A horse that had received a penetrating abdominal injury from running into a metal rose trellis developed complications more than a month after the event. The initial puncture wound healed slowly, but the horse developed a fever, showed signs of abdominal pain, and lost weight weeks after the accident. The Polish Warmblood was taken to the Clinic for Horses at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover in Germany, where veterinarians found that the horse had an abscess on his spleen.
The 13-year-old gelding was treated by Drs. Alexander Schwieder, Tobias Niebuhr and Florian Geburek, who noted that he looks tucked-up behind his 18th rib and was reluctant to have the area palpated. When palpating the horse via the rectum, the vets found that the surface of the spleen felt irregular and firm, and adhesions between the spleen and the abdominal wall were suspected.
The doctors placed a drain in the spleen using ultrasound guidance, deeming it the least invasive way to treat the abscess. This is the first time a procedure of this type has been done on a horse's spleen, though transabdominal abscesses have been drained in other parts of the equine abdominal cavity.
Ultrasound images showed a small amount of fluid low in the abdomen and an abnormal, irregularly shaped structure in the spleen. Some fluid was drawn out by a needle; it was yellowish and odorless with a high white cell count. The veterinarians then aspirated the abscess with ultrasound guidance.
They also confirmed that the side of the spleen had adhered to the abdominal wall. Abscesses of the spleen are rare in horses; they may be caused by perforation of the intestinal tract by wire.
The vets then used ultrasound to place a silicone drainage tube through the abdominal wall and into the abscess to help it drain. They also inserted a balloon catheter into the abscess. The horse was given antibiotics for the infection.
The drain remained in place for two weeks. After its removal, the horse returned to his previous level of work as a 1.10 meter jumper and pleasure mount. The adhesions of the spleen to the abdominal wall remained, as the vets had anticipated they would.
Read more at HorseTalk.
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