Ovary removal

[neddymad]

Has anyone had any experience of an ovariectomy. I have just been told that it can be done vaginally standing up.

I have owned my mare since she was 17mths and she is now 13yrs. She had enlarged ovaries when she was 5/6 she was treated with various drugs but nothing worked long term. She then had a marble fitted which worked at first but then stopped working. She suffered with stiffness behind, and visible muscle spasms in her back. bucked, reared, showed stallion like behaviour, but was never nasty. You name it we have tried it, my vets seem to come to dead end. Has anyone else had similiar problems and what was the outcome. She is now turned out 24/7, the alternative was to have her pts. Any advice welcome.

 

[Angua2]

My mare had a bilateral overectomy last year. It was done standing via key hole surgery through the flanks under heavy sedation and local anasthetic. I was told the procedure took about 3 hours to perform. I was quoted about £2500 to have it done privately. It was the best thing for my mare who was in such pain when in season, that she couldn't move. I now have a very happy mare who is holding her weight and able to perform through spring and summer.

 

[Scoutie]

About 10 years ago my friend's mare had a 21 lb ovarian tumour and ovary removed. This wasn't removed standing up but possibly beause it was so long ago and/or the size of the tumour. Whilst she was ill she did display very similar behaviour to what you are describing. Also she lost so much weight you could see how her ribs joined her spine. She did recover from the surgery and went on to hunt again. This mare is now about 24 and still going strong although life is now a little slower.

 

[JanetGeorge]

Has anyone had any experience of an ovariectomy. I have just been told that it can be done vaginally standing up.

I have owned my mare since she was 17mths and she is now 13yrs. She had enlarged ovaries when she was 5/6 she was treated with various drugs but nothing worked long term. She then had a marble fitted which worked at first but then stopped working. She suffered with stiffness behind, and visible muscle spasms in her back. bucked, reared, showed stallion like behaviour, but was never nasty.

It sounds VERY much like your mare has a Granulosa Theca Cell tumour of one of her ovaries. These cause all the normal problems an enlarged ovary will - but in addition - the GTC tumour secretes testosterone - causing stallion-like behaviour in many mares. The picture on an u/s scan is of one very enlarged ovary and one rather smaller than normal (because it has shutdown due to testosterone.)

If this is the case, it has probably been growing since first symptoms occurred at 6 - so will be pretty big now. A friend's mare had an ovary with GTCT removed and it was more than 40cm in diameter!!

The affected ovary would be too large to remove vaginally - it would probably be done standing via a flank incision. Personally, I'd be asking for a referral to one of the better equine clinics for proper diagnosis - and surgery.

 

[neddymad]

Thank you for your replies. When she had the marble put in about 3 yrs ago the vet said that there wasn't anything really abnormal about her ovaries, but I think there must something going on. Lots of poeple have said their horses lost weight but she has always looked bloated. The dilemma is do I try the operation and risk putting her through something that may not work or leave her where she is happy in the field.

 

[JanetGeorge]

I'd have to ask - is your vet a specialist equine vet - and if so, does she do much repro work? And did she scan the ovaries - or just manually palpate? Given the number of vets I hear of who cannot tell the difference between a very pregnant - or an empty uterus - by feel, I doubt if a lot of them can ACCURATELY diagnose a 'normal' ovary that way!

There is no WAY I'd consider surgery without a proper diagnosis from a competent repro vet! IF it's a GTCT, then surgery WILL be successful (although obviously there are always risks involved with ANY surgery.) But if - for example - her problems were due to discomfort from a lot of uterine cysts, removing the ovary would be a waste of time and money.

