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 Double Standards Don't Fly
Posts: 1283
  
Location: At the barn | For those of you are that have had a horse recovery from colic surgery, what did you do and how did you manage your horse after they came home? I'm pretty freaked out. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 838
Location: Georgia | Nothing to freak about. Just watch the surgical site, of course, for infection. When my gelding came home from a full blown colic surgery I gave him 10 days of complete stall rest and after that 10 days I started hand walking him and letting him graze for a hour or so two or three times a day. I did that for 4 weeks. After that I started turning him out in the cattle run in the arena for about a week and then turned him out into the arena for another week. About 6 weeks of stall rest, hand walking, small turnout, and large turnout, I started lunging him under saddle again. Within 8 weeks or so I was back on him and doing walk/trot slow work in the arena and around barrels. Within 12 weeks I was making hard runs on him again. I probably could have went a little quicker with things, but I let him pick his pace... Plus, he was a sh*t when I started working him under saddle. He was a ball of energy and didn't do well with being cooped up for so long... Best of luck with your horse. I'm glad everything turned out well. |
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Regular
Posts: 60
| I bought a mare the last weekend of October, On December 3rd she had to have colic surgery. Scared the pants off of me. (I said after seeing a friend go thru colic surgery with her horse that I would never put one thru that, but when it's yours and you see the pain they are in, well you know) She spent 30 days at the vet, when I brought her home she looked like death warmed over. We slowly increased her feed till she was getting 3 times what my others get with lots of good quality alfalfa, we got her weight back up and now she is swimming to help break up any scare tissue and to help her get back into shape. She should have gone to swim about a month ago but with life and other obligations I wasn't able to take her till last weekend. She has been there a week and be there a total of 4 weeks. Everyone has told me it is best to swim them before you start back riding them. |
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Double Standards Don't Fly
Posts: 1283
Location: At the barn | Amazing! I'm totally freaked out. My last experience with this was 12 plus years ago, very bad outcome. So I'm still trying to wrap my head around this.
What was the location of your horse's coilc? My 3 YOs colon twisted 720 degrees. The doctors gave him a 50/50 chance and he's done great. But I'm still worried about every detail about caring for him, even hauling him home! And even what type of hay to feed and how much grass to let him graze. How old was your horse when he had surgery and how long ago was it? |
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Double Standards Don't Fly
Posts: 1283
Location: At the barn | MBLACKMON - 2014-05-06 9:29 PM
I bought a mare the last weekend of October, On December 3rd she had to have colic surgery. Scared the pants off of me. (I said after seeing a friend go thru colic surgery with her horse that I would never put one thru that, but when it's yours and you see the pain they are in, well you know) She spent 30 days at the vet, when I brought her home she looked like death warmed over. We slowly increased her feed till she was getting 3 times what my others get with lots of good quality alfalfa, we got her weight back up and now she is swimming to help break up any scare tissue and to help her get back into shape. She should have gone to swim about a month ago but with life and other obligations I wasn't able to take her till last weekend. She has been there a week and be there a total of 4 weeks. Everyone has told me it is best to swim them before you start back riding them.
Wow that is awful. Do you know what specifically was wrong and how old was your mare at the time? |
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Veteran
Posts: 180
| Mine took a while to fully recover. But I do think it was because I was over panicking and too scared to feed him too much at first. He lost a ton of weight and looked awful! Then he got better. Once he was better, he was 100% and I haven't had a problem since. He actually came back better than before. WINNING many pro rodeos! The surgery today is so good it doesn't affect their performance at all. Just wanted to give you some positive thoughts as I was distraught during that time! |
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Double Standards Don't Fly
Posts: 1283
Location: At the barn | Thank you. Yes, I'm very distraught too. I'm going to be scared to feed him I know. Hell I'm scared to even bring him home. Obviously they have really made a lot of progress as far as surgery goes and that's amazing. I'm blessed he has done so week and I am glad to hear from everyone and yalls positive experiences. I feel like I need a support group! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 639
Location: God's country...aka TEXAS | Mine had a twisted colon likes yours did. He came out of srugery fine. That was 4 years ago. He recovered and has never coliced again or had any other complications. I fed him 4 times a day, just giving him a little grain each time and with his hay of course. I hand walked him as much as I could because he HATED being stalled up. I don't think he even knew he was hurt...lol He was just mad because he couldn't be out with the other horses. I started riding him after 90 days. I know it's scary at the time, but I'm sure yours will be just fine also!! Good luck. |
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 Knowledge is Power
Posts: 4051
Location: wherever my daughter's running | I know your fear. We have one that had colic surgery for sand colic. Had horses on the same pastures for 30 plus years and he is the only one that ever had this. First be assurred that bringing your horse home in and of its self is good medicine. They actually thought ours was colicing again during the week he spent at UGA but determined he was depressed. Write down all your questions and don't be afraid to ask about anything that is troubling you. There are no dumb questions. Your vet should give you specific instructions. Follow those. Colic is a very broad term in the horse world. It can refer to sand, twist, blockage, gas, etc. A general rule of thumb we follow is we feed soaked beet pulp to all of ours once a day. Also, the vet told us to get Metimucial (sp?) and feed it once a month for a week. We do this to all of ours now the first week of every month. We get the generic brand and find it is cheaper that equine products that clear sand. It was over 3 years ago when ours coliced. He is doing great. He did look horrible when we picked him up. Keep your chin up. You will do just fine. |
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Double Standards Don't Fly
Posts: 1283
Location: At the barn | Thank you each for your insight. It feels great hearing positive stories. This really has been an experience. I'm even scared to see my horse as I'm sure he looks rough. But the last image I have of him was when he was laid down for surgery and I felt certain I wouldn't see him alive again. I'm so thankful for the advancements in equine surgery and medicine as I'm sure you all are. Thanks again! |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 302
Location: TX | So sorry you had to go through this!! Hope your horse recovers quickly!!
