Posted on behalf of a friend: She needs your thoughts please.

[Dotilas]

Posted on behallf of my friend Kelly in the US. (She's studying to be a vet at college)

OK, in class today, one of our instructors got a call from her roommate saying that her roommates horse had colic and the vet was on the way out to the barn. They had the horse walking around and she seemed to be doing ok.
So we all got in our cars and drove out to the barn (since we are in school to be vet techs.)
We get to the barn and the vet was already there. They had taken the horse back into the stall and let her lay down. The vet then gave the horse a tranquilizer, and when I asked him why he said...so that the horse wouldn't "thrash" around. They ended up giving her too much and she was pretty much useless. They then had to fight to get her back on her feet so that they could pass a tube into her stomach. BUT they had given her too much tranq. and she couldn't swallow so the tube couldn't be passed into the stomach. After about 20 min of walking the horse around to get her to try and wake up they were able to pass the tube and start pumping out her stomach. That was when we left.
About 30 min after we left we got a call saying that the horse died.

Ok now that is what happened. I don't know how much everyone really knows about horses but does anything in that story sound odd to you or go against anything that you were tought? After I get some feedback I'll let you know what I thought because I am SOOO mad right now. Mainly at my self for not asking why they did what they did. Maybe if I would have asked I would understand better and wouldn't be so upset. Anyways, let me know what you think please.

I mean if I am wrong then please tell me. I have no problem admitting that I was wrong if I am.
They didn't go any further into how the horse died. All he knows is that she was obstucted and he couldn't get it to break up. My thoughts today were exactly that it goes against everything that we are taught. If a horse colics then get it to its feet and get it walking. NEVER let it lay down. When they get to rolling and "thrashing" is when the inestines tie into knots and thats what kills them. Getting a horse to walk helps the paristalsis (the movement of the GI tract to move food through the system) and that is muscle contractions. You want that to be working. If you give a tranq (which is a muscle relaxer) then the paristalsis STOPS. Where is the logic in this??

Kelly really would like some of your thoughts on this please.

 

[GTs]

I personally can not give the author too much credibility, to me there are many holes in her knowledge, which discredits her observation too!

The basic facts - colicing horses are often sedated as a method of pain relief, while letting nature and/or IV fluids and other medication work. Over sedating is not really a huge problem, you can regularly smack them on the nose to get them out of it, or for severe cases you can medicate them to reverse the affects.

The NG tube to me plays no part in the horses death - they got to the stomach they got out -

I personally think it sounds like a bit of bad luck, and if it died so soon there is not a whole lot anyone could do about it.

Now why do I say the author lacks credibility:

Laying down is fine, current research suggests thrashing around is caused by a colon displacement, not a displaced colon is caused by thrashing around, walking has no/minimal affect on a horses digestive system - it is more tradition to walk horses around, it is not needed. I would imagine from a vet tech things like heart rate, dehydration, appearance would be noted - if the horse appeared subdued with a high heart rate it likely had ruptured, if the horse was bouncing off the sides of the walls probably a strangulating lypoma, especially if it was old. These are key observation and likely the causes for sudden death as witnessed.

I have seen probably 100+ colicing horses get treated the same method as above and do fine - as I said above seems just like bad luck!

 

[Dotilas]

I know there are a lot of holes in the story and mainly that was because I was posting on another message board and didn't know how much everyone on there knows and didn't want to confuse anyone. I had no problem with them passing the tube. I thought that was right, I just never heard of someone tranqing a horse that has coliced. And we did hit her on the nose NUMEROUS times and she would not come out of it. Like I said, I dont mind being wrong, I have just never heard of it before and wanted input. Thank you very much for posting it though. At least I know now that people do tranq them, now I just need to figure out why. (I know to help with pain but there are other ways around that. And if you do use tranq, not THAT much.)

 

[MurphysMinder]

Not knowing the background here don't want to say too much. However, yes I have had a pony sedated with colic, and given muscle relaxant. And the vet has advised to let them lie down as long as they are not rolling around and thrashing about. Its like a lot of vet treatments, thinking changes as new scientific developments are made. I can remembner years ago forcing a poor little pony with severe lamintis to keep walking! Nowadays the treatment is to encourage them to lie down as much as possible to get the weight off their feet. So sad that the horse died though, and upsetting for the vet students.

 

[Agent XXX999]

In the nicest sense guys I would be careful what you write on this as if the owner wishes to go to court over thetreatment of your horse you views could perhaps be used.

 

[juliebrewer]

I doubt very much weather our comments could be used in court as the judge does not know anyones qualified to give an opinion in court.
With out the vet the horse would of died, why was the vet not called out sooner. How long did the horse die after the vet arrived. Unfortunately I personnely think it is sad when customers want to take the vet to court, the vet has done there best for sick animals only to be iteregated as to weather they did the right thing or not.... Very sorry to hear the horse died in this colic case,.

 

[Cowgirlupinil]

Thank you all very much for your comments. And no the owner is not taking him to court. I have been working around horses for 11 years now and every case of colic I have come across we were told to keep it on its feet and walking. I had never heard of a horse being tranqed. I now know that there are vets that do it.
When we got to the barn the vet was already there and the horse was tranqed. We were there to strictly observe. We were told that they brought her in from pasture that morning around 8 and she was fine. They fed the whole barn and when they went to turn her out to pasture she was standing in her stall but hadden't touched her food. Thats when they called the vet. So either they didn't notice her acting strange before or they cought it pretty early. It took us about 10 min to get to the barn and like I said the vet was already there and had her tranqed so it didn't take him very long to get there.

In any case it was bad luck for the owner. The mare was only 12. My instructors have never worked with horses so they couldn't answer some of the questions that I had. That is why I had it posted.

Again thank you very much for your time and comments.

 

[GTs]

Certainly sad but as I wrote above - all seems very normal protocol for me. Seen it work many times. The thing with colic is 90% of cases are very minor and really do not require agressive treatment, therefore many people rarely see much done. Where I volunteered most of the horses were referals so we were dealing with the 10% that needed more agressive treatment, hence every colic except 1 was sedated - the one died on the trailer ramp!

You will learn horses are pretty crap patience - not very good at getting better, great at getting worse very quickly!

Also sorry about the lack of credibility comment - I know most vet and vet tech schools focus on small animals - large animals it seems a case of learning on the job!