Enterolith surgery stories?

[Jexa]

My tough little mare is currently at the vet clinic, being radiographed for possible enteroliths. She started colicking yesterday afternoon and hasn’t responded well to fluids overnight. She’s not a prime candidate for enteroliths…we live in Mississippi and she gets a very small amount of alfalfa, but they think it might be the culprit. It’s always possible she picked up foreign bodies while grazing, but she gets psyllium a week per month.

If they do find stones, obviously surgery is the only option. If anyone has any personal experiences with recovery from enterolith removal surgery I’d appreciate your stories. And any jingles

This is is the first horse I’ve had colic…this freaking sucks. The good news is she’s young (7) and in otherwise good health. Fingers crossed…

[keysfins]

I have no experience with enteroliths, but a fair amount with colic. Have you had any updates? Jingles for your mare.

[Sistersiouxz]

I had 2 horses that had enterolith surgery. My stallion was 13 and my mare was 10 years old and strong candidates. In other words, the decision to have surgery was early on, not as a last effort. Both had large cantaloupe size stones removed. My mare immediately suffered with laminitis and ultimately rotated. Unfortunately eventually had to put her to sleep from the complication. My stallion was a trooper, accepted “everything” as “just another day” and breezed through the presurgery prodding and poking, surgery, recovery and healing period. I was amazed and so proud that I had the priviledge of being in his life. He lived another 12 years without ever having another colic episode but eventually had to be put to sleep because of cancer. He was part of the Davis study on enterolith development and followup. My horses had all the strikes against them…They were Arabians, were fed mainly alfalfa hay, the alfalfa was grown in California and I fed bran daily. Eventually several others in my herd exhibited similar colic symptoms and I chose not to do surgery. The horses were between 18 and 22 years of age. In discussing with Davis vets why it appeared that so many of my horses were suffering with stones, we found that their water source from birth was extremely hard, another contributing factor. Of course as soon as I was told what was considered to be factors for enterolith development, I eliminated it from their environment.
I am so sorry you both are going through this. I would do surgery again only when the attending vet’s feel there is a high percentage of the possibility of survival. However, perhaps one needs to take into consideration the personality of the horse also as that can contribute to recovery and healing.
I believe the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine has the study available online or in hard copy.
Something that I just thought about, the mare had exploratory surgery looking for stones. My stallion’s x-rays showed the large stone. That may have contributed to her complication in perhaps a longer time in surgery.

[Jexa]

So, rads don’t show enterolith, did show impaction. Things were looking up this morning, they were able to take her off the pain meds and she passed a couple manure piles last night. Just got off the phone with the clinic, unfortunately she hasn’t passed anything since and started acting uncomfortable again so they restarted the drugs, albeit at a lower dose. They’re concerned the impaction isn’t breaking up. Might be forced to make the call tonight if she doesn’t stay comfortable.

[fanfayre]

Is she on fluids as well as the pain meds? Fluids can help get that impaction moving quite well w/out surgery (done it 4 times now with my horse)
Thinking good thoughts for you

[keysfins]

Will add another vote for fluids. My gelding needed a solid 48 hours of fluids to relieve the impaction (he was no longer a surgical candidate). He got well over 20L of fluids daily, IIRC. Jingles for your mare, I hope you have a positive turn soon.

[Jexa]

Thanks for the jingles and good thoughts, I’m working myself into an ulcer over here. She has been on fluids since the beginning, she initially refluxed them back up the tube so they had to switch to IV, but she’s kept the oral fluids down today…hopefully that will be enough. We’re just over 48 hrs in, I think as long as the drugs keep her comfortable they want to give it some more time.

[keysfins]

@Jexa

Thanks for the jingles and good thoughts, I’m working myself into an ulcer over here. She has been on fluids since the beginning, she initially refluxed them back up the tube so they had to switch to IV, but she’s kept the oral fluids down today…hopefully that will be enough. We’re just over 48 hrs in, I think as long as the drugs keep her comfortable they want to give it some more time.

