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[RC] Colic surgery - Michael Maul

It depends a lot on the horse and what's done. My 16 year old guy coliced on the way to a ride in the trailer last Feb.

I took him to Texas A&M where they did surgery. There was no resection or impaction - just the "pelvic flexure" had flipped over and was totally cutting things off from moving. He was operated on within 12 hours of first discovery. They put it back in place, closed him up, and sent him home with me within 3 days.

He had 2 weeks in a stall, 2 weeks in a paddock, 2 more weeks in the pasture, and then I was able to condition him again on the advice of the TX A&M vets. We did a 50 mile ride in TX 90 days after surgery. He had done 200 miles in the season - this happened in mid Feb and he went on to do another 800 by Nov 31, 2004 to win the HW award and the regional mileage championship. We ride in the last third of the finishers.

His incision healed quickly and never was an issue. I had him examined several times by my local vet during the 90 days with no apparent issues. I ponied him for a while in the first stage of conditioning. He was in excellent shape before the surgery and didn't lose much during the time he was off. He had 2500 miles before the surgery and has 3500 now. I hope to reach 4000 miles on him this year and go for 5K over the next several years.

I suspect this is unusually quick because some other riders have not ridden until after 4-6 months. Perhaps their vets are more cautious or the situation was different.

One vet said that he's seen horses out in halter classes 3 weeks after surgery but he felt this was certainly too soon.

Anyway - this is just one person's experience but it's a very positive one.

Mike

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