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Veteran
Posts: 171
 
| Colic surgery yes or no.
I had a horse that I opted to do colic surgery on, but it was unsuccessful.
So if faced with this decision in the future... what would you do. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 304
Location: Up and over to the right | Not likely on my horses. The 17k+ cost plus the recovery is too much for most people and horses to endure. EPSM/PSSM horses and many others can't handle the anesthesia either. Depends on if they are registered, insured and if they have a successful career or could withstand being retired/broodmare status. |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
  
Location: Phoenix | We also opted for the surgery...horse appeared to have improved...it was only because there was likes many, many feet of dead intestine. So sad. And expensive. I sure don't have the $$$ to afford a surgery like that and hate making payments on a dead animals (currently paying off my dog's unsuccessful surgery). It would be hard but I'd say no. |
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  Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | depends what the issue is .. and why horse is colicing .. |
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 A Gopher's Worst Nightmare
Posts: 5094
Location: Southern Oregon | Unfortunately the closet hospital to us that does the surgery with any success rate is about 1.5hrs away. So by the time we get there the chances are horrid for survival. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| My vet told me there is a 25 percent chance of them living through the surgery and recovery.
I'm still not sure what I would do when faced with the decision |
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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | I wouldn't put my 22 year old Joker through it. I'd be a lot more likely to do it on my other 3 because they're younger, better patients and honestly financially they are more valuable than Joker. He would not enjoy being laid up for any amount of time so I have known for probably 10 years that I wouldn't do surgery on him. |
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 I Am Always Right
Posts: 4264
Location: stray dump capital of the world | It really depends on what type of colic, where it is located and the odds. I had one with a displaced colon. They gave her 80% odds of recovery, so we did the surgery. She's still going strong 8 years later. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1440
Location: Texas | It really depends why they are colicing. I have done it on one of mine when he was 10 and he is 31 now and didn't have any issues post op or down the road. I was not so lucky with another one opted to try to sVe her but had too much dead intestines. Most insurance policies these days cover colic surgery up to a certain amount and most of time it is not much more than what the policies cover |
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 Proud to be Deplorable
Posts: 1929
| I have only done it two times. One TB stud who lived another 15 years. And one show gelding he lived another 7 years. Was it worth it? I would have to say yes. |
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 I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
Location: In the Hills of Texas | I had one done and it wasn't successful.
Would I do it again...It would depend on alot of things but I would lean more not to have it done. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 600
Location: Oklahoma & Texas | Depends on the vet and prognosis..some horses are better candidates than others...friend of mine had one done this time last year at K-State and horse is already back clocking top of the 2d and improving with every run...doing it requires rehab and special feed and a certain degree of pampering as they are very sensitive for a long time after surgery in their gut...but i would do it if I had to...it's one of the reasons I insure mine just incase ! |
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 I"m Jealous!
Posts: 1737
Location: Benton City, WA | I've had 2 horses that successfully went through colic surgery.
Horse #1 was a project horse that I was in the process of selling when he colicked. He was not insured, and there was no way that I could afford the surgery, so I called the people buying him and told them that if they paid for surgery, they wouldn't owe me anything. He went through surgery and is still doing great as far as I know. That was a few years ago, and I think his surgery cost around 5K.
