Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Yesterday we noticed our blind horse Domino kicking at his belly and swishing his tail constantly, as if he were being pestered by flies.  But it’s not fly season (yet), and no other horses were doing this.  He also wasn’t acting like he had colic, which is one major reason a horse will kick at his belly.  On closer exam we noticed he had some crusty stuff on his abdomen, just in front of where his penis is, and it looked like there was some other icky stuff coming out of his sheath.  (The sheath is a large fold of skin that wraps around the penis.)

Last fall we saw Domino peeing at an awkward angle, and his sheath seemed a bit puffy.  We had our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown, examine Domino then.  Bill found a growth and sent a biopsy sample in for analysis.  The pathologist’s report said it was a penile wart.  (Ick.)  Bill was skeptical of that finding, but after we cleaned his sheath, Domino seemed to be better.  Until now.

Today was going to be ‘herd health day,’ when Bill comes out each spring to vaccinate all the horses and give them medical exams.  But we woke up to a driving snow storm — thick, heavy wet snow coming in sideways — and we ended up postponing Bill’s visit.  Yet I needed to have him look at Domino again and also get blood work on blind Brynn, so I trailered both of them into Missoula this afternoon.

Even under heavy sedation Domino was never one to "drop" his penis, making a thorough exam difficult, and thus Bill did general anesthesia today.  That’s what you see in these photos.  In the first one Domino is completely out, and Bill and his vet tech Linda are moving him into position on the big foam bed in the center of the surgery room.  The blue towel on Domino’s face is there to protect his eyes.

In this photo Bill has discovered another growth on Domino’s penis and is getting a biopsy of it.  The end of Domino’s urethra was also red and inflamed, and Bill found necrotic (or dead) tissue inside his sheath.  And then — here’s the truly disgusting part — we discovered maggots in there!  Egads.  No wonder the poor guy was kicking at his belly.  There were probably fifteen of those things squirming around inside.  They had been attracted by the necrotic tissue.

So Domino had a "deep cleaning," and the maggots are now all gone.  We’ll know more when the biopsy results come in next week, but Bill suspects a squamous cell carcinoma.

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Brynn’s blood work was troubling.  Her key kidney values were still okay — her BUN was a bit higher, just outside normal range, and her creatinine was perfect — but her white blood cell count was high, as were several other values suggesting she’s still fighting an infection or inflammation.  Her fibrinogen — a key indicator of an inflammatory process — was the real shocker.  A normal count is under 500, and on two different readings Brynn’s levels were 1419 and 1527.  Bill said he had never seen fibrinogen that high.  Uh oh.

Yet her temperature is back to normal and she shows no signs of being sick.  But clearly something is wrong somewhere.

Bill is going to consult with Brynn’s surgeon at Washington State University’s veterinary teaching hospital, Dr. Claude Ragel, tomorrow.  I was planning to take Brynn back to WSU next week for her ‘leak repair’ surgery.  But now I may be taking her back so they can figure out what this new problem is … and if it’s related to her kidneys or urinary tract somehow.

(Click on photos for larger image.)