Mikah Wareham – Outlaw Equine Hospital (Week 2)

My second week at Outlaw Equine was filled with more great experiences! This week consisted of extracting mucus stones from a horse with the strangles disease, changing bandages on abrasions, inserting a catheter into a horse with colic, and much more. This week also helped me realize how much more confident I have become in my ability to carry out treatments or other tasks independently.

One of the first things I did this week was help with a procedure on a horse with the strangles disease. This procedure took place in the guttural pouch of the horse’s nose, which was filled with hardened pus called mucus stones. These stones were the size of small rocks and needed to be flushed out of the nose with fluids in order for the strangles to clear out of the area. For this to work, the horse had to be heavily sedated and twitched (a tightened rope that goes around the upper lip of a horse to help restrain it) so that the veterinarian could put the meter long cord up the nasal cavitiy and into the guttural pouch. There was a small camera on the end of the cord, which allowed us to see how many stones needed to be extracted or if there was pus that needed to be washed out. The cord also had a tiny net attatched to the end of it just in case the fluids could not dislodge the stones. This process took about an hour and a half to do and we managed to remove 14 stones from the pouch before the horse awoke from her sedation. While disinfecting the space, I mananged to snap a picture of the stones and, when looking at them, I found it hard to believe that the veterinarian I was working with had been doing that procedure every day for a week, and still had more stones to remove!

Some of the mucus stones that had been removed. We had to wear full protective gear (gowns, gloves, and boots) to make sure we did not spread the disease to any other horses.

I also got to experience a catheter being inserted into the vein of a colicking horse. Colic is severe abdomenal pain that occurs in horses, which can be caused by overeating, parasites, fecal impaction, intestinal problems, stress, and more. Typically, the cases that come into the ICU are horses who are suffering from colic due to overeating. The horse that I was assisting with was in for that reason and had to have his stomach drained through his nose, which made him more comfortable. Before this, however, the catheter had to be inserted. The neck area had to be sterilized and prepped by using the green (Chlorhexidine scrub), blue (Chlorhexidine solution), and isopropyl alcohol gauzes. After this, the technician would take the catheter tube and stick it into the vein, having me hold the head of the horse at a certain angle, which made it easier to find the vein and enter it right the first time. Then, she sutered the rest of the tube more securely to the skin so the horse could not rub it off or break it. Once everything was in place, I braided a strand of the mane. These small braids are used to tie zipties into, which keeps the long, curly tube of hanging drip jugs out of reach of the horse. It is important to keep constant fluids flowing into horses with colic, so keeping the drip jugs secured is crucial.

These are the sterilizing scrubs used to prep an area of the body.

Finally, for this week, I thorougly enjoyed learning about the different types of medical equipment used on horses. Currently, one of the horses in the ICU has the left side of her face completely paralyzed for reasons unknown. Due to the unknown reasoning, the ICU team is using many different technolgies to try and get to the bottom of it. At first, they used a recovery visor to prevent any dust from getting in the left eye. It also helped provide the horse some comfort. Later, they began cold lasering the side of her face, holding hot packs to any swelling, and putting eyedrops in her eye every few hours. She has shown some signs of improvement, but because of the discomfort she is feeling, she has slowly become more and more aggressive to those who enter her stall, which makes it difficult to treat her.

The recovery visor being used.

Even though I have had many interesting learning experiences over the past few days, my week is not over yet. I will be working my first round of night shifts (7 p.m – 7 a.m) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I have never done this before at any job, so it will be very new to me, but I am looking forward to getting a feel for it!