Sorry this is long but I want to make sure I have all current info!
Spirit (15, gelding) got worse again, so we finally decided to haul him to UT, he was grazing walking around yesterday, today I had to BACK him across the yard l, across the street, and basically push and scare him from behind… into my friends trailer with her. Got him to UT, he weighs 583lbs, he has lost a ton of weight but belly is way more swollen than even a day or two ago.
Physical, ultrasounds, extra fluid everywhere and intestines has thickened to 2x normal size. Vet puts a tube in his nose to release gas and fluid, feed comes out even though he has barely ate in over 24 hrs and stopped drinking yesterday. She did a belly tap and pulled abdominal fluid. Tells me he is very sick, very abnormal with his ultrasounds, but liver and kidneys are perfect, this is nothing uti related!!! Said to prepare for the worst. Also mentioned exploratory surgery of his abdomen but wanted to talk to the 3 surgeons first. He took a nose tube, being shaved, standing in the stocks, and multiple pokes including the belly tap, with barely any reaction. Heart rate around 65 to 70.
I go outside to calm down with my friend while they prep his IV tubes if he is going to have the surgery, 3 vets come to get us and sit us down at a table and tell me the final diagnosis, Septic Peritonitis, his abdomen is full of bacteria, he has no white cells in his blood, and he most likely will not survive surgery, depending on what they find they could decide not to wake him up at all, prognosis is grim. Basically I have no hope, he will die with or without surgery. By this point I’m head down on the table bawling. They did say if I said goodbye at the hospital they could open him up afterwards at no additional cost to give me final answers.
I cut his tail, god love my bff for braiding it for me. I cried and cried, took pictures, tried to force myself to say goodbye to my boy. Then I thought of the multiple colic over 10 month thread on here, showed it to the vets, asked why we cannot culture the abdominal fluid to find out exactly what type of bacteria we are dealing with?? Why can’t he have fluids, some broad spectrum antibiotics, and see if he gets any better over the weekend to where surgery would at least be feasible for him to survive?
Yes, I need to try every damned option before I give up, I was minutes from saying goodbye and he whinnied, like mom no…keep trying we are stronger than this!!
(@starsandsun thank you so much for your post, it literally was the one thing that came into my mind when he whinnied at me to keep thinking of other options, it bought him at least another few days!!)
After we left I started down the google rabbit hole and found articles and studies on abdominal lavages done on horses, draining the bacteria filled fluid and flushing with saline while also being on gentimicin and "k"penicillin…which is what he is on…if he gets stronger…I am going to ask vets tomorrow about lavage, this is all assuming he survives the weekend and gets at least a little better, if he gets worse I don’t think he or I will have any other options at that point.
Do I keep up hope? Am I grasping at straws? Anyone with sucess stories with this “Septic Peritonitis” in their middle aged horse? I need opinions, ideas, or a dose of reality… please hive?
