My very healthy, except a 3 finger hernia that was either acquired at birth from trauma or congenital, (we don’t know because no one witnessed the birth), had hernia surgery at 1 day old, All good and the colt is now 2 weeks old. Vet said to keep him confined for 45 days in a 12x12 and when i protested that I don’t have a 12x12, she said a 12x24’ was acceptable. Poor Mom and colt. Usually my mares and foals are out all day in pasture from the time they are 1 day old and in at night. I understand she doesn’t want him to have stain and stress on the incision but 45 days of stall confinement!! Poor Mom is having a hard time and colt runs circles in the pen. There is a small grass paddock adjacent to their stall and I figured after 3 weeks they can get an hour of outside time? Anyone been in the same or similar situation? I obviously don’t want him to tear open the incision but I also want to consider their mental health. I just think 45 days is too conservative. Thoughts?
What kind of hernia?
We had a colt born with a scrotal hernia, where some intestines were sneaking into the testicular sack.
Colt had surgery at two days old, may as well geld him said the vet and he did.
Colt went to individual pens with his mother for the three weeks we kept them in, until mares were out of foal heat and then they were turned out with the broodmares and other foals in large pastures in the brush and canyons.
Never had any trouble at all, but your colt may have had a different kind of hernia, umbilical or inguinal, more involved and some extra stomach wall had to be cut back and sewn back together, or whatever reason, your veterinarian wanted to be sure he would heal, not break open again?
Some times in those situations they put a surgical mesh in there to insure it will stay closed.
Can you ask your vet again why he needs to be confined for so long?
It is probably worth having the vet out to do an exam, to see how the surgery is healing and discuss their mental health and how the baby is behaving (maybe doing more harm having zoomies in the smaller area).
It was an umbilical hernia. The vet is not able to come out to see the colt because it is a hospital and they are 90 minutes away. I was just wondering what other people’s experiences have been with this. I know foals heal quickly and grow fast. The stitches are dissolving stitches and I’m sure there are multiple layers.
It was a long, long, long time ago but I had a filly with an umbilical hernia. Thankfully my vet did the surgery here at our place ( propped up on her back between 2 square bales).
I think she was confined with her poor momma for at least 30 days. I had a foaling stall with a small attached paddock that we used. It all went amazingly well.
I didn’t have a foal have hernia surgery but did have one have the umbillicus removed and was supposed to be on full stall rest for 2 weeks then slowly adding a few minutes of turnout for two weeks. We did the 2 weeks with a combo of stall rest and stall sized enclosure made out of panels. I just turned her out afterwards that though. The panels were a lifesaver as the mare got to eat grass.
Curious as to why the umbilicas was removed? The vets took out my colts umbilical cord, or what was left of it, too.
Umbilical abscesses are common.
My filly’s cord didn’t break right and we just couldn’t get it to dry up. It was slowly getting infected so needed to be removed
We had the mesh on one of our wethers and the muscle wall gave way at one of the edges and one morning there was a bulge the size of a grapefruit hanging down there. We euthanized him, but it was all a horrible nightmare. My advice to OP…Keeping them under strict control is really necessary. Don’t waste the rest of his life on just a few weeks of unpleasant confinement.
