will get into. Keep the hitch that fits the trailer available in the truck that can pull it. Most horse trailers require a 2 5/16 inch hitch. If you have a lock on your hitch, keep the key on your keychain. Keep the lock lubricated and covered so it doesn’t rust. Keep the keychain with the truck and the trailer, not with your other half that is gone on the slope with the keys. Keep the tires in good shape and not flat. Keep the hitch on a block so you can hook up the trailer. Tell the snowplow guy not to plow in your trailer. Keep a bucket of sand in the trailer in case you have a steep driveway. Cover the slats that are open on the side with plywood so you can haul in the winter. Don’t leave the trailer full of the neighbor’s furniture, the chickens, or hay such that you can’t use it. Or bring the chickens with you. I like chickens too.
It is extremely rare for a horse to injure itself on a ride to the Vet. And even if it does, generally the situation was life threatening. They will be in pain but on the way to care with a hoof abscess or a colic. Do not delay care if at all possible. If it has a broken leg … then maybe not. But 99% of cases are fine being hauled. Talk to your Veterinarian. It is extremely rare they are not available or have a back up plan set up for you.
When I am able to, I am also set up to be mobile and visit many of these cases throughout the winter. However, there are times when I already have cases in the clinic or cases on the way into the clinic, or maybe one of my kids is sick such that I am not able to leave. Currently today, there are horses hauling in from as far away as Tok and Fairbanks, as there is not a veterinarian in those areas that is taking emergencies over this weekend. But I’m sure I could figure it out to fit in between those cases.
Choose a veterinarian that will see emergencies. This is crucial. If it says on their website that they do not see emergencies, who are not available on the weekend, then choose again. It is extremely difficult and stressful to take a call from an owner that I do not know and I’ve never been to their farm. For a number of reasons, it often does not go well. I need to have met them before the emergency if at all possible. I need to understand how to reach you. I need to know what your horse eats and where it lives, how old it is and what its most recent maintenance has been. I need to know what its health conditions are. I need to know what the code is to your gate and where you live. I need your name and your address and your phone number and your email address. And what your financial abilities and preferences are. Financial ability will determine what treatments we do for your horse. Is your horse insured? All of these things take literally half an hour to an hour to extract and there is no time for that in an emergency.
What is the take home message from this post? Let’s start with having an emergency plan. Have a truck and trailer functionally available if you need it. It is almost to the point that if you don’t have a truck and trailer situation set up, then you probably should not have a horse. If you use Banamine, you absolutely must have a call into your regular veterinarian immediately. If you have borrowed these medications, then you need to replace it for the person you borrowed it from anyway. If you loan out these meds, then these instructions need to go with the medications.
You must have a regular veterinarian established. This does not mean your dog veterinarian that does not see emergencies and tries to give you a dose of meds to help you out. This does not mean your friend down the street. Colic is a serious emergency that needs serious care. It has a cause in every case and we need to figure out what that is so that your horse does not die and so it does not happen again. Fully 50% of my annual visits I believe I am able to ward off an emergency for that year. It is very worthwhile to have that annual visit. It is worthwhile to establish care with a regular veterinarian. I am available year-round to do this. I travel to Anchorage and to Pt McKenzie every week to every other week in general. There are other veterinarians in the area that do the same. Get your Horse on the schedule.
We are Alaskan’s. Have a plan. A functional plan. Especially if your horse is new to the area. Especially if you are new to the area. We are here to help. But we can’t help those that won’t help themselves. If we have already seen you for an emergency in the past and we figure out that you were someone who is not willing to help yourself, then it is very difficult to even take an emergency call for you in the future. Fully 100% of disaster visits are emergencies for people that we have never met before and we are just trying to help them out.
Stay warm. And feed your horse lots of hay.
