colic surgery - how many have had success stories

[minimule]

I have a colic success here. She was our first mini foal. She was a month less than 2 yrs old when she did it. She never really showed any distress, just uncomfortable and was swelling up like a balloon. We took her to the vets for observation. I went to check on her and noticed she was having trouble breathing. I told him, I think it's time to do surgery. I assisted (really neat experience). We found 2 blockages. Both were in the intestine where the large colon goes to the small colon (where the poop balls are formed). The first was mostly sand, about 1" x 1" x 1/2" and when he pulled it out it sank to the bottom of the bucket of water we were putting everything in. The second was almost 3 times the size of the first and a perfect square. We got her sewed up and let her wake up. She woke up very angry! She stayed at the vets for 5 days before she could come home. She had LOTS of attitude (since she was born) and the vet thinks that made a big difference. He wasn't real sure about if she would survive or not. I was also there with her for 3-4 hours a day just loving on her and talking to her. He thinks that made a difference too because she knew me and was comfortable with me. It made the recovery a little less stressful.

She is now 5 and does very well on her diet of Safe Choice and grass hay. She has given us a scare a couple of times since the surgery but has always passed the lump with just some mineral oil and gatorade/water.

We did loose her 3/4 sister at 2 for the same exact thing. That's why Savannah will live here forever and will never be breed. We're thinking that there was something in the sire's bloodline that caused the "defect" where things get hung up.

I hope your little girl pulls through. Don't give up on her.

 

[Magic]

Just got a call from Purdue - my mare is doing a little better and passed good manure last night.  We are hoping yesterday was just a little bump in the road and she is on the road to recovery.
I am hopeful that things will continue to improve.....

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Keep your chin up!!! I'm glad to hear that she is doing better. It takes time.

I have a colic success story too-- I had a weanling filly who was about 6 months old colic, and it turned out that she had been EATING tons of sand.

I feed on rubber mats and/or feeders, but she took it on herself to gorge on sand like it was part of her diet, only horse I've ever had that has done that. Anyway, after the vets emptied her of all that sand, she recovered nicely. I had to be careful to keep her where she couldn't get to sand, which made it tough, but anyway, she is now a six year old mare who has been shown and has her Halter Hall of Fame, and she has given birth to a beautiful foal too.

Hang in there, and good luck with your mare, sending prayers for her full recovery!

 

[Lisa Strass]

Glad to hear your mare is doing a little better.

I had a 10 month old filly colic the end of January this year. My local vet came out and tubed her, and put an IV in her. We waited through the night, but nothing passed, so I loaded her up and took her to Oklahoma State University. I was very lucky to live only about 45 min from the facility.

OSU ultrasounded her and found that she was FULL of gas and recommended immediate surgery since the gas in her intestines was actually starting to displace some of her organs. I had hesitations about this because abdominal surgery is very hard on horses, but OSU told me surgery was really her only chance. I decided to go ahead with the surgery and found that OSU had a very neat procedure.... Once they made the incision in her abdomen, they injected some sort of fluid directly into the impaction, and then massaged the impaction until it broke up.... NO incision in the intestine itself! My filly stayed at OSU for about two weeks before she came home.

The theoretical cause of this impaction were her teeth even though she was less than a year old. Nonetheless, she had a good floating and was put back on her normal diet (alfalfa hay, grass hay, and grain) before she came home. Once she came home she had to stay in a stall for 4 weeks and then a small run for another 4 weeks. Now she's treated just like all the other horses and you'd never know she had colic surgery 8 months ago.

I think OSU did a great job and couldn't be happier with the care she received while she was there.

