Admission clinicopathological data, length of stay, cost and mortality in an equine neonatal intensive care unit

Abstract

Veterinary internists need to prognosticate patients quickly and accurately in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This may depend on laboratory data collected on admission, the cost of hospitalisation, length of stay (LOS) and mortality rate experienced in the NICU. Therefore,we conducted a retrospective study of 62 equine neonates admitted to aNICU of a private equine referral hospital to determine the prognostic value of venous clinicopathological data collected on admission before therapy, the cost of hospitalisation, LOS and mortality rate.