Nephrosplenic Entrapment

[Kaeleer]

I had a suspected NE with my old horse, a TB. We were on a trail ride and had a good gallop up a hill. I pulled him up (quite gently) at the top, but as he slowed to walk, he suddenly started buckling and he came out in a white lather. It was immediately apparent that he was collicking - badly. The only way I could stop him from going down was to canter him, and I cantered him the whole way home, phoning my vet on the way, and arranging for her to meet me at the yard.

When I got to the yard, I undid my girth from the saddle, slid off, removed saddle and he dropped and rolled for all he was worth. He then stood up, shook, and carried on as if nothing happened. We couldn’t positively confirm NE, but my vet said she suspected that’s what it was.

Second case was also a TB, a big horse belonging to my husband, who developed it one evening. We trucked him to the clinic, where the vet said she thought surgery might be required. We gave him arthrodene and lunged the hell out of him and he came right, and didn’t require surgery.

Neither horse had another episode.

[DLee]

She must not be too uncomfortable? I will say with my young gelding who got entrapped over and over, it was very stressful to even own him after a while. Two surgeries, lots of colics he that we were able to resolve inbetween times, and finally a third that would have required surgery again.

So, so sorry you are going through this with your girl. Jingling for a good outcome.

I also can’t imagine six months stall rest for that.

[Horseybird]

I am hoping to God that the flies really bite tonight, and she rolls and rolls.

I could load her and take her to somewhere close with a better surface and lunge her more.

How long is the box rest after this. As I am talking about a horse that does not like to be still. This is also why I hit on your forum because you guys have all dealt with this condition.

[Peg]

My filly required no more confinement- activity is good. Just had to takr her temp for a couple of days, that’s all. Peg

[Horseybird]

Ok, thanks to you lot! I wasn’t going to lay down and give up. I went up to the vets collected her and took her to an indoor school, where it was cool and worked her.

Giving her a break in between, and she started to drink too, so we only allowed small amounts.

Her stomach has softened and the bulge does not seem quite so large. We go back to the vets at 8.45. I hope it has worked.

I am more optimistic this evening, but have to wait till the morning.

[FatPalomino]

@Kaeleer;4194340

It was immediately apparent that he was collicking - badly. The only way I could stop him from going down was to canter him, and I cantered him the whole way home, phoning my vet on the way, and arranging for her to meet me at the yard.

Ok, this is the scariest story I have ever heard. You go girl! What a lucky horse you have

[Samotis]

My colt is doing fantastic. He hasn’t had any more issues.

When this all happened with my colt I knew nothing about the lunging and phenelyphrine, so that never happened. They did give it to him, but he sat in a stall.

I opted for surgery because I had insurance that paid for most of it. The recovery time is not 6 months. He had some weird complications and stayed a week in the hospital, but then came out of it and we took him home and he was fine. We hand walked him every day and some days I would just take him out to graze him.

We didn’t totally listen to the vets on his recovery. They wanted a box stall for a month, then a month with a pen, then gradual turnout. We did a stall with a run from day 1 and then after 2 months started turning him out.

Our vet said that by itself NE is one of the better colic surgery’s to have because it doesn’t require cutting anything.

It sounds like maybe something else is going on? Did they do a belly tap?

Good luck. It is a very hard thing to go through.

Ace has been great since his surgery, so I am hoping he won’t have any more issues!

Let us know how she does.

[Horseybird]

Well it didn’t work.

We are going for heavy sedation tonight hoping with the relaxation of the muscles that it will drop. Please don’t have images that she is in chronic pain. She is well dosed up and eating and drinking well at the moment which is giving us time.

We lunged her again this morning.

He is still talking about turning, but also now he has taken advice on how to do the op to repair her and stop it happening permanently all in one go. Bearing in mind to turn her requires an anaesthetic so the next option for that is open surgery at considerable cost. That is unless I go for two anaesthetic’s.

Recovery time in total 6 months - someone was right, 6 weeks not months box rest.

[stillpoint]

My horse has had two nephrosplenic colics, about three weeks apart. He is an 18h 5yo Hanoverian, was four when they happened. He was on rest also, not in work at the time they occurred, and has not had one since returning to work (could be coincidence?). We jogged him up and down hills after he was treated with banamine and ultrasounded to determine the cause. The colics seemed to come on quick and he was extremely painful–difficult to keep up and walking while waiting for the vet.

[Horseybird]

Well the lunging this morning obviously didn’t work because we have just been up there, and she is heavily sedated.

Tomorrow? - I just don’t know.

Stillpoint - the first one happened at the end of an endurance, but it had not been ridden hard. although the last hill they trotted down was quite steep, in fact it was a very hilly race, had changed her hay to haylage 2 days before. This time she had been rested and had changed her field 3 days before.

