Equine Emergency Care vs Urgent Care

How do we identify the difference between emergency vs. urgent care? A simple, but not always definitive way to distinguish between the two is by asking, “Will the horse perish if it does not receive immediate medical attention?” If the answer is “yes,” the condition is an emergency. Suppose the answer is “no,” the health condition is then classified as urgent.

Of course, that leads to further questions.

What is immediate? Immediate care needs to transpire in the shortest time possible. And what is the shortest time possible? That answer is a moving target. It depends on logistics, and the current emergency patient load on any given day. Every day is distinct and requires an agile staff.

Some days a horse may receive the most prompt care when an owner can make a drive to bring the patient to the clinic. These days, one of several behind-the-scenes scenarios is probably transpiring. The emergency veterinarian is already seeing an emergency patient at the hospital, managing an emergency at a stable, managing an emergency elsewhere, another doctor could see the patient at the clinic, or the health condition requires medical treatment capabilities only offered at the hospital.

Another reason a horse may need to be trailered in for emergency care is because it is geographically outside of our reasonable service area.

Other days, it may be quicker for the on-call emergency veterinarian to make a farm call. It could be that the veterinarian is in the area wrapping up another call, the patient is close to the clinic, or the doctor has no other emergencies and can presumably manage the condition on the farm.

Either way, at the clinic or on the farm, the emergency patient needs to be seen sooner rather than later. It is the hospital staff’s primary objective to communicate and coordinate with the client, so we can devise an efficient game plan and deliver prompt emergency patient care.

Situations that commonly fall under emergency include; colic, uncontrolled bleeding, fracture, choke, respiratory distress, and seizure.

On the other hand, a case is classified as urgent care when the patient needs same-day treatment but is presumably not in danger of succumbing to injury or illness. Mid-Rivers doctors prefer to treat urgent care patients immediately, but that is not always possible. Still, we strive to see them in no more than a handful of hours.

Urgent care conditions can include a laceration where the bleeding is under control, fever, eye injury, certain lamenesses, neurologic horses, or abscess.

In a strictly urgent care setting, patients would be treated on a first-come, first-serve basis, but Mid-Rivers is an emergency equine hospital, and we must use a system (triage) that prioritizes patient treatment according to the severity of a condition, and how quickly we can be hands-on with the patient to provide optimal care and best serve our equine community.