Equine Emergencies: 24/7 On-Call Care
When seconds matter, Anoka Equine Veterinary Services is here for you, day and night. Our 24-hour emergency team delivers progressive equine medicine with the integrity, excellence, and teamwork you expect—so you and your horse aren’t facing a crisis alone.
How Our Emergency Service Works
- 24/7/365 coverage: Call any time. A trained team member will triage your case and dispatch help.
- Haul-in or on-farm response: Based on your situation, we may advise you to haul in to our clinic or we will come to you on an on-call basis.
- Service area: We provide ambulatory emergency care within a 30-mile radius of our clinic. Please call to confirm your location and the safest plan.
- Equine surgeon on call: We have a surgeon on call 24/7 for emergency cases requiring advanced procedures.
Always call before trailering. We’ll advise you on the safest option for your horse and prepare our team for immediate care upon arrival.
Common Emergencies
& When to Call
If you’re unsure whether it’s an emergency, call—sooner is better. Our team can help you determine if your horse needs urgent care. We frequently treat several types of emergencies:
- Colic: restlessness, pawing, rolling, reduced manure, lack of appetite
- Lacerations: deep cuts especially near joints, tendon sheaths, or the eye
- Broken bones or suspected fractures
- Injured feet or leg issues: falling, tripping, punctures, acute swelling
- Lameness: sudden or severe
- Foals in distress: weakness, failure to nurse, diarrhea, fever, abnormal breathing or posture
What You Can Do in the Event of an Emergency
- Ensure safety first. Keep the horse calm and in a safe area. Remove hazards and limit movement.
- Protect wounds. Apply a clean, dry bandage with gentle pressure if bleeding; avoid ointments until evaluated.
- Monitor vital signs if safe to do so (temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate) and note changes.
- Call our team to identify any care you can administer yourself. Depending on your horse’s condition, we may advise withholding medication, as treatments can obscure signs we need to evaluate. In some cases, your veterinarian may recommend oral medications or an intramuscular (IM) injection.
- Prepare for transport, if advised.
Haul-In Capabilities & Hospitalization
Many emergencies benefit from immediate diagnostics and advanced care at our facility. To understand what we can do in-house, see our Internal Medicine & Hospitalization page for details on imaging, intensive care, and continuous monitoring.
If your gut says “something isn’t right,” call us. Early intervention often prevents complications and speeds recovery.