How long would you guys leave it before going for surgery? The vet is now saying that he has spoken to the specialist and although he has not done it before, will perform the standing op to correct the organs and make it so it will not happen again. I will go for that, and my bank balance may just make that, hubby has agreed to that too.

You see she gallops round the field like some foal, bucking really high and farting out loud. He hate the thought of her not be able to do that or the fact that she may well injury herself again doing it. And to be honest the way she bucks and twists out in the field, I would be 80% sure this is how it has happened. Maybe if she had been in full work, she wouldn’t have had the excess energy to do that.

[Peg]

a possible after effect

A bit of a post script here: My filly wasn’t quite right. I was afraid that she was having some lingering effects. Then I remembered the vet at the clinic asking me if her colic had been “violent”. I had not witnessed that, but there were signs that it had. I called my horse chiro and sure enough, her neck had a rotated vertebrae and her sacral area was about 30% rotated. So watch you horses for any limitation in movement. She’s herself again. Peg:)

[bugsynskeeter]

Our determination of when to send a NSE to surgery is all about pain management. If pain cannot be managed, whether it be with banamine or sedation or phenylephrine and jogging, then it goes to surgery. Or if there is something on U/S that necessitates surgery.

[RioTex]

I haven’t read it all, but wanted to say that I had one have NE surgery 10 years ago. I was given the option of anesthesia and rolling him on the table, but that it did not often work. I let them open him up and in addition to the NE, there was a blockage where the dope had been eating rocks. So we had NE and opened the bowel to remove rocks.

Recovery was 10 days in the hospital, they like to keep them until the sutures/staples whichever he had come out. Don’t recall how much stall rest (if any). Six weeks of turnout alone and then he was able to go back to work.

Of course, it should have been easy, but he developed EPM and at six weeks was being aggressively treated for that. He was a young, otherwise healthy late two year old and recovered from both ailments and although accident prone, is still going for his new owner.

[Horseybird]

Thanks for the further answers. She has regular osteopathic treatment anyway every three or so months, due to a trailer accident before we had her. So any misalignments will be picked up - but good point made. (She is used as an athlete and so has all the medical backup that one would use.

At the moment, she is managing with the pain. I am more encouraged the more I hear about the surgery from yourselves (I take it it was standing surgery).

I shall wait I will go and lung her again tomorrow. She is a fit horse and not old - 10, so hopefully this gives her more of a chance.

[bugsynskeeter]

All the NSE surgeries I know about are always done laying down - as regular colic surgeries are done. You never know what else the surgeons might find going on, thus why they wouldn’t do a standing.

[RioTex]

Definitely not done standing. They open up the belly and have to lay them down and turn them upside down. I do recall the vet saying that they know flipping them works because sometimes by the time they get in there, it’s back where it belongs. Mine did not offer the spleen reduction med, don’t know if that’s a newer treatment than when we had surgery or why that was not presented as an option.

[cloudyandcallie]

If you drove your horse to the clinic in a trailer, he got jiggled a lot. So that is probably why he wasn’t jogged at the clinc maybe?

[Horseybird]

The horse did go in the trailer but the roads are so good here. Will take her to a hill again tomorrow, and go down a rough track, but just for how long does she have to be jiggled, also, if you are lunging them hard to jiggle it off then how long does it normally take to come off if it is going to? The horse is extremely fit, and so has not been worked to exhaustion!

The decision has been made to go for standing surgery next week, unless the brown stuff hits the fan in the meantime.

We have done trotting poles today, and lunging very tight and fast, then spinning the bum out. Tomorrow a hill again. Maybe some more spinning.

At least she is rolling in the sand on her own.

If we clear it this time before the deadline, then when or if it happens again, she will have the surgery straight away.

[DLee]

Is it normal for a horse with NSE to go this long and be able to deal with it? My only experience was my 3yo gelding, and he could have never made it this long. Jingling for your mare.

[ladyfarrier]

I had a yearling warmblood filly that I found cast in her pasture run-in, and subsequently was diagnosed with a nephrosplenic entrapment. It’s not certain whether she was rolling from the entrapment, or became entrapped when cast, although I suspect the latter as she’d gotten cast a time or two before in her stall.

After un-casting her, she displayed mild colic symptoms , and after an hour the vet and I decided to take her to the University (it was the coldest night of the year in Michigan).

She subsequently had surgery, as I was not aware at the time of chemical/exercise alternative and it wasn’t offered. Her hospitalization was only 2 1/2 days, and after 30 days of stall rest she returned to a completely normal life.

She’s 7 now, a driving horse, and has never had a recurrence of any type of entrapment or colic episodes.

She’s never gotten cast again, either <G>.

As surgeries go, in my case it was a relatively easy one to deal with, although I’m sure her young age and no delay in the surgery probably helped. But I do always wonder if it could have been resolved non-surgically.

Good luck with your horse.