Re: Re: Re: Colic

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> Susan, there was an article, recently, in Equs, about pumping warm water
into
> the horse's stomach, who was experiencing symptoms of colic, in 30 minute
> intervals.  A vet from Brazil was trying this, and he claims to have not
had
> to operate on one horse, due to colic, by using this method.
>
> I was wondering whether you had seen the article or not, and, if you were
> familiar with this practice, what you thought about it.
>
> cya,
> Howard

I hadn't seen the Equus article, but have read the associated research
published on it.  There's alot of discussion going on in the vet community
about it, but alot of the really top university equine vets aren't using oil
anymore, they're following a similar protocol to the one you
described---lots of water plus a surfactant called DSS (not to be confused
with Donna Snyder-Smith)<g> that seems to do a better job in breaking down
impactions.

I did ask the surgeons about it specifically, and they agreed it was worth
trying as long as the colic was due to impaction.  If it were caused by a
torsion, then you'll kill the horse pretty quickly, so better be sure of
your diagnosis (we were told to install a nasogastric tube and leave it
there as an escape route for reflux if necessary).  Two or three of the vets
on the equine medicine service think this is the neatest thing since sliced
bread, another one didn't, but he kinda has a reputation of not wanting to
consider anything new, anyway.

Susan G