Feeding Before Surgery Helps Horses

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We sit down with award-winning equine researcher Dr. Charlie Barton to unpack a controlled randomized trial from Colorado State University that challenges the tradition of fasting horses before general anesthesia—and the results are hard to ignore. Horses allowed hay before anesthesia passed manure much sooner post-op, often within three hours, while fasted horses took up to eight. Even better, careful intraoperative monitoring showed no difference in oxygenation or other key anesthesia parameters.

We walk through how the team designed the study and learn how the data point toward a protocol change with real-world benefits: faster GI recovery, shorter hospital stays, lower exposure to hospital pathogens, and calmer patients who aren’t fighting muzzles or playing in water buckets out of boredom. Along the way, Charlie shares surprises in the data, how behavior can skew water measurements, and why aligning practice with species biology can be helpful.

This conversation also opens the curtain on collaborative research in a busy hospital—how a residency project became a catalyst for protocol change and sparked interest from other clinics reevaluating their feeding plans. We close with practical takeaways for veterinarians, clear guidance for horse owners, and a few personal notes about career pivots, coffee before rounds, mountain trails, and the joy of seeing horses munch hay on their way to safer, smoother recoveries.

If you care about equine anesthesia, postoperative colic risk, and evidence-based protocols, you’ll want to hear this. Subscribe, share with your surgery and anesthesia teams, and leave a review to let us know your hospital’s approach—and whether you’re ready to feed before general anesthesia.

JAVMA article: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.24.04.0235

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