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Discussion on Atresia ani | |
Author | Message |
Member: Scooter |
Posted on Tuesday, Jun 17, 2003 - 12:23 pm: Hi, Dr. O. A foal at our barn was diagnosed with probable atresia ani. They will be sure today. She is 1 mo. old and we have been manually evacuating her since birth. (her history is long so I won't go into it). I can't find much on it in the internet or here. Could you tell me more about it. Is it curable at all? She sure is a sweet filly. The vet hospital she is at said she should have died the first day. She had a terrible meconium impaction that we evacuated. Thanks for any info you can give!! |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Thursday, Jun 19, 2003 - 8:08 am: I am confused Diane, A definition of the condition is:congenital absence of an anal opening due to the presence of a membranous septum (persistence of the cloacal membrane) or to complete absence of the anal canal. If you had atesia ani (anal atresia), you should not be able to manually evacuate the rectum of stools, since the anus would either be absent or reduced in size to the point that stools (smaller than your hand) do not pass. In the case of a persistant membrane there is a fairly simple procedure to try: break down the membrane. Where there is a abscense of a anus and associated structures, surgery to create one is very involved. DrO |
Member: Scooter |
Posted on Thursday, Jun 19, 2003 - 10:16 pm: Hi, Dr.O the vet hospital called today and confirmed atresia ani. Her rectum is reduced in size and she can not push the feces out it would get stuck at the end and we evacuated with 2 fingers or sometimes it would just fall out if she ran around. Once it was so impacted the vet had to come and use a tip of a spoon to dig it out, that took about an hour and alot of patience. She has actually thrived and grown well. we kept her on metamucil 3x a day to keep stools soft so we could evacuate them. Anyway the vet hospital said there is one surgery they can perform and that is removing the rectum and connecting the small intestine to the anal opening kinda like a colostomy I guess except no bag to catch it. They said her odds of just surviving the surgery are 20% and I can only imagine what the aftercare would be like. Have you ever seen a foal that this has been done to? The owners love this foal and would like to maybe try the surgery, but I wonder if this foals life wouldn't be miserable and prone to colic etc. If they knew of a case that had been successful, they would feel better as this would be a finacial burden. any opinions or experience with this would be appreciated, as a decision has to be made soon. THANKS |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Friday, Jun 20, 2003 - 6:23 am: I see, the atesia is big enough to allow stools to pass on their own if conditions are just right but small enough to become episodically impacted.I have not seen a surgery like this and it sounds like the university is discouraging such a attempt. 20% does not sound encouraging, post surgical colic is common, and considering the importance of the large colon on digestion and nutrition feeding and cleaning up after such a horse would be very involved. DrO |
Member: Scooter |
Posted on Friday, Jun 20, 2003 - 10:24 pm: Thanks Dr.O. They put the filly down. |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Saturday, Jun 21, 2003 - 9:04 am: Sad but probably saved this little guy from a lot of pain and frightening experiences.DrO |