Four years ago one of my friends raised this
beautiful gray Arabian colt, Gandolph. I watched him grow and Deb kept saying
"You should buy this horse, he would make an awesome endurance horse." I
just shrugged her off, reasoning that I don't need a young horse and didn't want
to wait this long to have a horse to ride.
Well, I bought him this past fall and brought him
home in November. He will be four this coming spring. He settled well into the
herd and seemed to have adjusted nicely to his new home.
Last Sunday my husband did chores, as I just got
off working the night shift and went straight to bed. It was storming and cold.
My husband came to wake me up and asked me to look at Gandolph, as he felt he
didn't look right. When I got out to the barn I could tell right away that he
was colicking.
We called the vet and my friend DeAnne helped me
haul him in. He pooped some very dry manure in the trailer, and his gut sounds
were very quiet. No temp, heart rate 36 but very uncomfortable. He got the usual
Benamine, tubed water and mineral oil and only had slight relief. Rectal exam
was unremarkable at that point. On Monday he was tubed again and the vet
felt since his heartrate was still only 36 and he had no temp that we could
afford to wait a little longer. None of labs on Monday were really very
abnormal, I can't remember all the numbers, I was a basket case at that point.
The roads were terrible, no way he could be hauled anywhere.
On Tuesday morning he went down. An abdominal
synthesis was inconclusive, no temp, heartrate 40. At 1:00 PM the abdominal
synthesis was repeated, and was abnormal, and at that point the rectal exam also
indicated abnormalities. My vet felt it was time to take him to surgery. Now you
need to know that we live out in the sticks in North Dakota, our (one and
only) clinic is a mainly cattle geared facility with one equine vet, no
fancy operating room etc.. Thank god it wasn't busy and all three vets were
available for the surgery. As there was not operating table available, they did
the surgery on the ground. The vet found that the colon was 180-270
degrees turned/twisted , with a large impaction. The impaction was removed and
the colon repaired and repositioned. None of the bowel looked dead, and he
didn't have to cut any sections out.
They also don't have a recovery stall, so he was
wrapped up and padded really good, even his head was padded and wrapped. I saw
him in recovery, before he was on his feet. I really have to give those guys
credit, he didn't have any scuff marks on him at all. He was back on his
feet and in his stall within about 5 hours.
He started eating little bites the following night
and started drinking himself the following day. Today I took him home. Well, I
really didn't take him home but I am boarding him until spring at a stable that
has a heated barn. Our nights right now are 20 degrees below zero, and it
supposed to get down to 30 below this week. He shouldn't have to use his little
energy to stay warm. He has lost a lot of weight and needs lots of TLC. I am
only 8 miles from this barn and able to go over there three times a day to hand
walk him, medicate him and do his daily bandage changes. The owners of the barn
are also very helpful and observant.
I am soooo thankful to Dr. Behm for doing such a
great job with the resources he has available. He was so great at communicating
with me, called me any time he got lab results, or there was even a slight
change in his condition. I know I have probably left out a lot of details, I
just can't remember all of it. This was my first experience ever with
colic. If he wouldn't have done the surgery, Gandolph would have died. Road
conditions and distance did not allow us to haul him to a large Equine facility,
we were stuck. In my eyes HE IS THE BEST!!!!
I know we are not out of the woods yet, we have a
big incision to deal with, and have a long road ahead of us, as far as recovery
is concerned. But I am very hopeful now. He has the sparkle back in his eyes,
and even snorted tonight when somebody pushed a cart by his stall. What a week
this was!!! I would love to hear from other people that have had a horse go
through colic surgery, how their recovery went.
As far as a cause of this colic we figure he didn't
drink enough water. It had been storming, and snowing, and I think he didn't
bother to walk the 50 yards to the water tank, but huddled down in the barn
without drinking. It is just about impossible to monitor the water intake of
individual horses, if they are all drinking from the same tank. Our water is
heated too to insure that they are drinking more, but I guess that wasn't
enough.
Jutta and Gandolph (who plans to meet you on the
trail in a couple of years)
