Peritonitis...

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catdragon

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Hi all. Just wondered if anyone has had any experience with peritonitis. Sadly a 5/6 year old gelding from our yard has just been diagnosed with it. He's an ardennes cross and was a little off colour last night. This morning he'd eaten little hay, drunk nothing and looked very under the weather. THe vet was called, who promptly turned up. Admininstered pain killers and anti biotics and also tubed him to put some water into him. His temp this morning was 40 degrees. Vet said to give him a little time in the stable and if he looked ok to put him in the field (he's on his own) and to monitor him. Well he perked up, ate some hay and when turned out wandered off and started to graze. Sadly he took a turn for the worse, and he has now been taken to the horsepital, he's been tubed again, given a drip, more antibiotics and they've run tests and done scans. THe latest prognosis is that he'll have to be operated on to see what the problem is.. I am just shocked at how quickly he went down hill.

So would be grateful of others experiences and also would ask for some of those famous HHO vibes for this gentle giant.

Thanks
 
A mare who arrived here hadn't been wormed regularly so when we wormed her huge numbers migrated through her stomach wall and she got peritonitis.
She was in Bristol Uni Vet School for three weeks but recovered, only to drop dead some years later. We always suspected the worm damage was more widespread than anyone knew, but no proof.
They can save them depending on why he's got it, if it's part of his gut twisted and died they can remove it, but sometimes it's too far gone to save.
All you can do is hope I'm afraid, sounds like he is in good hands.
 
Thanks guys. A short update, he has come through the night, but the vets are not happy with him, he's not as good as they hoped he would be. They're loathe to open him up whilst he is so poorly, so he's still on his drip and they are now adding steroids to his treatment in the hope it gives him a chance of recovery. We are all hoping he pulls through, but it doesn't sound too promising :( Will keep you posted and thank you for the honesty of your responses...it's horrid, but there's nothing else we can do, he's in the hands of the vets and hope right now....
 
Fingers crossed for the poor boy.

I have a horse in who came from Leahurst after double colic surgery (December time). We have nursed him through 3 bouts of peritonitis and we are hoping to be able to sit on him for the first time next week.

Obviously the vets need to find out what the cause is, with our boy it was a side effect from the colic surgeries.

He is on long term iodide at the moment and touch wood he has not had a bout since about Febuary.

Good luck, and fingers crossed.
 
have seen this twice once recovered fully the other was pts. the one which recovered was touch and go for a while said his recovery was down to have them out so promtly. finger crossed
 
Spoke to his owner again last night. The next 48 hours are crucial, vets have been very honest and said he has about a 40% chance of recovering. They are trying to stabilise him before finding out what the cause is as he's just too poorly to withstand any invasive procedures. He's currently in isolation for his own safety as his white cell count is zero so has no immunity.. In truth he's fighting for his life right now :( Feel so sad for him and so helpless, will keep you posted guys and gals...
 
My mare survived for 6 months after being hospitalised with peritonitis, but suddenly went downhill and had to be PTS earlier this year. After doing a lot of research on the net about it, it appears that very few survive, something I was not told by my vets, six months is classed as long term survival! We never got to the bottom of what caused her Peritionitis or what caused her death and it was heartbreaking to have to let my beautifull girl go.

Got everything crossed the gelding at your yard pulls through.
 
My mare had this as a complication after colic, infection of the stomach lining that deteriorated, she came through ok and is 17 now. I hope everything works out well, fingers crossed for your friend and her neddy.
 
I have experience of this my boy got it approx 3 years ago. He was fine the day before, then suddenly went abit 'quiet' and off colour, we took his temp and it was 41 degrees. We called the vet and from then on he went downhill very quickly refusing to eat, drink, show any interest in anything.

The vet was very good he had all the antibiotics, was tubed and lots of tests as she didn't know what it was at first (then there was a mess up at the lab so it took longer for the results to come back!)

She thinks it was caused by one of his organs twisting.. He started improving after about a week and we kept him in on box rest for a while. We also fed him bran mash and fennel which was the only thing he would eat when he began to pick up. It seemed to do wonders for him.

I hope he gets better.. got my fingers crossed.
 
Apparently she's now been told it is Colitis-X (even though he hasn't yet got to the diarrhea stage :( Vets tried to withdraw some of the drugs yesterday to see if the slight improvement they saw was him or the drugs only. After a very short time it became apparent that it's the drugs that are keeping him going. He's still very poorly and has IV's in him, frequent tubing and tubes in his gut. Only the owner is seeing him (other than the vet staff) as he is very susceptible to infection. Owner has been told that by tomorrow they should be able to give her some indication if they think he will pull through or not. I feel so sorry for the horse, it was scary at how quickly he deteriorated... will let you know...
 
catdragon said:
Apparently she's now been told it is Colitis-X (even though he hasn't yet got to the diarrhea stage :( Vets tried to withdraw some of the drugs yesterday to see if the slight improvement they saw was him or the drugs only. After a very short time it became apparent that it's the drugs that are keeping him going. He's still very poorly and has IV's in him, frequent tubing and tubes in his gut. Only the owner is seeing him (other than the vet staff) as he is very susceptible to infection. Owner has been told that by tomorrow they should be able to give her some indication if they think he will pull through or not. I feel so sorry for the horse, it was scary at how quickly he deteriorated... will let you know...
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This is exactly what happened to my horse, how is your friends horse doing?
 
without meaning to give anyone false hope, my mare was collapsed in a field 5 years ago, she was taken straight into hospital and they did a peritineal (spell?) tap which had counts higher than they had ever seen before, she was 6 weeks pregnant at the time and the vets said i was going to loose her but deffinatley the foal.
she was too unstable to opperate so told us to go home, an hour late they rung to say she was getting worse and they would probably pts, i sat waiting for the phone call, it never came, i rung and they said no change, the phone call stillnever came.
by some miracle she survived and 2 weeks later i went to get her.
they then announced she was still pregnant but woulf probably abort at some point, nope had a little filly 10 months later.