-Last April, my horse had to have colic surgery. He was 14 at the time and he had a great recovery. I was worried at first because he coliced at a rodeo and I had to leave him at a vet 6 hours away. So on the drive home a week later, I made sure I took it easy on him. He made it through with no problems at all. I fed him a rotation of alfalfa and coastal hay. I would feed him about every 4-5 hours and would give him 1/4 flake each time, rotating between the two. (that's what the vet told me to do). Worked great. I would get him out of the stall everyday for him to graze and move around a little. Make sure you check his incision a couple times a day and watch for any changes or excessive drainage. At one point, I had to get a little SSD cream to put on once a day for a few days. Be sure to monitor his water intake best you can. Especially if you live somewhere that gets really hot. I think you will be fine as long as you watch him close and pay close attention to any changes. I'm sure my vet was tired of hearing from me because I always had questions..
I was very cautious and waited to ride him for about 4 months, I think. I started off bareback just walking around the arena and built up from there! Now we are back running and hauling!! FINALLY!!
Good luck to you and your horse!! I'm happy to answer any questions you have- I know how you feel right now! |
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Double Standards Don't Fly
Posts: 1283
Location: At the barn | Thank you. In glad your horse has done so well. Do you know what specifically was wrong in his case? I was told that the type of twist my horse had was very rare except for in mares post foaling. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 302
Location: TX | trotncowpony - 2014-05-07 1:01 PM
Thank you. In glad your horse has done so well. Do you know what specifically was wrong in his case? I was told that the type of twist my horse had was very rare except for in mares post foaling.
Thank you! He had a twist in his large intestine. I was lucky enough to catch his colic early enough and get him to the vet and they had him cut open before any of his intestine died. I got to see it and it was deep purple, almost black but they saved it. Thank the Lord.
(sorry if I seem a little vague on my description. I had been crying and really upset) |
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Double Standards Don't Fly
Posts: 1283
Location: At the barn | I understand completely. It's nearly an "out of body" experience. I felt like I was in a dream for several days there after! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 794
| trotncowpony - 2014-05-06 8:51 PM
For those of you are that have had a horse recovery from colic surgery, what did you do and how did you manage your horse after they came home? I'm pretty freaked out.
We had a one operated on about 7 years ago, once he came home we kept him in the stall of course but we would hand walk him every day for 20 mins 3x's a day but I teach school and my husband works odd hours and our son was able to come home from school so it worked for us. We did this for six weeks then we turned him out in the arena for about 1 hour per day until he was 5 months post op then began to ride him and leg him up. We started to run him at 6 months and he came back to 100% he was a 1D horse with in 2 months of being back. Good luck.
On a side not the horse we had surgery done on was our sons good horse. The clinic we took him to felt like he would not make it so they called us and told us we might want to come see him, we hauled tail down to the clinic to see him and when we walked in my son called his name he nickered to him and it was like his whole world changed he was like a new horse. We got to take him home 3 days later. The clinic staff said then and we knew it was true that we could never sale him because he would brood himself to death. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 821
| I bought a 4 yr old mare in June of 2002 and she coliced in July. She was to be my furitutiy horse in 2003. Her recovery from surgery was pretty basic....stall rest then hand walking and so on. She eventually went back to regualr feed (we feed alfalfa) and no problems since. I ran her competively for 10 years, plus 3 years ago begain heading and heeling on her also. She has been more miles than most peoples vehicles. And she just gave me the most beautiful colt 2 weeks ago at 16 yrs old. I believe what aided most her healing from surgery is my sister in law was going thru massage therapy school at that time and came to massage her and I did alot as well....we did her incision and entire body and to this day she will inch over to you and want to crawl in your lap for a massage. There are alot more therapy options available today than there was 12 years ago so do your research and take advantage of them. Horses can continue on to conquer great things after colic. No stress...:) |
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 Veteran
Posts: 212
| I have a encouraging story :)... In September of 2012 my 13 year old mare coliced at a barrel race. We took her to a local vet where they declared her surgical after three hours and sent us 3 hours to a vet school.. By the time they examd her, got the surgery team in and what not... she had been colicing for 12 hours. She had a 360' colon twist- complete torsion- and came out with a 30% chance. They thought either shed get septic from dead tissue or relapse. She somehow got way better and was able to go home after only 4 days... We began feeding her senior, 4x a day, and i was allowed to hand walk her or set up a 1 x 1 x1 x 1 paddock so basically a stall on grass... She did great and then colic'd a month later again after not wanting to drink for a few days... Back to the vet school, another surgery. Only a month later reopening that incision was not something they like to do,,, Hers got infected but eventually she got better and she came back to place second at the Mid South Nationals and win go rounds at All American Youth/ place in the 1d at world. I put her on smart paks ultra digest the day she came home the second time and still watch her like a hawk... THAT SUPPLEMENT IS AMAZING I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT it will ease your mind if nothing else,,we havent had a single episode since. Just make sure not to overfeed him and keeping them hydrated is so so important.... Our vets showed us how to dissolve a handful of senior into a bucket of water-- they will drink it all up 3,4 buckets a day... He will be fine i am sure!! and just keep in mind that the belly holds the bulk of their weight so lots of walking, then trotting to help rebuild that muscle that was sliced... Good luck!! :) |
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Double Standards Don't Fly
Posts: 1283
Location: At the barn | That's an amazing story. Thanks again to everyone for sharing. I brought my boy home today. I'm a little less anxious but still have moments I think I will freak out. I'm so worried I will do something wrong! |
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