This is an archived Horseadvice.com Discussion. The parent article and menus are available on the navigation menu below:
HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Colic, Diarrhea, GI Tract » Colic in Horses » Sand Colic »
  Discussion on Sand colic which did not show up on testing
Author Message
Member:
Liza

Posted on Tuesday, Jan 28, 2003 - 5:21 am:

A horse from our barn recently colicked and is currently at NCSU for treatment. The owners have tested for sand on a regular basis (once a month) and the horse is checked during fall/spring vet exams. No significant amount of sand has ever been found. X-rays at the vet school are showing large amounts of sand in his large intestine.

What this is saying to me is that the standard stool check is not reliable. As the horse has a large amount of sand, could this be an accumulation over months-years? Vet did not hear any indication of sand in gut last week, and stool sample did not show significant sand.

He was originally kept at the beach (NC), came to our barn a year and ˝ ago. Has had chronic diarrhea (cow piles) ever since we have known him. In the fall, he has had a history of explosive liquid discharge when the pastures are dormant. Prior to coming to our barn, he had lost over 200 lbs in the fall. Owners have spent over $1,000 each fall for the last two years trying to determine cause. I have to say that I have not agreed with their vet as personally I think this horse should have been sent to the vet school over a year ago. The band-aid fix has been to feed the horse coastal Bermuda which seems to stop the explosive discharge, but does not change the “cow pile” stools. Now I’m wondering if sand in the intestine has been cause of this problem all along. Have you ever heard of this before?


Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Jan 28, 2003 - 8:18 am:

It may be a bit premature Liz. I would be interested in the amount found and if the vet's doing the exam consider it the cause of the pathology. We have to consider that this may be a recent change and the past problems do to either other problems, or maybe recurrent sand impactions. That all said the history is very consistent with sand induced problems.

Let's see...the reliablility of the sand test...I cannot think of any work that measures this directly. However there is very good work that details the rate at which sand is removed from the bowel and the rate is quite high with 15% of the total amount removed daily just naturally. That suggests to me that it should be quite easy to detect sand in the stool if there is much in the bowel. I wonder how constant that rate of removal is: are there times a lot moves and other times a little moves?

So what happened here? I can think of some other possiblilities besides the ones noted above:
1) This horse has an abnormally poor ability to remove sand.
2) The test was done poorly, perhaps too little stool was used?
3) They were unlucky and just happened to test the stool that did not have much sand?

The lesson here should be that the reliance on any one test or observation should not be the only way a possible problem is completely ruled out, the world is just not that consistant. Let us know more about this Liz and how this plays out.
DrO
Member:
Liza

Posted on Tuesday, Jan 28, 2003 - 8:49 am:

Thanks. Will keep you posted. Update from this morning is that stool samples were taken yesterday and little indication of sand was found. Radiographs are showing large amount in intestine. Interesting case.
Home Page | Top of Page | Join Us!
Horseadvice.com is a BBB Accredited Business. Click for the BBB Business Review of this Horse Training in Stokesdale NC