Colic: 'A real pain in the gut'

Nat A. White II, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, will present the Frank J. Milne State-of-the-Art lecture at the American Association of Equine Practitioners 52nd Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas, on Dec. 4. Dr. White's lecture, "Equine Colic: A Real Pain in the Gut," will highlight the biology of equine colic and advances in its diagnosis and treatment. The lecture is sponsored by AAEP Educational Partner Platinum Performance and presented by the AAEP Foundation, Inc.

White received his doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Cornell University in 1971. After completing an internship and residency in surgery at the University of California-Davis, he spent a year in practice before graduating with a master's of science degree in pathology at Kansas State University in 1976. White served on the faculties of Kansas State University, the University of Georgia and Virginia Tech. He was the Theodora Ayer Randolph Professor of Surgery as an eminent scholar at Virginia Tech from 1987 to 2003. Currently, he is the Jean Ellen Shehan Professor and director of the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland.

White authored or co-authored 148 journal articles and 35 book chapters, published 40 abstracts, and is the editor and author of The Equine Acute Abdomen, Current Practice of Surgery, Current Techniques in Equine Surgery and Lameness and the Handbook of Equine Colic. He has lectured at more than 150 national and international veterinary meetings and at more than 65 horse owner meetings.

After attaining diplomate status in the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS), White served as president of ACVS and of the ACVS Research and Education Foundation. He is a past AAEP director at large, chaired the AAEP Student Relations Committee, and is the current chair of the AAEP Foundation Advisory Committee.

Dr. White received the Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence in 1999, the AAEP Distinguished Service award in 2004, and the 2005 Distinguished Virginia Veterinarian Award from the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association. As one of the founders of the Bolshoi Colic Research program at the University of Georgia, he helped start and continues to help organize the Equine Colic Research Symposium with the 8th Symposium in the UK's Liverpool in 2008. He recently organized the Equine Research Summit as part of the AAEP's effort to highlight the need for equine research. His clinical and research interests include pathophysiology of ischemia-reperfusion, epidemiology of colic, abdominal and orthopedic surgery and treatment of orthopedic diseases.