Horse #2 was my good barrel horse, and was insured at the time. She colicked bad and ended up having 2 surgeries, less than 12 hours apart. It was awful. I slept in her stall on a foal bed for 2 or 3 nights. That was october I think. She came back the next spring and was already placing at rodeos in May. Never missed a beat. But she can't eat alfalfa anymore, so she requires more expense in grain than other horses. I could care less about that. I would do it again in a heartbeat for her. If she didn't come back, she would still be worth it as a broodmare to me, or even a pasture pet. She doesn't owe me anything. JMO. She has not had any more digestive issues, and I think that was 2013 that she colicked |
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Industrial Srength Barrel Racer
Posts: 7264
| Nope. |
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 Saint Stacey
| Depends on the colic, the horse and what needs done. If they have the type of colic that the colon floats up and gets trapped between the spleen and the kidney, I would do the surgery. It has a very high success rate and if you don't do it the surgery, you have a dead horse. A lot of times they can use drugs to shrink the spleen and then they jog the horse and the colon falls back into place. If they have to do a Belly Dump, those are usually successful because they slit the intestine horizontally and dump the contents. Horizontal slits don't have the scare tissue problems like when they do a full splice. If part if the intestine has died and needs to be cut out, this is the type I would probably opt out of. Even if they survive, you usually have problems 7 years down the road because scar tissue builds up around the splice site and you end up with the same colic problem. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 639
Location: God's country...aka TEXAS | Yes, yes and yes! How could you not?! I've had 2 successful colic surgeries. And it did NOT cost 17K as a previous post mentioned. Also, why would you not have insurance to cover this??? |
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 I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3310
Location: Jersey Girl | I would not on my older gelding (he's 22). MAYBE on my 7 yr old gelding but prob not. |
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 Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| I likely would... Ive had colic surgery done twice. One was successful and one was successful through the colic part but had an aneuryism and dies 10 days post-op. I had another gelding that was older and we opted not to. And my bill was $4800ish... no $17k. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1074
| We did it once, and she didn't survive. Our surgery cost less than $5000. Thought we were going to possibly do it again about 3 weeks ago, but thankfully impaction passed before we had to go that far. I have many friends with horses that have lived through colic surgery. Our horses are older and insurance is very expensive for the age group. That really frustrates me, but that's another post. LOL! |
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 Expert
Posts: 5290
| JLBerry - 2015-05-27 5:08 AM
Yes, yes and yes! How could you not?! I've had 2 successful colic surgeries. And it did NOT cost 17K as a previous post mentioned. Also, why would you not have insurance to cover this???
Maybe because everyone cant afford major medical coverage on their horses? Maybe because the quality of life wouldnt be the same even of the horse survived? |
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 Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | cheryl makofka - 2015-05-26 8:13 PM My vet told me there is a 25 percent chance of them living through the surgery and recovery. I'm still not sure what I would do when faced with the decision
My vet said similar odds plus about $12k if it is an easy fix and upwards of $15-$20k if it isn't. The recovery is terrible for them and chances of them having another episode are increased and making a full comeback as a competitive horse is slim.
From experience, if you have colic surgery in your policy, they will make you attempt the surgery vs letting you put the horse down and getting paid any claims.
I can easily say with what I own now, I would not do the surgery. However if I owned a very popular stallion, I most likely would give it a try as there have been a few that have it done , are given a yr off to recovery and if all goes well, continue their breeding. I think it was One Famous Eagle or maybe a son of his standing that just had a successful surgery done this spring. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 639
Location: God's country...aka TEXAS | FLITASTIC - 2015-05-27 9:11 AM
JLBerry - 2015-05-27 5:08 AM
Yes, yes and yes! How could you not?! I've had 2 successful colic surgeries. And it did NOT cost 17K as a previous post mentioned. Also, why would you not have insurance to cover this???
Maybe because everyone cant afford major medical coverage on their horses? Maybe because the quality of life wouldnt be the same even of the horse survived?
You don't have to have major medical. Most basic policies have colic coverage included..... |
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 Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | I honestly don't know what I'd do. It would definately depend on the horse & what exactly was going on. I wouldn't even consider putting my older horses through it & likely not my shooting horse either as he'd be a terrible paitent through recovery. A year ago I'd have said I wouldn't even consider trying. But last year two horses I know well both went through surgery & survived. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 212
| I do not think any of the people that have posted are wrong but I am confused about the information some people said.. I have always heard pretty good odds as long as it is not Small Intestine.... I cannot believe the 25%, our vets gave us 80% the first time.. I had two done, the first one very severe was a 360' colon torsion... took about 6 hours.... she lived... coliced again a month later and had another one... the first time she started colicing at 11 AM and went to one vet, who referred her to surgery 3 hours away.. they did not start until 11 o clock.. she was throwing herself against the stocks and tried to lay down in trailer..... even if you live next door to the clinic it takes them a while to exam, decide for surgery and call in the surgical team so I don't see how 1.5 hours away would be a dealbreaker alone (obviously depends on the case).. each of mine cost around 5k I cannot believe someone would charge 17k unless the horse had to stay for a while or something.. that is crazy.. My horse was running 1d again 6 months later, never had adhesions and is on the Smart Pak thing and so far so good... She won a round at all American youth that summer and placed in the 1d all 3 rounds of world.. I don't think the surgeries affected her quality of life at all! I guess what I mean is if I could afford it, the horse was worth more than the cost of surgery I would absolutely do it again. Don't know if I would feel the same way if my horse's hadn't been successful, but if the only other choice was to put the horse down it would be hard for me not to |
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 Own It and Move On
Location: The edge of no where | JLBerry - 2015-05-27 9:21 AM FLITASTIC - 2015-05-27 9:11 AM JLBerry - 2015-05-27 5:08 AM Yes, yes and yes! How could you not?! I've had 2 successful colic surgeries. And it did NOT cost 17K as a previous post mentioned. Also, why would you not have insurance to cover this??? Maybe because everyone cant afford major medical coverage on their horses? Maybe because the quality of life wouldnt be the same even of the horse survived? You don't have to have major medical. Most basic policies have colic coverage included.....
