Buying a horse whose had colic surgery?

Sealine

Sealine

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 July 2010
Messages
1,659
Visit site
as title - Would you buy a horse who has had colic surgery?

Does it make any difference if it has just had it's gut 're-aligned' as opposed to a section removed?

I realise insurance would not cover any future bouts of colic. It is worth the risk?
 
Hmmmmmmm. Not sure. Do you know what caused the colic? If they mean he had a twisted gut (re-aligned???) then I guess that could happen again. But if it was because eg the horse broke into the feed shed and ate an entire bag of oats or dry speedibeet, then would it be unlikely to happen again? Not sure. Are you having him vetted? You could ask for some percentages/statistics relating to repeat attacks of colic and perhaps form a safer opinion then. It might be worth thinking through why insurers would exclude future colic from any policy you took out. Their underwriters work almost exclusively on risk stats. If they think the risk is too high to insure the horse, then maybe you should also consider it too high a risk. It would be different if you already had a much loved horse that had an attack of colic, but to deliberately buy a new horse...hmmmm...don't think I would tbh x
 
Every horse i know thats had colic surgary have had more bouts of colic.

I dont personally think its worth the risk, the worst feeling in the world is if a op could save your horse and you cant afford it :(
 
I wouldn't.

My lad had colic surgery last year, "just" a realignment but I constantly worry about repeat attacks. He's had slight colics several times since & they terrify me. Even now I dread going to the yard if I know I'll be the first one there & my heart is in my mouth if he hasn't got his head over the door - not good when he's a lie-abed in the morning if the yard's quiet!

It's not even the money side of things that gets to me. It's the fact that if he colicked badly again the chances of a second successful surgery are very very low. I'd never sell him - even if I could - but I know I wouldn't deliberately go & buy this level of worry.
 
I think the knee jerk reaction to this would be 'no, never', and in the ideal world we'd all buy a perfectly sound, perfectly disease free horse with no behavioural problems. :p
In reality, horses are individual, and have their good and bad points - and most horses are lame, or sick at some point in their lives. I would buy a horse that had colic surgery - but having found out what the surgery was for, and looking at the animal as an overall picture.
I do speak from experience - two of mine have had surgery (I have the worst luck). One is only 12 weeks post surgery, but the other had the surgery 4 years ago and hasn't had a twinge since. Hers was due to a random blood clot forming in the small colon - a very unusual, and unlikely-to-be-repeated event; although she was opened up, no gut was removed.
The best plan, if you are looking to buy a horse post colic surgery, would be to check out the survival rates for the different types on the University of Liverpool's colic website.
S :D
PS I don't believe there is any legal requirement for a seller to declare it, as it isn't an unsoundness, so you may never know...
 
I was considering it - but in that particular case, the horse had an excellent eventing record and his price was reflecting the colic risk. However, I talked to my insurers (with the full co operation of the owners) and they would not offer any cover for not just colic but anything that could be related and this I needed to factor in.

The owner was lovely and very open, and I inadvertanly helped her as I was deadly serious about buying her boy - while I was waiting for my vet/insurance to agree what risks/cover would be, an earlier buyer who had been procrastinating and offering REALLY silly money realised they were going to lose the horse and went ahead very quickly at the full price..

I have also had a horse who had surgical colic and he never had a repeat - in his case there was a benigh tumour attached to part of his gut which had swung round and tied off part of the gut. Thought I had lost him but he pulled through and never repeated.

However, as I was quoted £5Kish colid surgery and higher risks then the horse would have to be pretty special for me to consider it.
 
my friend has a horse which had v bad colic, she was given a 10% chance of making it to the vet school for surgery. She made it, had the op and has never had colic again. This was over 10 years ago. I think you would need to take into consideration the individula horse, type of colic and surgery that it has had and perhaps how long ago it had surgery?

ie. my friends horse with no repeat colic 10 years after surgery is surely a lower risk than a horse which was operated on earlier in the year?
 
My boy had colic surgery about 4 years ago, hernia related and had to have 13 ft of intestine removed! He has never coliced since but I would prob not buy one that has! Its a constant worry I would not like to put myself through again! It horrible worrying about him as I do regulary!

He has been fine since not even a hint of colic!

Maybe because his was hernia related! He is only the 3rd horse in the country to have survived such an operation! And it may come back the hernia in time!

Worry the hell out of me so no!

Liz
 
I have just bought ( for very little money I will add) a horse who had colic surgery 6 months ago. Before doing so I looked into it in great detail and was told by vets that most horses make a full recovery with no issues, many of which carry on competing at international level.
I believe that you can;t let things worry you , how do you know that your horse won't break a leg tommorow!

I do think it depends on why they got colic in the first place, mine was due to the fact he got cast and stressed, they didn't remove any intestine though.

As I said, my horse is very talented and was very cheap so I have taken a calculated risk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top