I hated to see my horse so uncomfortable, but several people who had been through similar colic situations encouraged me to give him time + fluids. (He was on IV.) As long as he could be kept somewhat comfortable and sedated, I decided that I could give him time. But if that was not successful, or if his condition worsened, I would have opted for euthanasia.

I couldn’t just sit there and stare at him, so I started grooming him and talking quietly. Don’t know if it made any difference to him, but it made me feel like I was doing something to provide comfort.

Hope your mare makes makes it through. Re-feeding will be a slow process, to be sure she can get feed from one end to the other. Feel free to PM if you like.

[atlatl]

I had a quarter horse gelding that had emergency surgery to remove a stone the size of a softball. Had never coliced before, he was 6 or 7, and didn’t colic again in the next 5 years that I had him. Once recovered he continued showing successfully on the AQHA circuit.

hope things end as well for you.

[fanfayre]

Great to hear.
I actually did mean IV fluids, sorry for not clarifying. In my cluttered mind oral fluids is defined by ‘tubing’, so if I hear or read tubing I know it was oral fluids, if I hear or read fluids I automatically think IV.
keysfins is a great wealth of knowledge, so don’t be afraid to ask her questions!
I think, if he has passed some manure before, 48 hours isn’t that long;give it some more time (another 24-36 hours). I think you’ll find the IV fluids will start working as long as it’s a simple impaction (no twists, necrotizing etc).

[WildandWickedWarmblo]

Has your vet tried the Coca Cola fluids? There was a thread on CoTH a while back where a vet in NYstate used Coca Cola to solve an impaction.

I hope your mare gets well. My friend’s big old horse survived a double twist colic surgery and the vet only had to untwist, no cutting of the intestines. Good luck.

[fanfayre]

Yes! Coca-cola!!! The surgical vet here used that on a different horse here not that long ago successfully! Not sure why he didn’t use it on mine, but maybe he thought I would only consider IV saline. I’ll keep it in mind for the next time, though. May be a good idea for your horse, OP. Probably cheaper than Ringer’s too

[Jexa]

She was doing great this morning but has relapsed. They feel the only option now is surgery, she should be going in any minute. Theoretically she has a good chance of a full recovery, or I wouldn’t have agreed to put her through it, but I’m a wreck. Anyone like to hold my hand through this?

[Sistersiouxz]

Praying for success. In my experience (having more then anyone would want) it sounds like an enterolith moving about slightly. I reccommend that you do not remove your mare from the hospital until she is 100% even though it means saving some money. Keep the updates coming.

[EmilyM]

Best wishes for a successful outcome.

[scheherazadetbmare]

Hoping all goes well.
Follow the recovery instructions. Get a friend to help you. While your horse is still at the hospital, go sit with the horse every day and read a book or sleep. It helps the horse to know that you are there and the horse has not been abandoned. This can give the horse hope for recover and not give up. Watch for falls and injury while the horse is in the recovery room, and you can watch on the CCTV. The horse can hear you and will respond.
Good luck.

[ElementFarm]

Jingles!!

[Jexa]

We’re not quite 48 hrs post-op. Things aren’t looking great. She got up from anesthesia fine, became slightly endotoxic but based on blood work it is now moderate to severe. Manure has not firmed up at all. She’s eaten some, but her appetite is still low. On the positive side, she is currently acting alert, bright-eyed, and comfortable, and drinking lots of water. Assuming she doesn’t deteriorate, they want to give it another day or so and see how she reacts, but I get the feeling they aren’t optimistic. Thanks for the jingles, all, this has been a tough road already and it’s very difficult to know what the right thing for her is. Hopefully she will show improvement this evening.

[Sistersiouxz]

I’m sure the vet’s know what they are doing, but have you made sure they know your wishes to be pro active in treating endotoxicity rather then “wait and see”, if that is your want? Sure hope she can fight this.
.

[keysfins]

Jingles for you and your mare!