 

[Debby - LB]

[SIZE=14pt]Thanks for all the info. and the stories to compare symptoms sure help. Pam I sincerely hope your Mare does good today and recovers nicely.[/SIZE]

My Chickadee was 7 weeks old when she had to go to UGA for her surgery. Here is a photo of her on June 20th, a couple days after she came home (she was wanting back in with the others real bad and seemed very glad to be home)

I was told no hay till maybe November but I just don't know that I'll give it to her then. Ordinarilly she does excellent but Chick hates it when it rains and runs for the shelter and won't leave it. So her two problems since she came home from her surgery have been related to that. One is although there is water under there she does not go out in the rain where her mama is to nurse and two, no grass to eat so she roots around and I've caught her eating dirt and tiny pieces of old hay she digs up. It is impossible for me to get every piece out after years and years of hay being under there although when I got done cleaning it all out you could not see any. Both times have been a day or two after heavy rain. This last time two days after Katrina rolled through here. So we go the route of Banamine, warm water, metamucil, enemas and mineral oil, she goes from writhing in pain, to up and just fine in the blink of an eye when it's over with. This last time I was giving her till 3:30 and then I was having her put down. She was in terrible pain then it eased up and I figured over with, 1 1/2 hours later she was down again, after another hour she was up eating grass at 10 miniutes to 3. And has been fine again since. This is a photo I took for my grandkids the next day (this past Friday)

They'll be 5 months old on the 11th. I watch her like a hawk every day for any little change and dread it when the weathers bad. All I know to do at this point is up the sand clear or metamucil and put a little salt on her food to force her to drink more water. I hate to have to muzzle her at those times, that it would be hard to do let alone that it would stress her. I really need to figure out a way to cover the dirt in that shelter.

 

[chandab]

My experience with colic was 14 years old and the horse was a 2-year old AQHA mare (due to the length of time since this happened, please excuse the fuzzy memory). I was gone the first day she showed signs of colic, the barn owner called my vet, he tubed her and she seemed fine. The next day she showed signs of colic again, the vet was called out, she was tubed again; I was told that if she wasn't better by that evening to haul her to the clinic. She was hauled to the clinic; they observed her overnight and called in the morning. I was told that as it stood at the time, they would have to lay her down, open her abdomen and she would maybe have a 30% chance of recovery. They hadn't yet found exactly where the obstruction was (she still hadn't passed any mineral oil from the tubing, so they knew she had an obstruction), so wanted to watch her a little longer, they were giving supportive care; they were also giving me the time to determine if I could go ahead with surgery. They called the next morning, they finally found the obstruction and would be able to go in through her flank, which upped her recovery likelihood to over 60% and also happened to reduce the cost. I went ahead with the surgery, she was at the clinic for 5 days. She was able to return to the boarding facility on stall rest for a month. Since she stocks-up if stalled for too long, per the vet she was hand-walked twice a day. (I don't recall all the details of her after-care due to the length of time since it occurred). BTW- this was while I was in college and occurred just before Christmas vacation, as I lived in the dorm I had to leave for the holiday. I went home for Christmas, the BO took over her care for the time while I was gone, including her hand-walking and penicillin shots (this was a total self-care facility, they owner did nothing but hay and water the horses). She made a total recovery. She had her first foal as an 8 year old and her second as a 14 year old, both with no complications. I sold her after weaning her colt two years ago and she is now proudly owned by a young girl that loves her to death.

Even though I had a good outcome, I don't know if I could or would go through this again. The main reason being, I no longer live within driving distance of a vet that could or would perform colic surgery.

Edited to add: They didn't have to cut her intestines... Once, they were in her abdomen, they manually massaged her intestines to break up the impaction. She was put on the necessary meds to keep her intestinal smooth muscles moving normally (they often react to handling and will quit contracting like they should to move food along). It took her over 24 hours after the surgery to pass manure. I found out from the vet assistant who cleaned her stall the next morning, as to exactly when she passed her first poop

; he slipped and almost fell on all the mineral oil that she had been dosed prior to her surgery.

