Shelley's Surgery

Arizona Equine Medical & Surgical Centre

July 14, 2004
Shelley suffered from an extremely painful colic in October of 2003.  It took her several days to get over it, and it did not reoccur, so we thought everything was all right.  In May of 2004, she had another bout with colic.  We found her flat out in her pen with her eyes rolled back, her gums white, and her lower lip filled with dirt.  She would not respond to us at all.  She did well after treatment, but the colic returned 4 days later.  A blood test showed that she was terribly anemic, and through a sonogram we found a grapefruit sized growth on an ovary.  We gave her B12 shots and Lixotinic to build her blood up and started her on Regumate to get her hormones under control.  The tumor screen came back negative, and in four weeks the growth was gone, and her blood was back to normal.  Our educated guess was that she was suffering from ovarian hematomas.  The Regumate worked well, but there can be harmful side effects if a mare is kept on it too long.  We decided that Shelley's ovaries needed to be removed, so she wouldn't have to continue to suffer the severely painful episodes.  On July the 13th, I took her to Arizona Equine for surgery.  Dr. Taylor has had a lot of experience with this kind of surgery.  We decided the safest way to remove Shelley's ovaries was to anesthetize her and remove them through two small abdominal incisions.  The staff was kind enough to take pictures during the procedure for me.  They had a large window in the surgery room so that people can watch the operation, but I opted not to do that.  As you scroll down this page, you will see the pictures.  If you don't want to see them, don't go any further!

 

These ladies are part of the wonderful staff at the clinic, except the lady in red, MJ, who was there for my moral support.  Shelley was being prepped for surgery here.  These ladies were skilled, knowledgeable, and patient with their sometimes uncooperative patients.  Imagine arriving at work early in the morning to give oral meds to a barn full of horses that were not in the mood to swallow them!  MJ showed the same patience with me too, as I became too stressed.

 

MJ took these pics through the window after they got Shelley put onto the table.

 

Dr. Taylor finds and removes the first ovary.  This one came out easily.

 

The second ovary was much harder to remove.

 

Here are the ovaries.  The "difficult" one had multiple follicles on it.

 

Shelley was dismissed from the hospital two days after her surgery.  I drove to Vail, AZ to break the trip home up.  We stayed with Carl and Jill on their hideaway ranch in the mountain foothills.  Shelley had a mild colic that day, but was better and ready to travel the rest of the way home the next day.  Today is the 4th day after surgery, and her appetite is beginning to pick up.  We really want to thank everyone who helped us get through this! 

 

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