 

[neddymad]

Yes my vet is a specialist equine vet. They did scan her ovaries and it showed an enlarged ovary, in the end after 10 yrs of trying to help her they also said that she may have kissing spines which was why she was so sore in her back and that the operation to take her ovaries away was to too invasive and dangerous. As I have now heard that it can be done quite easily I am glad that I did not have her pts. However as her insurance has now run out I do need to see if it is affordable as cold as that may sound. She seems perfectly happy and pain free as long as she is out resting 24/7 but as horses can't speak, you never really know do you. She is now living with family in another area so it would be the vet there that would be doing it (he has a very good reputation). I think at the very least I will get her re-scanned. If anyone has experience of the symptoms of ovarian tumours it would be great to hear them as she demonstrated some really odd behaviour. Thank you for your replies in advance.

 

[neddymad]

Sorry forgot to ask. I never heard of uterine cysts before, can they be diagnosed via a scan and are the symptoms the same. Thank you again, very new to forums.

 

[neddymad]

Just changed title to see if anyone has any experience of similiar symptoms. New to forums so please bare with me.

 

[Angua2]

Yes my vet is a specialist equine vet. They did scan her ovaries and it showed an enlarged ovary, in the end after 10 yrs of trying to help her they also said that she may have kissing spines which was why she was so sore in her back and that the operation to take her ovaries away was to too invasive and dangerous. As I have now heard that it can be done quite easily I am glad that I did not have her pts. However as her insurance has now run out I do need to see if it is affordable as cold as that may sound. She seems perfectly happy and pain free as long as she is out resting 24/7 but as horses can't speak, you never really know do you. She is now living with family in another area so it would be the vet there that would be doing it (he has a very good reputation). I think at the very least I will get her re-scanned. If anyone has experience of the symptoms of ovarian tumours it would be great to hear them as she demonstrated some really odd behaviour. Thank you for your replies in advance.

See my post above as I said I was quoted by the RVC a price to have the ovaries removed.

While my girl didn't have tumours the pain from her overies gave the impression that she had a back problem and was lame.

 

[neddymad]

Did your mare have muscle spasms that you could see and did she put on weight or lose it. My horse was also lame and seem to be getting cast in her stable which we put down to her being so stiff. Now she is out she moves much better.

 

[Angua2]

Did your mare have muscle spasms that you could see and did she put on weight or lose it. My horse was also lame and seem to be getting cast in her stable which we put down to her being so stiff. Now she is out she moves much better.

We didn't actually see any muscle spasms, and she always lost weight when in season which was for 10 days every 10 days. When she was in season, it was very difficult to get her to move at all, and if you did get into a trot, which involved lots of pony club kicks or the use of a whip on what was normally an extreamly forward going mare she would always come up short on either/both of her hinds.

 

[JanetGeorge]

I think at the very least I will get her re-scanned. If anyone has experience of the symptoms of ovarian tumours it would be great to hear them as she demonstrated some really odd behaviour. Thank you for your replies in advance.

Certainly worth trying! I haven'thad a mare with an ovarian tumour but a friendhad one witha GTCT and she showed signs of low grade back pain and grumpiness - until the day she started mounting other mares!!

I never heard of uterine cysts before, can they be diagnosed via a scan and are the symptoms the same.

Uterine cysts show up on scan - but they usually don't cause any problems unless there are a LOT of them - or they get very big. The biggest problem is that they CAN look like a pregnancy when you're scanning for pregnancy. (I recall a stand-in vet saying - "either this mare has cysts - or she's having triplets!") Or a vet pinches a pregnancy - thinking the mare has twinned - and leaves a cyst!

We always scan mares on arrival and note any cysts to prevent any problems like that!

 

[neddymad]

Thank you for your replies. I am taking my beloved mare to Newmarket soon for further tests and if needed surgery. Keep your fingers crossed for her please. I will update when I know more.

 

[neddymad]

Just thought I'd update those of you who were kind enough to reply to my post originally. My mare has been to see specialist and she doesn't appear to have a tumour, however we also had her back xrayed and she has spondylosis of the spine. Vet cannot say whether it is active or not but could be the reason for her behaviour. We are to bring her back into work and see what happens. If any of you have any experience of this it would be very helpful as I cannot seem to find much about it.