I wasnt even going to send her to hospital in the first place, she was so ill and i was sure she wasnt going to make it as was the vet, but she was insure so we decided to try. i know my mare was one of the very few serious cases to pull through but just sometime luck can be on your side, im wishing for more of that luck myself right now, i hope your friend is as lucky as i was

best of luck and vibes coming you way xxx
 
I hope he pulls through. It's a scary time.

My boy had peritonitis Christmas/New Year time. He too went very quiet and would not eat or drink and had a very high temperature. He had a peritoneal tap which showed the raised levels indicating peritonitis. He was a very poorly boy but pulled through. He has had many blood tests since then and although his white blood cell count has improved it is not like it was last year when he had a blood test for a different reason. He has done no work this year and is turned out 24/7 and now a lot brighter in himself. I was never told by the vets how serious this condition can be just that my boy was incredibly poorly. It's only through reading up on it that you realise. We don't know why he got it but we did scope him for gastric ulcers which were present so he has had treatment for those.
 
My much loved mare passed away due to peritonitis, not very nice, vet should not have left her so long after initial call out (4 days), hope the horse recovers
 
hope he is ok

i too lost a mare who had a foal at foot to this, foal was 7mths so was ok to be weaned quick
the vets took her to a local hospital and operated on her but her heart gave up mid way through the op
i do know of one that has pulled through from it so fingers crossed
 
Hi -

My Horse - 5yo gelding has just returned from the vets (21 July) after having peritonits.

I went down to ride after work -9pm on 2 July to find him suffering from what looked like mild colic, classic swinging head back and forth to stomach, pawing, but when I went to walk him whilst waiting for the vet he went really wobbly behind. He had a high breathing rate but was not sweating but looked like he must have at some point between being brought in at 4pm and me getting down to the yard.He had a temp of 41.

Called emergency vet. gave him antibiotics and anti-inflams to bring temp down. Came the next day after taking bloods- nothing showed on bloods. Left me with Baytrill and Danilon over the weekend which was impossible to get into him as he wouldnt eat and even with the little strenght he had put up a fight about the syringe method. I only managed to get say 1/2 of what I should have into him. He was not right at all off his feed (didnt eat for 6 days) tucked up, hunched up,uncomfortable and temp didnt drop.

Called vet on the Sunday for advise and he was hospitalised. They did a stomach tap and confrirmed peritonitis.

His temp stayed high for about 4 days and then started to drop.

He has came home on 21 July - lost alot of weight and muscle but has perked up since and back to his normal self and is putting weight on- he has started gentle exercise again but the focus is on building up muscle.

I have been regulary monitoring his temp- aparently the most risky week is the week after the anitbiotics finish.

As he didn't eat for such a long time he has mild ulcertaion confirmed by scoping him which he has been trated with Gastro Guard and Pronutrin, he is also on a blood conditioning liquid (basicly redcell) and a product called Echifend - to boost immune system and he is having feed regime recomended in scope report - basicly high fibre - hay, haylage and alfa a.

His abdomen was scanned and he was tested for the main "known causes" as I didnt want him to come home without at least trying to find a cause/prevent a relapse- it seems as with many other cases we will never know why he got it.

As with others who have commented - I didn't realise until faced with it how serious it could be until the vets discussed the reality with me- I really hope the horse pulls through.
 
I'd never heard of peritonitis in horses until the end of last summer when I was out hacking my Advanced horse. At first he just felt a bit off the boil but after about half an hour he went downhill very quickly, showing all the colic symptoms. Having had a colic op 4 years ago Iwas obviously very concerned. I got off him and took his saddle off him and walked him the mile or so back to the road. As we were walking he kept stopping. stretching and it was obvious he was really uncomfortable.. I met my mum who had brought the lorry to meet us, loaded him and trundled down to liphook equine hosp. They did all the usual checks and a peritoneal tap which shows the white cell count in the lining (I think his count was 150 odd and should have been under 10 but my memory could be wrong on exact figures!) He stayed in for 10days on the IV antibiotics and picked up in about 3 days. When we got him home he was on reduced work for a bit (which was annoying as he was due to go to Blenheim which because of the reduced work he couldn't go to because of loss of fitness). Since then he's been fine (TOUCH WOOD). I guess that because this is an infection, like any other, if the antibiotics don't kill it in the first course that the horse can relapse. The Vet said to us that she didn't know what had caused it, could be from a splinter injested or externally, we'll never know. I was lucky as I had caught it early. This is my experience, sorry not a lot of tips, just fingers crossed...
 
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