Peritonitis

exdressagediva

exdressagediva

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My mare has been diagnosed with peritonitis a day after she seemed to be colicy. Been in bush for 8 days and has been belly tapped a couple of times, most recent showing reduced proteins but high white blood cells so they have begun a course of oral antibiotics. They do not know what has caused this. Has anyone any experiences of this?

Thanks
 
Poor you :(

Hope shes okay

Only experience I have is my old boy had colic then they think he developed peritonitis and sadly we lost him.
 
Ive had a look and not hugely helpful! Id never even heard of it unil last week. Thanks I really hope that she'll be ok - shes 161/2yrs very fit and I have had her since she was 3.
 
Is bush an equine hospital or something similar to Leahurst in Cheshire?

Sounds like they have everything under control. Did they tell you what caused the peritonitis? The term is more used to describe an inflamed belly lining rather than an actual diagnosis. They are doing the right thing by giving antibiotics after high white cells though.

Has she had any other treatment?

Hope it all goes well for you, fingers crossed! :)
 
I had a mare with peritonitis 15 years ago. In her case when they did belly taps the fluid was full of pus. Unfortunately she was pts, afterwards we found that she had a tumour that had eaten through the small intestine. Not a good outcome for us but I have heard of others making a full recovery. I wish you and your horse the best x
 
My boy had it about 8 years ago now.. he made a full recovery. I nursed him at home but they never really found what caused his either. Hope your mare makes a swift recovery.
 
My mare had it when she was 6 Weeks into her first pregnancy. 4 hours after we took her to Bristol they told us she wasn't going to make it. She spent 2 Weeks in intensive care as they suspected salmonella. Thankfully the cultures for salmonella came back negative and she eventually came home still infoal. The vets were amazed she survived let alone the foal. We never did find out the cause. The vets suspected some sort of blood poisoning. I'm still shocked when I look back at just how ill my mare was.
She's now due to foal foal number 4 any day now.

Good luck, hope you're horse recovers well x
 
Unfortunately my boy was PTS less than 24 hours after developing peritonitis, after seemingly recovering from severe colic.

He deteriorated very fast despite supportive therapy (fluids, steroids and IV antibiotics).

Good luck with your mare :)
 
Thanks for all your messages - they don't seem to know what caused it. She was eating a hedge surrounding the field so possibly this has caused it. Everything is normal except the belly tap fluid, going to test it again on friday so I am hoping that the antibiotics are going to have helped. Day 10 since first rushed in so thats got to mean something good!! (fingers crossed touch wood etc)
 
My 17 yr old Dales gelding had peritonitis in October last year.

From bringing him in from the field to arriving at Leahurst 1.5 hrs drive away (including referral from my vet, finding transport that would work out of hours and loading a very scared pony eventually a heavily sedated one !) was a total of 5 hours.

A very scary 4 days followed ( including day 3 with a phone call from the vet preparing me for the possibility of exploratory surgery) with little or no response to aggressive intravenous AB therapy and a daily bout of taps/blood tests etc. Then on day 5 he started to improve and by day 11 I could bring him home on a further 30 days of strong oral ABs.

He made a full recovery and will remain one of those cases with no explanation. The one possibility was something he had ingested had punctured part of his intestine and allowed the yucky contents to leak into peritoneal cavity.
 
Just an update. Tia's still in the Bush. Changed antibiotics and has perked up immensely since Friday when the vet was thinking surgery. Blood test from Friday showed inflamtaion has decreased from 2000 to 65 however belly tap fluid (though not a lot) had gone up from 65 to 74 white blood cell count. When she went in it was 20. So..the vets gong to retest for inflamation today and take it from there.
 
exdressagediva said:
Thanks for all your messages - they don't seem to know what caused it. She was eating a hedge surrounding the field so possibly this has caused it. Everything is normal except the belly tap fluid, going to test it again on friday so I am hoping that the antibiotics are going to have helped. Day 10 since first rushed in so thats got to mean something good!! (fingers crossed touch wood etc)
Click to expand...

Interesting that you say she was eating a hedge. We had a horse a couple of years ago, she didnt belong to me but I looked after her for the people. She was fine on the Monday evening, they had been in most of the afternoon as the weather had been deadful. The next morning I went in to feed her and she didn't want her food, just rested her chin on the top of the door and was breathing rapidly. I rang her owners straight away and they came over, I had to plead with them to let me call the vet which they eventually said ok.

The vet came out (Bell Equine) and the girl vet drew some fluid out from her tummy as well as a rectal examination and temperature check which was quite high. She then turned to me and said that she was pretty sure that she had peritonitis, I was amazed as the mare was not in work (the daughter lost interested very quickly once she was bought for her) and the mare's routine had not changed. The vet said that they can eat a bramble and it goes down and pricks through the intestine and infects the perionial (sp) fluid and that is peritonitis. Anyway they took the mare into the clinic (she was there for 11 days) and pumped her full of antibiotics and she picked up very quickly (she was only 8 years old and in good condition). When she came home she had a week of Noradine in her feed and was absolutely fine after that.

