Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Fecalith impaction in four miniature foals.
- Journal:
- Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association
- Year:
- 1992
- Authors:
- McClure, J T et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences
- Species:
- horse
Plain-English summary
Four miniature foals were brought in because they were showing signs of severe belly pain that wasn't getting better and they hadn't been able to poop. The symptoms lasted anywhere from 10 hours to 5 days, and it turned out they all had a blockage in their intestines caused by a hard mass of feces. The vets successfully removed this blockage through surgery in all four foals. This suggests that miniature foals might be more likely to have this kind of blockage, and if your foal shows similar signs, it's important to consider this issue and possibly seek surgical help.
Abstract
Four miniature foals admitted with signs of progressive nonresponsive abdominal pain and no fecal production had fecalith impaction of the small colon. Duration of clinical signs ranged from 10 hours to 5 days. Removal of the fecalith via small colon enterotomy was a successful treatment in all 4 cases. Miniature foals may be predisposed to fecalith impaction of the small colon. If a miniature foal has signs of progressive nonresponsive abdominal pain, fecalith impaction needs to be considered. Surgical correction may be required.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1559878/