With conclusions, came more questions….

Every dissection provides us with an opportunity for growth and to acquire new knowledge. To reaffirm previous beliefs or hypotheses, or to be proven wrong.

We had a mare – somewhere between 23-27 years old that has been with us for the last 8 years. She had been a wonderful asset to our teaching team, aiding many children & youth in learning how to ride. We don’t know a lot about her history, other than she used to do quite a bit of gymkhana & barrel racing.

The mare presented with moderate colic symptoms early afternoon on December 28th. As with any colic, we have excellent tools as Equine Remedial Therapists and are successful at bringing most horses out of a mild to moderate episode within an hour or two with manual manipulations, homeopathics and acupuncture. This mare wasn’t such a case.

The Case:

Upon arrival, our veterinarian tubed the mare and immediately litres upon litres of fluid were being emptied from her stomach. We removed about 16L +/- of fluid (this will mainly be composed of Gall – the Livers contribution to digestion as it is continually asked to send Gall aka Bile into the stomach when the stomach is in a state of stretch).

A blood lactate test was also performed to find out the acidity of this mare. Upon reading studies, this simple test is making waves in the accurate diagnosis and treatment plans of colic… read up on it! Quite fascinating if you are a little bit of a science geek like us. In plain English, the blood lactate test is looking at how far into sepsis a horse is. There are certain parameters in which on farm treatment is likely to be successful, where a surgery could be the winner or where euthanasia is really only the only option. She tested at the mid high end of the scale – eluding to a more serious condition – but frankly at some mid 20’s age, we were not going to send this mare for surgery.

We opted to see if relieving the pressure on the stomach, some homeopathics and banamine could keep her comfortable overnight and tone down the colic and get her through. There are cases where a horse will have an inflammation of the intestines and end up in a state like this, so it was worth a shot to see if just relieving that pressure and having her rest would be enough. The banamine wasn’t enough, but bringing the homeopathics on board, we were able to bring her heart rate way down and get her to rest. We checked on her every hour through the night and she seemed to be holding steady until about 7:30am. Her heart rate sky rocketed to over 90BPM. (normal range is 28-44BPM). Our vet came back out, took vitals and ran another blood lactate (they take less than 2 minutes). Her sepsis levels were now at the recommendation of euthanasia. We figured this would be the case, and agreed. We said goodbye to a longtime friend. It was a sad morning for many of us at the farm. I know many of you have experienced that heartache before – knowing you’ll never truly fill the void that animal has left behind.

The HER team, along with the 2nd year students decided to do an autopsy to find out what had caused this mare to go from just fine, to distressed in such a short amount of time. Something was wrong as soon as we started as fluid was in places it shouldn’t be. Upon examining the intestinal tract, it was very obvious as soon as we saw it. This mare had suffered a strangulation in her small intestines from a pedunculated lipoma (a fatty tumour that grows in between the mucosa lining and becomes heavy, stretching down creating a long string or stalk). The lipoma had twisted around a part of her intestines cutting off the hope of anything making it through. Of course, enquiring minds want to put the puzzle together and so we also looked at her stomach, spleen, liver, kidneys & lungs.

Other Findings:

• The 1st lobe of her liver was completely congested
• Left Kidney presenting with abnormalities of cortex vs medulla, an extra ureter also present
• Fatty tumors along caecum & Large Intestines
• Ventral medial borders of lungs presenting with multiple tumors
• Spleen “normal” size (with euthanasia, we typically never get to see a normal spleen as the toxins infiltrate and make in so much larger than it is in the live animal – so why didn’t this spleen blow up and how did the drugs end up taking affect?)
• Stomach was absolutely full of fluid/ bile again – stretched to about 4x size of normal stomach
• And because we just HAD to know, we decided to look at a supposed “wind puff” on her front R carpal joint. Nope, not a wind puff, another tumour with its very own, well routed blood supply!

While the mystery of cause of death was now certain (and peace of mind for making the right decision), we were left with many questions and still more developing daily:

• What caused the abnormalities in her kidney?
• What caused the congestion in the first lobe of her liver?
• Is there a connection between the two?
• What was this mares diet prior to her being here?
• What indicators would we have seen if we had been able to test her blood/ hormones etc?
• What causes the growth of these lipomas? Does diet play a part? What are “we” exposing these horses as a general population that veterinarians are seeing so many of these cases in surgery? How can it be prevented….

And that my friends is how a study develops and unfolds. Here’s to a year of hypothesizing, exploring, finding answers and laying myths to rest!

Thank you, Mare, for your companionship, your service to many young riders, the laughs you gave us Instructors as we watched your “pony” antics testing your riders when they were getting a little too full of themselves….

Thank you for the opportunity to learn, to ask and develop more questions and to go forward and better serve the horses of this world. For giving us tools to help educate and develop the bigger picture. We are eternally grateful for your lessons, right until the end. Run free little mare.

Categories: Equine Rehab
 
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