Jejunoileal incarceration and strangulation through a splenic defect in a mare.

The abstract describes a study concerned with a mare (female horse) that had to be put down due to severe colic, caused by a rare and previously unknown congenital defect in her spleen which resulted in a portion of her small intestines (jejunoileal) becoming entrapped and strangled.

Background

• The article describes a case of a 6-year-old, standardbred mare that was brought in due to colic, a term used in equine medicine to refer to abdominal pain, which had persisted for 12 hours. The root cause of this pain was unknown at the time.

Clinical Examination

• Upon clinical examination, transrectal palpation was performed. This is a common veterinary procedure used to detect abnormalities in the abdominal cavity. The examination revealed that sections of the horse’s intestines were distended, or enlarged – a possible indication of a blockage or other health issue – but the specific cause was undetermined.

Euthanasia and Necropsy

• Due to the severity of the condition and the suffering of the horse, the difficult decision was made to euthanize the mare.
• Following euthanasia, a necropsy – an autopsy performed on animals – was conducted to ascertain the cause of the severe colic.
• The necropsy revealed that a portion of the mare’s small intestine, known as the jejunoileal segment, had become obstructed, or ‘incarcerated’, and ‘strangled’ through an opening in the mare’s spleen.
• This strangulation results in the blood supply to the entrapped section of the intestine being cut-off, leading to cell death and damage, and can cause severe pain, hence the mare’s colic.

Findings

• The opening in the spleen through which the intestine became obstructed was determined to be a congenital defect, meaning it was present from birth. It was noteworthy because this type of congenital defect is not commonly reported in equine medicine.