Surgical colic is one of the highest-stakes welfare decisions in equine medicine. Understanding the welfare considerations of surgery, recovery, and palliation guides humane decision-making.
Surgical colic welfare involves simultaneous considerations of acute pain, long-term prognosis, financial reality, and recovery burden. A horse in severe colic is in extreme pain that warrants both emergency treatment and compassionate decision-making about whether surgery is in the individual animal's best interest. The welfare calculus must account for recovery welfare — weeks of box rest, pain management, and gradually progressive exercise — as well as long-term prognosis. Horses that cannot access appropriate post-surgical care may have better welfare outcomes through humane euthanasia than from surgery without recovery support.