Work regime after peritonitus?

[Luci07]

Billy has had a bad bout of this and now looked to be on the road to recovery. He (under vets guidance) went back into work yesterday. By work I mean a short hack (20 mins) walk only escorted by my old mare. No hill work either. Had a relapse last night and was (again under vets gudance) given painkillers. Vet out again today for further blood tests and check and I will be asking her to scope. Head girl will also be having that conversation.

Vet did say she was half expecting it but he had seemed to be improving so much and was starting to become a pain to handle as not doing anything.

Billy is a 5 year ISH and was in proper regular work, ridden 5 - 6 times a week. Had the symptoms initially on something like the 19th August, been under close vet supervision all the way through ). Think we caught it early on as Billy is a very large character so if he is off his food or a bit depressed it is immediately noticebable.

Really hope this is just a setback because he actually wasn't ready to go back into work. Please can you guys post your experiences of a: time for recovery b: work plan. I hope this doesn't read as someone who just wants to ride as thats not the case. If he needed months off he would have it, its more to ensure I do the right thing, in the right time for him.

 

[superpony]

I can't fully remember what I did with my boy after he got it as it was about 4/5 years ago but from what I can remember I did the roughly the following:

He was on box rest about 4-5 weeks and then was turned out for short periods building up slowly (started with half an hour). At this point I did 20 mins of hacking in walk with him every couple of days. Slowly building up each week this seemed to work for him but I guess it depends on the individual.

Hope he continues improving. And glad to hear hes on the road to recovery.

 

[Luci07]

Thank you for replying. He never had to have box rest and pretty much went out in the starvation paddock straight away, albeit 1 hour out, 1 hour in. He had graduated back to 1/2 day in the big field but they put him back in the starvation (not completely bare, just small and smack in the middle of the yard so easy to keep on eye on).

Fingers crossed that the blood tests come back showing bloods OK and it was just I should have taken him out for a shorter hack. Honestly thought 20 mins flat walking would have been fine as he was in medium regular work before he became ill. He has lost a considerable amount of muscle already.

 

[neddynesbitt]

My horse had it Jan 2010 and spent 10 days in intensive care at Liphook, upon discharge they told me to start working him straight away. My friends horse also had it in Nov 2011 and luckily we recognised it immediately,he was seriously ill and had intensive treatment at home. It took him approx 5 days to improve then the vet told us to give him a week off and resume work. Luckily we didn't have any relapses but both would colic in the spring/autumn on too much grass.

I lost my boy 2 weeks ago today sadly but that was due to an accident in the field. As regards the perotinitis he made an amazing recovery as the vet told me if he had been an hour later arriving at Liphook he would have collapsed and died. The fact that he was ok hopefully gives you some confidence that they can recover. It is a rollercoaster at the time and I know whilst my lad was at Liphook he was up and down but after the 10 days we never looked back.

Good luck, keep us posted xx