Post colic Surgery April 26, 2010
Every horse owners nightmare when your horse needs surgery due to colic. April 26th Beau stopped eating and was lying down in his paddock during turnout. When I arrived at the barn is when I noticed that his breakfast was still in his bucket and while I was cleaning his stall he was out back lying down. This is not right. His breathing was heavy and he never chooses to lie down if the option is to eat something. I called the vet right way and explained that he just started doxycycline, gave up eating and after walking him he finally passed some manure. We all thought it was looking good as he picked at his hay around 5:00 PM. That same night I was headed back to see him around 8:00 PM when I got the call from Rita, that her and Tayna were trying to get a hold of me. "I don't want to see Beau die, you better get here I already called the vet and he was on his way". Paniced stricken we were on on way to the barn. Beau was already wearing Poffie's halter and Tayna as such an angel as her and her daughter Yana are, they were hand walking Beau. The prognosis was to get him to Tuft's immediately, that he was impacted and there were no gut sounds. Beau underwent an extensive bypass of his cecum and by 8:00 AM Monday morning he was in his stall where he stayed for the next two weeks.
This was heartbreaking and we all kept wondering how did this happen? What could I have done to prevent this? Seeing him after surgery was tough, he did not look good, nor happy. The doctores looked worse, they had not slept nor been home yet and had done about three colic surgery's that weekend. This was a common surgery however, Beau's was not. The only do 6 - 7 cecum bypass's with a 50% chance of survival. We are praying he recovers and does really well. Thank you to the professionalism of the Tuft's staff, the caring vet techs and fourth year students that have dedicated their profession and time to these large animals. Without them we would have not made it.
