Olympic veterinarians have been hard at work at the Olympic equestrian compound monitoring the health and welfare of the several hundred equine competitors that are either already competing or waiting for their discipline of specialty in the sweltering Athens heat. By today, several colics in Olympic mounts had resolved medically with the veterinarians not having to operate, a successful colic surgery on a local jumper had allowed surgeons to try out the new surgery facility, and a fracture surgery was on the way to the surgical suite. (Click here and here to see the first two waves of veterinary images from Athens.)

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Olympic Veterinary Care by the Numbers 9,000 The number of liters of fluids on-hand if needed for dehydration cases, etc. 40 The total number of veterinarians helping out during cross country on Aug. 17 2 The number of surgery suites in the new equine hospital that were built specifically for the Olympic equestrian events. 8 The number of treatment rooms in the hospital for everything from basic treatments, digital radiography, endoscopy, and shockwave therapy. 1 Laboratory for doing blood work 24 hours a day, if needed.

According to Jack Snyder, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVS, a professor in the Department of Surgical and Radiologic Services at the University of California, Davis, and a director of the Olympic Veterinary Clinic, the team of veterinarians have encountered several colics that have responded well to medical treatment. On Saturday night (Aug. 14), “We were up most of the night watching and treating horses, but they are doing well today,” said Snyder.

The veterinarians had a chance to run through a surgery and test their resources last week. A 10-year-old jumper from the area around Athens (not an Olympic mount, however) suffered a colic. Snyder said, “In Athens there are no places to do surgery and basically all the equine vets are here. However, the Olympic Committee and the rest of the federation decided to bring the horse here to do surgery. Up until this point we would not have been able to do surgery and likely the horse would have died