Hi all,
Horse had a case of septic peritonitis over the summer that was caused by an actinobacillus infection in the peritoneum. The vets at UPENN said that is the most common cause of idiopathic septic peritonitis. Presented as colic then fever, which is why we referred him to UPENN. Horse has recovered 100% but has had a history of issues (don’t they all!). Issues include kissing spine (relatively mild case) and I’ve been reading on and off about ulcers and how the two conditions can sometimes present with similar symptoms. I have not had the horse scoped yet but did a trial of aloe vera juice and a hind gut supplement (both started over the weekend). I had a happier horse under saddle yesterday. It could be a fluke but it has the wheels in my head turning and I am wondering if anyone has experience with ulcers resulting in peritonitis and how then does the actinobacillus fit in the picture? Could it all be connected. I reached back out to the attending vet at UPENN with this same question but wanted to poll the group to see if anyone has had a similar experience. Basically, wondering if a gut perforation due to an ulcer could result in this infection/peritonitis. It seems plausible but I’m not totally sure. Horse is a TB who is generally calm but does stress easily at turnout time and when left alone. Was previously in a boarding situation where the herd dynamics changed often because of sale horses; he was generally at the top of the chain. Slow eater but always finishes grain. Tad girthy. Recently reluctant to move forward under saddle.
If an ulcer perforated it’s a different set of bugs, at least from what I understand…Mine is just getting over a really bad bout of non septic peritonitis and was totally off his feed (he was also on antibiotics just in case they were wrong about the "non septic part.
I think that the insult to the gut from the peritonitis (which all the docs said is painful as all get out) in addition to the antibiotics threw off his gut function. His manure was also loose and smelled toxic.
I put him on a pro biotic and a hind gut supplement w saccromyces yeast in it and he started getting a lot happier. Your guy’s gut may have not recovered all the way previously.
Having said that, they had my guy on gastroggard in the clinic so that the stress from the pain of the infection and being n the clinic didn’t CAUSE ulcers…
Thanks for your input!
