twisted gut surgery

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tickledpink

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hi there
hoping you guys can offer me some encouragement and faith...none of my non-horsey friends understand.
On saturday morning my 6 year old gypsy cob was displaying signs of colic. After being seen by the vet he was referred to the equine hospital. That evening they rand me to ask for permission to operate on a suspected twisted gut. the op lasted 1 hr 6 mins. i have visited him morning and afternoon since sunday and he seems to be doing well. the drips are now out and he has pooed! hooray! He is still in intensive care but no one will tell me for how long.
All the signs are looking good although obviously noone will make me any promises. He had a slight respiritory infection last night, they say caused from being upside down during the op but since he's on antibiotics they are not concerned about it. He seems perky enough - pleased to see me, eating and drinking and hassling for mints! They've allowed me to walk him around the yard for a few minutes each day and he is allowed a couple of polos a day. He's kicking the door when i leave which is a good sign. He will certainly be in there until the last weekend this month at the earliest.
Heaven knows what the bill is going to be but i'll worry about that later. Has anyone got any good stories about this surgery? This twisted gut was caused by sand colic - unfortunately we are very sandy where we live and over time he has ingested the sand when pulling up the roots on the grass. I am concerned that when he's home he has to have 3 months box rest - surely that alone can cause colic? Any suggestions on that?
many thanks
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You poor thing I feel for you ,we have had several cases of sand colic and its a nightmare . My friend was unable to transport her horse to a vets which was a very long way away and the mare died she was devestated .It sounds as if your horse is getting the best treatment possible and i would take advice on the three months box rest as to what exactly he can do and also what to feed .Good luck i am sure he will be fine know try not to worry .
 
Glad your horse's surgery went well and he's on the road to recovery.
There is a supplement you can get for sandy areas, my friend has a yard thats got sandy soil and she feeds the supplement - cant for the life of me remember the name of it though, she has also had a couple go down with sand colic...quite common on the affected soil apparently.

I hope your horse makes a great fast recovery.
 
physillium for sand colic , you can feed it as it is or it's included in some suppliments.
But check with vets as to when and how much to start feeding.
Hope your boy conitnues to do well and makes a full recovery.
I wouldn't say box rest caues colic, OK it's a risk if your horse stresses out too much but there's a lot of things that can be done to stop that. I would imagine he's already being kept in all the time at horsepital so he should be ok with it.
 
thank you for the replies.
yes, i have been recommended 'sand out' which is to be fed for 1 week every month when he's back grazing.
i obviously need to speak to his surgeon about his aftercare but it seems a bit premature at the mo and almost tempting fate. went to see my boy again this afternoon - i think they think i'm some sort of nutter at the hospital - i'm there twice a day! the staff are all so wonderful and i know he's really in the best place. out of interest, assuming all goes well, does anyone know about insurance after this...
i'm thinking he'll be insurable with the exception of colic which isn't a risk i can take. can anyone shed any light on this. will pay whatever premium i have to but i can't not have him insured. his current insurance will only cover me for £3,000 of this claim - i'll be looking at a total of probably £8,000! only a mere £5,000 to find!
 
Hi, sorry you lad has been poorly. The surgeon who did the op will be the best person to give you advice and before he gets to leave hospital you will be given full discharge instructions along with any drugs he needs to be given.

My boy had surgery in March 2008 for a multiple twisted gut, operation took over 3 hours. He was in hospital for just over a week and then box rest with 3 inhand walking/grazing sessions a day starting at 15 minutes a time. I agreed with my vet that I could start turning him out for an hour in one of the 3 sessions after 8 weeks. Exactly 3 months post surgery I was allowed to start riding him again. To be honest it does go quite quickly although seems very daunting at the outset. Cost wise the Op and hospital care was £5,800 and I had another £1,000 worth of bills from my own vets for pre and post surgery visits. He was already excluded for colic on his insurance and obviously in view of surgery, will have no chance ever of him being insured for this. Might be worthwhile checking with your insurance company to see what they say or how much the premium increase is likely to be.

Global Herbs do a supplement called Clear Out which can also be used daily as a maintenance dose (I give my boy 2 scoops once a day). Very good product and although seems expensive at around £18 a tub, is a lot cheaper than a vets bill.

I hope your lad continues to recover well and if you need to chat, just drop me a PM.
 
hi guys, looking good...
horespital rang tonight and they say if he continues to do well, will be allowed home on saturday! Thats atleast a whole week earlier than i was expecting! will obviously have meeting with vet concerning his aftercare but they say things are looking good! Will be too terrified to ever ride him again incase i hurt him!
thanks for your messages x
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I'm really pleased you managed to get your horse to the surgery early and he's doing well.

Sadly only last saturday my 18 year old (but very fit) Welsh type died within about six or seven hours of starting with colic, so we didn't even have an option to help him other than the vet saying that it may be a twisted gut and he'd check back in an hour (to give the drugs time to work while enabling him to revisit another colic sufferer nearby) to give us options. The pony died about thirty minutes later, very suddenly.

I'm just thankful that my pony died so swiftly and yours didn't - if that makes sense!
 
I worked in an equine operating theatre for a few years and 1hr 6 mins for a colic surgery is not long at all so I would have thought it was fairly straightforward. It is unlikely they resected any gut in that time, which adds more potential complications. Everything you are describing sounds like he is making a good recovery.
 
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