^^This.
The basic mortality policy we carry has $7500 toward colic surgery included. It would make the decision much easier on the horses we compete on....still a tough call on the ones that aren't insured. We can't afford to insure everyone and honestly I don't think anyone would write a policy for a 26yo pasture ornament.
It just depends on the horse and the circumstances that would make me decide to operate or not. I do know several horses that have had colic surgery and made full recoveries. I've never had one operated on, and I hope to not have to make that call.
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 Living within my means
Posts: 5128
Location: Randolph, Utah | I don't know what I would do. I am 2 hours to the nearest vet that could operate. I hope I never have to make the decision. I was told 5-8K for the surgery. |
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Expert
Posts: 5290
| JLBerry - 2015-05-27 7:21 AM
FLITASTIC - 2015-05-27 9:11 AM
JLBerry - 2015-05-27 5:08 AM
Yes, yes and yes! How could you not?! I've had 2 successful colic surgeries. And it did NOT cost 17K as a previous post mentioned. Also, why would you not have insurance to cover this???
Maybe because everyone cant afford major medical coverage on their horses? Maybe because the quality of life wouldnt be the same even of the horse survived?
You don't have to have major medical. Most basic policies have colic coverage included.....
Yea my basic policy has colic coverage but only up to 2500.00 I think. I had one need it about 15 years ago and it was 7500 just to open the horse up... You need major medical if you want it to cover more than very little. |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12838
| I have one at the trainers right now and I told her if the horse colicked do what she needed to do to get the horse over it but surgery is not an option. She totally agreed. She takes really good care of the horses at her house (her own and other peoples') and they do not colic often. Mine rarely colic at my house. |
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Industrial Srength Barrel Racer
Posts: 7264
| FLITASTIC - 2015-05-27 9:11 AM
JLBerry - 2015-05-27 5:08 AM
Yes, yes and yes! How could you not?! I've had 2 successful colic surgeries. And it did NOT cost 17K as a previous post mentioned. Also, why would you not have insurance to cover this???
Maybe because everyone cant afford major medical coverage on their horses? Maybe because the quality of life wouldnt be the same even of the horse survived?
AND because if your horse is over 15, insurance for this is ASTRONOMICAL. |
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Nut Case Expert
Posts: 9305
Location: Tulsa, Ok | So much depends on the individual circumstances. I have faced the decision twice. First time was a four year old gelding with no history of health or gut issues. We had him in surgery within two hours of the first signs of colic. His gut was flipped at the base of the cecum and simply had to be flipped back over and stitched in place. Results were perfect and recovery was great and relatively short. The second was a 16 year old gelding with a history of multiple impactions and days on IV to break them loose. The prognosis was not so great and I opted to put him down. I would think long and hard about the odds vs cost before I ever did it again. |
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 Expert
Posts: 4625
Location: Desert Land | Depends on the horse, if they're insured or not and inidividual situation.
I lost a broodmare in foal almost 2 years to an illeal impacting. They gave her a 50/50 shot WITH surgery and she was not insured, so I had her put down.
