Colic surgery
The Breadstone Clinic has the facilities and expertise to perform colic surgeries. Our team of vets and nurses are experienced in dealing with every aspect of surgical colics, from diagnosis, through anaesthesia and surgery, to post operative intensive care.
The majority of horses with colic do not require surgery but in those cases that do it is usually an emergency. There are many causes of colic and before surgery we may not know the exact cause of the problem. Sometimes the intestines are just out of position and can be relatively simply replaced. On other occasions there may be a ‘twist’ which cuts off the blood supply to a region of gut resulting in that length of gut requiring removal. These horses tend to be sicker and take longer to recover.
Immediately after the surgery the horse is likely to be sick for a period of time. This can range from a few hours to several days or even weeks. They will stay with us during this time. All colic surgeries will stay with us for at least one week but it can be significantly longer than this.
Once the horse goes home they will need a period of 3 months box rest whilst the wound heals completely followed by a slow return to normal exercise.
Colic surgery and the intensive after care of the patient is time consuming and uses a lot of medicines, equipment and fluids. This means that colic surgery is expensive, usually costing between £4000 and £7000 in total. It can also be very difficult to give an accurate quote prior to surgery when the exact nature of the problem and post operative complications will not be known.