Lymphangitis is a severe form of cellulitis and is the swelling and inflammation of lymphatic vessels. The damage to these vessels is usually caused by a bacterial infection. This condition usually occurs in a rear leg. The horse will present with an extremely swollen leg, sometimes 2-3 times its normal size, a fever, pitting edema, lameness, a wound, and skin damage. Many of these horses have a loss of appetite and be very painful. These horses need to have multiple cold hosings a day to help reduce the inflammation and swelling. This also helps wash off oozing serum from the skin so it does not irritate the skin. We were able to use a Game Ready system to apply pressure as well as cold therapy to the leg. She was also hand walked multiple times a day to help move the swelling out of the leg. Pain medications, such as anti-inflammatories, and antibiotics were administered to keep her comfortable and help treat infection. Having lymphangitis once, a horses is more likely to develop it again in the same limb due to impaired immunity. There may also be residual swelling after called lymphoedema.
Dr. Christakos went to a farm to do a health certificate. Upon her exam, she found the horse to have an extremely elevated temperature and muffled heart sounds. When he arrived at the hospital an ultrasound was performed by Dr. Toppin. The paint gelding was found to have a large amount of fluid around his heart known as pericarditis. Pericarditis is pretty rare in horses and can be caused by a septic infection or it is idiopathic. Dr. Toppin drained the fluid from the pericardium and lavaged the pericardial sac with saline. He was placed on stall rest in ICU to monitor him. His heart rate remained elevated during his stay and occasionally had AV block. His appetite was great during his stay and he enjoyed dumping his water bucket all over his stall during his boredom.
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| Location of pericardiocentesis |
We have had multiple colics in the past few weeks. One of the colics was a donkey gelding. He presented for being lethargic, dribbling urine and decreased appetite. He was a very stoic boy who did not show his pain. He was admitted to the ICU for fluids, monitoring, and refluxing his nasogastric tube. His heart rate slowing elevated as high as 140. The owner elected to take his to surgery. In surgery, Dr. Murray found him to have a gastric impaction, a severe small colon impaction, and a dorsal displacement. The small colon was massaged to help move the feces along and the large colon was put back in place.
I went out with Dr. Toll to field calls. We went to a colic of a Quarter horse gelding. The previous day he laid down on the owner during a trail ride. Dr. Toll was wondering about the possibility that the gelding had tied up but he walked extremely well when we arrived on the farm. He was not interested in food. She passed a nasogastric tube, but we did not get any net reflux. She however felt that the tube did not fell right and was worried about gastric impaction. Upon rectal examination, dry feces was found in his small colon. She recommended the owner to transport him to the hospital for further work up and monitoring. Before transporting him to the hospital, we gave him oral fluids with electrolytes through his tube to help with his dehydration as well as break up the potential gastric impaction. His blood work at the hospital showed elevated liver enzymes and a elevated PCV. After a few days of fluids, he had still not passed any feces and his liver enzymes remained high. Liver disease was a concern. He remained very stoic in ICU as well and his heart rate remained within normal limits. He was taken to surgery to explore his abdomen. Dr. Murray found him to have a dorsal displacement. Following surgery he did very well and was able to return home after about a week and a half in the hospital.
Another colic did not end so well. After surgery, the 27 year old TB gelding continued to reflux fluid due to enteritis. He had a adverse reaction to a medication and he became a danger to be around. We were unable to control his adverse reaction and he unfortunately had to be euthanized. I had the opportunity to help Dr. Rice with the necropsy. The poor old man had displaced again and his small intestines were extremely angry.
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| Lipoma in the abdomen |
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