I do hope your horse recovers, its such a nightmare when they are ill. Lets us know how you get on.
 
Thanks for that. We get bloods today to see if the inflamation has gone down. If it has I assume they will be another belly tap if not I think they are going to operate. Despite her age she is very fit and not overweight. Worked 4-5 times per wk and jumping/schooling/fast work at least 3 times. I will keep you all posted. Thanks again!
 
Well positive news! Inflamation is down to 10 so vets did another belly tap.and couldnt get any fluid! Going to continue the antibiotics and monitor her then take her off the antibiotics and monitor her then if all well she can come home. Not out woods yet but heading there!! :-):-):-)
 
exdressagediva said:
My mare has been diagnosed with peritonitis a day after she seemed to be colicy. Been in bush for 8 days and has been belly tapped a couple of times, most recent showing reduced proteins but high white blood cells so they have begun a course of oral antibiotics. They do not know what has caused this. Has anyone any experiences of this?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I nearly did with my boy he had swallowed a staple from the field shelter. got very ill lying down most of the time. Vet did a tap and said he was very ill, he was rushed to cheltham there they found out if vet had put the tap on 1/2 inch back he would have caused peritonitis. Luckily for him that 1/2 inch made the difference.

It could be he has eaten something and got infected or it might be one of the taps puncture the peritoneal wall . Hope your horse makes full recovery
 
Hello

Well got Tia home on Saturday :) Altho the vets had scanned her on Fri and saw a slight bit of swelling so took a belly tap and had high white blood cells :( tested the cells and saw that they were not suggesting bacteria but a possible parasite! Now this is a horse who is on vet worming prog has just had poo sample clear and was given equest pramox last wk in Nov! So they have wormed her on the off chance. Sent home as she is continuing to look better and brighter with a wks worth of Nordine granules. We go back on Fri for a check up!

Lovely to have her home and hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this!

Maybe check your worming programs too!
 
Interesting! Have they proposed anything to find out what the parasite is, or is it just a case of worm her, see if she gets better, and if she does, fantastic, let not do anything else?

Good to hear she's back home though. Must be much better for you
 
I think it was the case try it and see then reworm in a couple of wks with Equest Pramox. Vet said a cheap way to possibly see if it worked. Shes soooo much brighter being home and back to narking and being disapproving of others behaviour lol!! Will keep you posted!
 
Well wormer made no difference neither did the stuff for liver fluke (lost lot of sheep to this) so are trying her with some steriods as vets don't think its septic. Close monitoring at the moment if all continues to be fine we'll go back in a week. If not i think its'll be surgery. Vets are totally baffled and haven't seen this before. Fingers crossed she improves
 
Hope you find something concrete soon! Sounds like a lot of things up in the air. Not very nice when there isn't a clear diagnosis.

Best of luck, hope the steroids sort her out! Keep us in the loop :)
 
I got a call from my yard saying that my mare was lying down a lot and maybe I should come up to check her. So I did and found her colicking but not straight forwardly. She wasn't rolling, stressing etc she was just looking completely down so called the vet and within an hour of the phone call she was on the box on the way to the vets. Vet found an impaction but suspected peritonitis/colitis due to how quiet she was.
Got there and she had a belly tap, scans etc nothing aside from a few bits of fluid in the colon and the impaction so we were still baffled!

Bloods came back and gave us the answer - liver infection!

It's so hard to get an answer with these things, can be what you least expect!

Hope your horse is doing well, and they find the answers for you!
 
Hello,

Latest update was that after the vets telling me surgery was 99% likely on Tuesday (to happen on Thursday) that actually there was the first difference in fluid from the belly tap! Steriods have started working. There seems to be something called an endophil in the white blood cells which suggest parasite or something else they dont know! Had strongid p for roundworms, liver fluke dose as sheep lost to this and an equest pramox. Avioded surgery and on prednosline tabs for another 14 days and see what happens next. She's hugely brighter and been galloping about in the field and up to get her feeds. Bright and bossy so thats a good sign. I spoke to vet and asked if they took her off them and the problem came back could she be on long term? Shes 17 in July. He said could be on for the rest of her life. If she was a younger horse i'd not even consider but at her age although she is in great form except for this i'd settle for that - then if the time came that quality of life wasn't great then she PTS and avoided an op. She's my family and loved to bits but realistically that would still be a good age. Has anyone used prednolsine at all for a length of time? My instructor has had a horse on them for 6 years with really no problems. I know that they can dampen the immune system and cause laminitis. Suppose all cases are different.
 
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