Stabilization of the Critically Ill Foal in the Field

Attendance to critically ill foals is a common occurrence for any equine field practitioner. It is frequently a challenging situation, where immediate assessment of the specific requirements of the foal needs to be made, an emergency treatment plan put into place and finally deciding if the foal should be referred for further care.
A critically ill patient is defined as a patient in whom death is possible or imminent. Imminent death is frequently associated with patients that have cardiopulmonary arrest which is a sudden cessation of spontaneous and effective respiration and heartbeat. This occurs most commonly in newborn foals but can be seen in older foals associated with systemic disease, which frequently results in cardiac or respiratory insufficiency leading to hypoxic acidemia, which can further lead to respiratory arrest with resultant bradycardia and eventually asystole. […]