I had a colt last year that had an inguinal hernia that caused a blockage and he was insured so I did have the surgery done and he has been great ever since. |
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 Go Canada!
Posts: 2954
| It depends on the reason and the horse for me also.
I have a horse who had colic surgery 5 years ago and recovered great. He hasn't looked back since and is back to running barrels. He has not coliced since. He coliced as a complication of being put under to have a bone chip removed. A few days after this surgery he started acting colicy and I found out he had an impaction. The thought of not operating didn't even cross my mind. I hauled him about 8 hours to the nearest place equipped to do surgery. His cecum was about to burst by the time I got there, I feel I got extremely lucky to make it there before anything happened. He went into surgery around 2:30 am. It was a stressful night.
He wasn't insured but had won me enough money that season to pay for both of his surgeries and after care.
Edited by tj135 2015-05-27 3:26 PM
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 494
| I opted for colic surgery on mine. She is insured and has a record behind her, so I definitely went with surgery. Not sure how still to this day that she survived it, as she had a torsion for 12 hours by the time she started colicing to the time she got on the table. Blessed to say the least and it was God's plan to have her in my life. A long road of recovery, but is back winning like she used to.
ETA: Surgery cost about 5k at the state university here and insurance covered it all.
Edited by epoh 2015-05-27 5:29 PM
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12704
| FLITASTIC - 2015-05-27 9:11 AM JLBerry - 2015-05-27 5:08 AM Yes, yes and yes! How could you not?! I've had 2 successful colic surgeries. And it did NOT cost 17K as a previous post mentioned. Also, why would you not have insurance to cover this??? Maybe because everyone cant afford major medical coverage on their horses? Maybe because the quality of life wouldnt be the same even of the horse survived?
Shoot - I spent almost $4K losing one that I didn't even consider colic surgery on!! And since that was at the closer hospital, I won't ever be tempted since I boycotted and have spread the word of their cheating ways far and wide.
My brood Zeon was in foal to DFP and coliced. We did not know for sure what kind of colic for almost 12 hours (turned out to be gas colic, but a really bad one). I told my vet, "she lives or dies here on the farm - her worth is in what she's carrying and surgery would end that." I spent 36 hours getting her through that colic. I can afford time to treat/heal anything that goes wrong with one of my guys.
BUT . .
Business decisions are not always warm and fuzzy. If you are loaded and your horse is a pet then why not? But if horses are your BUSINESS then opting for or against any major expense must be balanced with future value of the horse.
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | JLBerry - 2015-05-27 8:21 AM FLITASTIC - 2015-05-27 9:11 AM JLBerry - 2015-05-27 5:08 AM Yes, yes and yes! How could you not?! I've had 2 successful colic surgeries. And it did NOT cost 17K as a previous post mentioned. Also, why would you not have insurance to cover this??? Maybe because everyone cant afford major medical coverage on their horses? Maybe because the quality of life wouldnt be the same even of the horse survived? You don't have to have major medical. Most basic policies have colic coverage included.....
I had $7500 colic coverage on my stallion that came with his normal policy, no Maj. Med. He was at that point that we thought he was going to need the surgery in May. He was only going to breed 7 mares that summer and then be put down due to knee arthritis. Had we done the surgery, I would have paid around $5000 over what my insurance covered, he would have been out for the summer as well. So I would have had stud fees to cover. For me it didn't make sense and thank God it was just an impaction that he later passed and was out breeding mares 2 days later. Had it come down to it, I would have put him down. Right now I have pretty nice broodmares, all 4 of which I could replace and upgrade if I saved the colic surgery money and put it towards a new mare...I have a 22 yr old gelding that would cost an arm and a leg to get insurance on and 5 young ranch/barrel prospects that I raised. They are worth more to me emotionally then they are of actual value. Again, I could get a pretty dang nice barrel horse already running for what it would cost to insure and pay colic surgery on. I haven't talked to anyone in yrs that has done a colic surgery for under $10k. So there are a lot of reasons why not to have insurance on your horses.
