Brown Equine Hospital: Week 3

This week was probably one of my busier weeks here at Brown Equine Hospital. There were many scheduled appointments as well as emergencies. I even had three emergencies in one night! Let’s just say that I have some sleeping to catch up on so I may be more brief in this week’s post than what I usually am.

The week started off with an emergency during the day. An owner noticed that their horse had accidentally torn its eyelid. They unfortunately did not see it happen, so they do not know how it had occurred. The owner was generous enough to allow me to take before and after pictures of the horse’s eyelid repair. The veterinarian decided to repair the eyelid with a figure eight pattern in order to allow the wound to heal nicely. Before she repaired the wound, she blocked the area, so the horse could not feel the procedure and there would be little movement from the horse. The procedure went smoothly, and the horse went home in the same day. Here is the before and after pictures:

Before:

After:

Later in the week there were two arthroscopy surgeries performed for a bilateral hock osteochondrosis (OCD). Osteochondrosis is where small pieces of bone or cartilage become dislodged in the joint. The horse had effusion on both hocks, which is fluid in the hock. The lesions on the right hock were on the distal intermediate ridge of the tibia as well as on the lateral trochlear ridge, while the left hock had lesions on the distal intermediate ridge of the tibia and medial malleolus. The surgeon went in and removed the lesions and the horse went home the following day. Here are some pictures of the arthroscopy that was performed, followed by x-rays of the horse: 

One evening we had three emergences, which kept me at the clinic until 2 am after a 12 hour day. The first emergency was a horse that presented to the clinic for colic. The horse unfortunately did not make it into the clinic because it had passed away before we could

Intervene. We were able to ultrasound the abdomen and take a sample from the abdomen. The sample was blood. The horse had a hemoabdomen. The veterinarian informed me that hemoabdomens in horses are very uncommon and that it was difficult to tell why the horse had a hemoabdomen without an autopsy. The second emergency was a castration that had been bleeding heavily throughout the day. The horse presented to the clinic with an elevated heart rate (100+ beats per minute), respiration rate (96) and pale gums. The horse was bleeding fairly steadily, so the plan was to try and stop the bleeding by packing the wound with gauze, administer intravenous fluids and get the horse to surgery to stop the bleeding. We were able to give the horse fluids, stop the bleeding and tie off the blood vessels. Luckily we also had a donor horse in the hospital so I was able to transfuse the horse after surgery. After this the horses heart rate and respiration rate decreased and after about 5 days the horse was discharged home. The final case of the evening was a neurologic horse. It was ataxic and very neurologic. The horse was circling in its stall, stumbling and acted very sedate. Unfortunately after 24 hours in the hospital the horse passed during the night. We were able to take samples and send them off for testing to identify what was making the horse sick. So far the horse has tested negative for Equine Herpes and rabies, but we have yet to hear back about further results for other diseases.

Another horse presented to the clinic for a tumor on the end of its penis that needed to be removed. The surgeon took the horse to surgery, successfully removed the tumor and the horse is recovering well. After the surgery the horse had some swelling around the incision site, which is normal, but no discharge. The horse is recovering well and should be home in a day or two.

Another foal presented to the clinic for colic for another emergency. The doctor did an ultrasound exam of its abdomen and found fluid. They then did an abdominal tap to get a sample of the fluid and found all fecal matter. Unfortunately the foal passed away and after an autopsy was performed it was found that the foal had ulcerations on its cecum and that one of the ulcerations perforated and leaked fecal matter into the abdominal cavity.

This week I was able to gain some more hands on experiences. I successfully placed a few catheters and learned how to do shock wave therapy on horses and focused mainly on suspensory ligaments and stifles. Shock wave therapy helps to increase blood flow to damaged areas and helps to promote healing. I look forward to what this next week brings!