Grace has undergone colic surgery

As if we have not been through enough this year, on Thursday afternoon Grace started being really quiet, not eating and her eyes went dull. I checked on her before I left and she had started pawing so I phoned the vet immediately. John Gilliver was on call, and he examined her. She had a high temperature, a slightly raised heart rate but no real increased gut movement.

He gave her a shot of antibiotics and bute and arranged to come back the following morning.

I got down to the yard early and she did not seem any better and was pawing again... so John gave her another shot of antibiotics, bute and a shot of buscopan too. Her temperature had come down though, and her heart rate was normal.

Later in the day she had gone downhill again... the vet came back out, gave her another shot of buscopan and she seemed to perk up a little and started eating some little bits of hay which was an encouraging sign. However, she gradually went more and more downhill and on Saturday morning she was referred to Leahurst veterinary hospital.

The hospital ran lots of tests and everything pointed towards colic. I left her there being monitored carefully, and did not hear from them until this afternoon. I received a phone call at 2.30pm saying that she had improved through the night, but this morning was much lower than she had been, and was lay flat out at lunch time when the resident checked on her again. They did another rectal and couldn’t get their arm past the elbow due to the small colon being so very distended. They asked whether I would consent to her having surgery, which of course I did, and then the waiting began.

At 6.30pm I received a phone call from the resident, Mel, and she said that Grace was awake and up... however, she had had a very tough time through the anaesthetic and there had been a few complications. They did not find any impaction as they thought they would do, but the small colon was full of gas which was causing it to distend. They let this gas out, and the good news is that everything was where it should be. However, because she has such bad diarrhoea they have taken some more samples and a biopsy to test for colitis and grass sickness.

It is very much a waiting game now and the next 48 hours are critical for her!