Ibbie
Ibbie
- She was thought to be a 12 yr. old TB that was used
in polo. Ibbie currently resides in Mississippi with her mom Jane.
It is rumored that Ibbie is living the life of riley and chowing
down on some of that great southern hospitality! Ibbie was quarantined
for awhile before she went to Mississippi to be with her mom due
to the strangles exposure from the feedlots. She was a quiet mare
just waiting to meet her wonderful mom.
Ibbie
has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. I received the information today
3/30/00 from
her grieving owner - Jane.
Jane
had seen the picture I took of Ibbie when she was in the feedlot
in December/January
1999. Jane felt there was something special about Ibbie
calling out
to her from that picture and contacted me. These two lovely
ladies had
a year together. A year to laugh, act silly, throw tantrums,
make up and
to be friends. You see, they spoke the language of the heart to
each other.
From the first time Jane saw Ibbies picture, she knew.....when
the heart speaks.......the
heart listens.
Jane,
thank you for listening to Ibbie's heart and letting her in yours.
Just
wanted to let you know....
She
showed no signs of peculiar behavior until last Friday morning,
when she started
colicking. A vet saw her, felt a mass in her abdomen and referred
her
to an equine
vet. The equine vets oiled her and put IV's in, and palpated
the
mass, did a
blood count and a belly tap. The belly tap showed slightly
elevated protein,
the blood count showed a very elevated white count, and
the
palpation showed
a basketball sized mass. When the mass didn't move at all
in two hours,
they recommended that she be sent to the vet school at
Mississippi
State for possible surgery. That was done, and during the two
hour haul,
she never moved in the trailer.
The
vet school was at first guardedly optimistic, since her protein
levels hadn't
changed on
the trip and since she appeared to be pain-free. Late Friday
night they
did an ultrasound of the mass, and found that it had encircled
at least
three loops of the small intestine. They were fairly sure it was
an abscess,
and they didn't feel that there would be enough uninvolved gut
for her
to survive surgery. They basically felt there was no hope.
So I went over
Saturday to say goodbye. It was 160 miles one way, but I
couldn't have
lived with myself if I hadn't talked to the Doctor in person,
and
actually seen
Ibs. She was, as usual, sweet, patient, and tolerating all
the IVs
and the indignities
with grace and courage. She gave greeted me with a whunker,
gave me a couple of horse hugs as I stood next to her hand
grooming the
drifts of blowing white coat , and she tried to follow me out
of the
stall when
I left.
I
talked to the doctor (resident on duty on Saturday) at length,
and she convinced
me from a number of signs that Ibbie's systems had pretty much
shut down.
She showed me the ultrasound and explained why surgery
probably wouldn't
be possible, but that they could cut her open and look.
There was a
good chance, in her weakened condition, that she wouldn't even
have made it
out of the operating room. So I signed the papers, when back
and cried on
her neck for a while and then came home.
They
have done the necropsy--and the mass was just as the ultrasound
showed. They are now in the process of determining precisely what
the mass was
and what caused it.
During
all this, she never showed any classic signs of abdominal pain.
I rode
her on Wednesday,
and she was skittish and unpredictable and reared with
the trainer
when he used his legs on her. Given her condition, it' s
understandable.
She
was a sweet dear girl, and I have been grieving at great length.
Not sure
when I'll get
another horse, but I know it'll be a rescue of some kind. I don't
ever want to
be without horses in my life again.
Jane
Update
4/19/00 - I got a call from the equine vet resident who was
"in charge of" Ibbie at the
Mississippi State Vet School. They haven't finished the autopsy
report yet,
but preliminary reports show that the mass was, in fact, a huge
abscess. They can't pinpoint how long she had it, other than to
say more than two weeks.
The
doctor did say that she could have had it for a very long time.
That it probably started as a small tear in the intestine from
a previous bout of colic,
although from a book I learned that it could have been started
by migrating
strongyles.
She said that the infection started and the body walls off
the tear; but
when the pus pocket doesn't go away, the body continues to make
tissue.
That resulted in the basketball sized mass. This process can go
very quickly
or very slowly. She said that there was absolutely no way anyone
could have
known or discovered the problem until she started to show symptoms--and
she
showed no obvious symptoms until the day before she died. Only
a belly tap
would have uncovered the problem, and you don't do belly taps
until the horse
is in dire straits. She didn't think it would have showed up on
blood work
as anything
but a mild infection, and who would suspect that the infection
was
in her colon.. The other name for abdominal abscess is chronic
peritonitis.
If
Ibs hadn't been such a tough old bird, she'd have told us sooner
that something was bad wrong. But she was a really tough lady
who just lived with
her pain. It may well have been what was making her cranky and
difficult and
even dangerous to ride sometimes, but we'll never know.
We
do know that she had no obvious problems with her reproductive
organs that might have caused her hormones to be the cause of
her behavior problem. That was one thing I had suggested as a
cause because she had such raging, flaunting heats.
One
good thing--this equine vet resident said that she had heard about
abdominal abscesses
but had never seen one. So she learned something from Ibbie's
death that might help some other horse some day. I take
great comfort
in that thought.
Jane
Viney
Ridge
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