Though colic is a fairly common medical emergency, its prevalence doesn't make the diagnosis any less difficult for horse owners. Some of the angst that occurs with colic is the wide variety of colics, from mild and resolving on its own, to life-threatening and requiring surgery to resolve.
Approximately 10 percent of equine colic cases require surgical intervention, reports The Horse.
Many horse owners still perceive colic surgery negatively, though colic surgery outcomes have improved over the last 20 years thanks to advanced diagnostic capabilities and safer anesthesia protocols.
Rather than relying on factual colic surgery outcomes, many horse owners rely heavily on other owner's experiences with colic surgeries. This can lead to a belief that many horses are not candidates for colic surgery, or that their outcomes are often not successful.
Some prevalent myths about equine colic surgery include:
Myth 1: Horses can be too old for colic surgery. A University of Pennsylvania study compared colic surgery outcomes in mature horses (4 to 15 years old) and geriatric horses (over 20 years old) and found similar postoperative complication and survival rates. They determined that age alone is not associated with colic surgery outcome and should not be a reason to decline colic surgery.
Myth 2: Horses that have had surgical resections of bowel aren't ever the same. In resection surgeries, surgeons remove damaged portions of the bowel and put the two healthy ends back together. The area of the bowel the surgeons must resect is important: horses tend to tolerate resections of the middle of the small intestine (the jejunum) better than those involving the end of the intestine (the ileum). Large colon resections also have good long-term success rates.
Myth 3: Horses don't return to prior competitive level after colic surgery. Horses undergoing colic surgery often require around three months of restricted exercise, with many horses back in full work four to five months post-surgery. A study of more than 200 horses that underwent colic surgery found that 79 percent of horses were performing at or above their performance level prior to surgery.
Read more at The Horse.
The post Setting Horse Owners Straight: Colic Surgery Facts appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
