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HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Colic, Diarrhea, GI Tract » Colic in Horses » Large Colon Displacement, and Twists » |
Discussion on You have to read this to belive it... and I would love input... | |
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Posted on Friday, Jun 1, 2001 - 9:01 pm: I have posted here a few times about our mare, but I have to have input and opinions on what we have just been though. About a month and a half ago, she suffered from a large intestinal torsion, and had to go in for emergency surgery in the middle of the night. When she was released from the hospital, we took her to a nice indoor barn with shavings and a 12x12 stall, so she could not roll around too much. Right before it was time to take her back to our ranch, I noticed she was a little lame. It got to be time that we could begin ground training, and we found her to be quite lame on the lunge line. I took her in and was told she had fragments in her knee that required surgery. Fine, we did that, and she was insured for it. She was not insured for the last colic surgery, because we had the paperwork filled out and NOT sent in. (ouch!) So, she has the knee surgery, and is fine for the first two days, and then becomes painful in the belly... She was still at the hospital. The vet took her off feed, and watched her. We would go to see her everyday, and for 4 or 5 days, she was mostly just fine, only painful on occasion. She got better, then declined and was painful more often. She never passed the two oil treatments she got, and the doctors grew more and more concerned. It came down to the vet in charge of her case being sure she was partially twisted or blocked. He recommenced going back in. We really love this mare, so we told him to do it. (we really trust this vet as well, he is brilliant) So he went in and found an adhesion- basically her stomach lining felt that it had to rescue the damaged tissue from the intestines from the last surgery, and formed an attachment that caused a partial torsion. We opted to also cut and staple her to prevent any more twists, as we have been informed that the more torsions a horse has, the more likely they are to do it again without this procedure.Are we emotionally and financially exhausted? YES! I would love to hear any information, experience, wisdom, knowledge, or history about what the heck has been going on with our mare. |
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Posted on Saturday, Jun 2, 2001 - 2:34 am: Hi Jill,I understand your frustration as I had a mare that colicked chronically until I decided to do surgery also. The fact is, horses have an intestinal tract that is simply predisposed to problems. There are several areas where there is a large piece of intestine that leads into a smaller piece (diameter-wise) which unfortunately leads to much more problems than are typically seen in other species of animals. Adhesions are a possible complication from colic surgery....unfortunately that's what happened with your gal. However, there is something about your post that sort of bothers me, and maybe I just misunderstood it...but did your surgeon recommend lunging your horse at only 1 1/2 months post-op? I have only been familiar with a 3 month minimum recovery time for post-op colics, because of the incision through the muscles of the abdominal wall and the time it takes for that to heal. In fact, our surgeon recommends one month of confinement to a stall, one month in a small paddock, and one month of only handwalking. It just seems like 1 1/2 months is awfully quick to return a horse to full exercise. Aubrey |
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Posted on Saturday, Jun 2, 2001 - 11:21 am: He recommending trotting on the lunge line for a few minutes a day to help use up some extra energy and stop her from trotting while hand walking, which she was doing. No loping (or cantering) and no turn out.We have spent 3 times the amount we paid for this horse on surgery, and we paid more then you might guess for a quarter horse. I guess I am hoping to hear success stories and possibly stats on full recovery and likelihood of problems from adhesions being a problem even after cutting a stapling. |
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Posted on Saturday, Jun 2, 2001 - 11:45 am: Also, with three surgerys in a month and a half period, is she at a much greater risk for complications in her recovery? Both colic surgeries were major- the first taking 4 hours and the second 6. Her knee was no big deal- it was just frustrating because she managed to do it in a 12x12 stall with full walls. She has a habit of popping up her front feet when you even think about asking her to pick them up- the fracture was on the inside, I think she did it that way. |
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Posted on Sunday, Jun 3, 2001 - 9:16 am: Hello Jill,Many of your questions are answered in,Equine Diseases: Colic and GI Diseases: Colic in Horses: Large Colon Torsion, Displacement, and Cecal Intusseption, particularly prognosis numbers on multiple surgeries. DrO |
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Posted on Sunday, Jun 10, 2001 - 8:04 pm: Our horse also had surgery for twisted gut - but no adhesions after. Our surgeon recommended 2 months stall with only handwalking and then 1 month small paddock. However, I have heard of other horses who even before the 100 days was up being back on the show circuit. Our girl healed up really well and has not had any more episodes - and we watch her like a hawk. Scary stuff and I am quite aware of your emotional and $$ turmoil. |
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