These kinds of answers, that sort of judge those that won't spend that kind of money on every horse they own, bug me a little. I have 12 head right now. At the moment I have insurance on 1 until he sells. If he were to be hit by lightning it would be a relief because I would have $7500 in my pocket vs trying to sell a maybe sound horse for $1000 and worrying about him for the rest of his life. No way can most people insure their entire herd and I for one, have a family that comes before my horses. I am not going to drain our savings to do a colic surgery when that money is needed to take care of my kids. |
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 Can You Hear Me Now?
Location: When you hit the middle of nowhere .. Keep driving | I am with everyone else who says it depends on the kind of colic it is. I have 3 that if there was any chance I wouldn't even hesitate. The rest I would have to likely see depending on the situation, a few I would just put down but others would be a hard decision and depend on the survival chance.
I did it with a dog 3 years ago, he bloated (basically same thing) and his spleen twisted 3 times. It was 3 times the size of a regular spleen by the time they operated and his blood count was severely low. He was given a 20% chance of recovery, and I chanced it. He survived but had to be put to sleep 2 years later due to another illness. It cost me $5500, I don't regret it for a minute. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1069
Location: Oklahoma | When my mare was 5, she had colic surgery. She is now 10 and has had no other issues whatsoever with colic. That was a one and only time for her. She had a 20 foot impaction, intestines had to be cut into. My surgery and care bill (she was there for almost a week) from Oakridge in Edmond Oklahoma, was right at $4500. We tried IVs for a day to loosen the impaction but she was in agony. I couldn't bare not trying to save her especially b/c we had just put one down a few months before due to a bad joint infection. She came back just as strong as she was before, right back to running. It's a process though, stalled for a long time with only hand walking, small pen for another couple months, then I think after 4 months we could ride her again. For me it would depend on the horse as far as my decision went, but it was the right thing to do for her, and was very successful. |
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Location: delaWHERE? | I work at the New Bolton Center, University of Pennsylvania's large animal hospital. I can honestly say we get at least five colic surgeries a week and we MAY loose three a month and it's only when things go really, really badly. Something ruptured, hernia in the diaphragm. The cost is usually 3-5, sometimes 8-10 depending.
More people opt to pay 2,500 for exploratory surgery. The surgeon will call you when the horse is open and let you know what's going on. Some of them get out down on the table, some continue on.
Very, very high success rate. The post-op care can be tough, refeeding and tubing with electrolytes. But, we are very very well known for colic surgeries, among other things.
From experience, if it was MY horse I would opt to do an explore and decide when I know what kind of colic it was. |
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 A very grounded girl
Posts: 5052
Location: Moving soon..... | We had a mare that had surgery, she was displaced. Insurance covered it, however, every year (even with no vet visits) they put a rider on anything to do with colic. After 3 years of no colic (after the initial surgery), I cancelled the policy. Sorry insurance carrier. I have heard that that particular carrier was bad about not ever covering a surgery once you had to use their policy. I do not remember who the carrier was. |
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | Scoot - 2015-05-28 6:40 AM I work at the New Bolton Center, University of Pennsylvania's large animal hospital. I can honestly say we get at least five colic surgeries a week and we MAY loose three a month and it's only when things go really, really badly. Something ruptured, hernia in the diaphragm. The cost is usually 3-5, sometimes 8-10 depending. More people opt to pay 2,500 for exploratory surgery. The surgeon will call you when the horse is open and let you know what's going on. Some of them get out down on the table, some continue on. Very, very high success rate. The post-op care can be tough, refeeding and tubing with electrolytes. But, we are very very well known for colic surgeries, among other things. From experience, if it was MY horse I would opt to do an explore and decide when I know what kind of colic it was.
When I talked to the vet that did all the surgeries in the area, he said most of his customers actually make the decision based on an emotional deal and when it is all over and they pay up, they often have regrets. He said in his yrs of doing it, even the customers with insurance were not impressed with how little their insurance covered the bill. He is all about making money, but he said for those that are in horses for a business, unless you own a top producing stallion or broodmare or have a competition horse worth $50k, it is usually a better decision to put one down. It takes a lot of yrs of making $250 checks here and there to recover that kind of money spent on colic surgery. And some don't have great odds to begin with. Were I rich beyond compare, I love my horses and would probably do it with any of them. Heck I feel bad when I have a sick chicken. |
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Colic surgery...to do or not to do....