 

[Magic]

[SIZE=14pt] I really need to figure out a way to cover the dirt in that shelter.[/SIZE]

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How about rubber mats? I love the rubber mats in my stalls, I can feed the horses on the floor and NO dirt! You would want to get heavy enough ones that won't get pawed up. Mine are 3/4" I think, and 3 x 6 feet, and they are so heavy I could barely drag them from the truck to the stalls, and they haven't budged in all the years we've had them!

 

[Margo_C-T]

Around '87-'88, I lost a weanling filly after colic surgery;however, it was done on her dog/cat exam table by the then-only vet out in my area-and the filly just never really recovered from the surgery itslelf. In '92, a colt about 2 1/2 mo. was in distress-took him and his dam into town early on, opted for surgery early on-he had an impaction of hair/dirt, even at that early age! He did fine-had one adhesion episode, that I was able to handle over the phone with one of the vets at the clinic where he'd been operated on(and luckily, I actually had a bit of generic Rompun on hand, which is what the vet wanted me to give!) Gelded him around age 2; buyer BADLY wanted him, and it was to a very good home, so I sold him to her for about what the surgery cost(then, around $2000)-she knew his complete history, BTW.This little horse, now 13 years old, colicked AGAIN(sand!)about 5 years ago, and had a SECOND colic surgery! He has survived THAT in fine fettle(the owner, whose premises are quite sandy!)since then has kept him on mats, (unfortunately, it's slick-as-a-gut old conveyor belting, which I personally would NEVER ask a horse to stand on 24/7...),and in a muzzle when on turn-out in the (sandy)arena but---the little guy has now won a myriad of titles at Pinto Nationals, several years in a row, SINCE the second surgery--and has also done well in AMHA, when shown. So--take heart, there are a number of real success stories following colic surgery!! Best wishes to you and your little mare!!

 

[Debby - LB]

How about rubber mats?    I love the rubber mats in my stalls, I can feed the horses on the floor and NO dirt!  You would want to get heavy enough ones that won't get pawed up.  Mine are 3/4" I think, and 3 x 6 feet, and they are so heavy I could barely drag them from the truck to the stalls, and they haven't budged in all the years we've had them!

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So far that's all I can come up with too, it's a 14X 20 area and I haven't found any really heavy one's like yours I can afford right now. I did pull the mats out of our pick up beds to try to use, at least it covers some of it. She keeps me on my toes that's for sure.

 

[mizbeth]

I HOPE your mare will be okay. I have had two colic surgeries (impactions). One was successful and one was not. In fact both within three days of each other.

I have been told by several different vets that green grass is what a colic horse should eat and one case alfalafa hay was recommended. No other feed, just this for a period of time.

I have had impaction colics, sand colics, stress colics, heat colics and just plain colics? I have lost only one...........so far, thank god! It is stressful beyond belief for me as well as the horse involved.

Good luck with your girl. I feel the MOST IMPORTANT thing to remember is that your horses MUST DRINK water and lots of it, whether winter or summer. You must do whatever to make them drink it or at least maintain hydration. I use very wet beet pulp for my horses nearly year round.

B

 

[txminipinto]

Glad to hear your mare is doing better!

Colic success stories vary wildly depending on surgical facility, surgeons, medical staff, type of colic presented, and the time it took to get the horse to surgery. Obviously, the less intestinal cutting that needs to be done the better chances your horse has. Torsions probably have the best success rate when they are caught early and no damage has been done to the affected intestine due to lack of blood flow. The longer you wait, generally, the worse your chances are for a fully recovered horse. Sand impactions are probably second and resections (removing dead intestine) have the worst chances. Here at TAMU, its not uncommon to recut a resection within a week. Once your horse leaves, lesions will be your enemy in a full recovery. I have not heard that keeping a mare pregnant prevents the lesions; so I can't fully comment on that theory. But I can tell you that recently foaled mares (usually up to 3 months post foaling) have a greater tendenancy to colic due to the sudden "room" for the intestines to twist.

Hope we can add your experience to the success stories!! Good luck.