Judge, my retired police horse, had an emergency colic earlier this month. He had to be taken to the vet for surgery right away. He is 28, which normally I would've thought would put him in the "poor surgical candidate" category, but my vet said he's actually in excellent shape for his age, and she's seen horses worse off recover from the surgery just fine, so off he went.
Turns out that the cause of the colic was something called a strangulating lipoma. This is a type of colic caused when a fatty tumor gets wrapped around a portion of the intestine. The tumor is benign, but it develops in a sort of sack attached by a long stalk, which can make it easy to wrap around and strangle the intestine.
Luckily for Judge, he got into surgery quick enough that the portion of the intestine wrapped up didn't actually die, so there was no need for a resection (cutting out a portion of the damaged tissue and reattaching the rest of the intestine or colon). He is currently on stall rest for about a month, and is starting rehab exercises to build his abdominal muscles back up.
Turns out that the cause of the colic was something called a strangulating lipoma. This is a type of colic caused when a fatty tumor gets wrapped around a portion of the intestine. The tumor is benign, but it develops in a sort of sack attached by a long stalk, which can make it easy to wrap around and strangle the intestine.
Luckily for Judge, he got into surgery quick enough that the portion of the intestine wrapped up didn't actually die, so there was no need for a resection (cutting out a portion of the damaged tissue and reattaching the rest of the intestine or colon). He is currently on stall rest for about a month, and is starting rehab exercises to build his abdominal muscles back up.
For those who have never seen how surgery is done on a horse, it is rather fascinating and shocking. Here are a few pics:
Pretty amazing stuff, huh?
