Brown Equine Hospital Week 5-7

Lately, if I'm not at the hospital, I'm sleeping. With a hefty call of late night emergencies, week 5 held 4 nights in a row of 3 hours or less of sleep. I got my first REAL taste of veterinary medicine and what it's like to struggle through a week sleep deprived. One case that has followed me through these three weeks is that of a month old foal with a congenital esophageal stricture, or narrowing of the esophagus. The symptoms became more pronounced as the foal explored solid food. Upon arriving to the clinic, the foal was feisty, indicating that at least some milk was still making it down to the stomach. After we scoped the esophagus and did a barium study, the diagnosis was sealed. We planned for the foal to go to surgery the next day to go in and fix the muscular and mucosal layer of the esophagus in the area of the stricture. Unfortunately, still 2 weeks later, the foal has a feeding tube in place as we wait for the area to heal enough to ensure its stability for nursing. My fingers are crossed for this up coming week to be the moment of tube removal.

Another case that has been long term here at the clinic is that of a champion barrel horse who presented for coughing on his way home from a big race. I can't believe that this horse not only ran his event but beat everyone there with the amount of ulcers we found around his larynx due to a dorsally displaced soft palate IN ADDITION to an entrapped epiglottis. If I ever have a horse with that much heart, I will have won the lottery. An entrapped epiglottis is when it becomes encased by the aryepiglottic folds. We didn't go to surgery right away due to the amount of inflammation so we started on meds and throat sprays BID to make it a more workable environment. When determined he was okay to go to surgery, we freed the epiglottis from it's confines via a hook with scope guidance. We discovered a very ulcerated epiglottis that may never reform it's true shape due to the prolonged entrapment. Directly after this minor procedure, he was ushered into anesthesia where another visiting doctor performed a tie forward in an attempt to fix the displaced soft palate. He is still here recovering and receiving appropriate medications and throat sprays. We scope morning and night to apply the throat spray and still find him displaced occasionally due to his shortened epiglottis. We are hoping for a full recovery. He's still full of spunk and eats like a champ. His bucking, snorting and carrying on when I lead him to his scoping tells me he is more than ready to run again.

By golly, what a horse.