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Recovery from an aspiration pneumonia?
History for you - I have a usually fit and healthy 7 year old cob mare, on Friday night she choked whilst having her 16 day pregnancy scan. The vet scanning her (not our usual as using the stud's vet for repo work) said she'd clear it herself within a hour or two and left without looking at her. I had to go pick my sister up and left her with no food but water. Was back within about 2 hours and she had gunk coming down her nose, I called my regular vet who came immediately. He gave buscapan and penicillin but didn't tube as he wa worried about putting water into her lungs due to where the choke was. I stayed with her till about midnight. After the buscapan she started coughing and was bringing a decent amount of liquid up but no food. I had to go for the night but she was checked overnight by the yard owner as she has a mare ready to drop. I got back early morning and she was obviously worse, struggling to breath with noise all the way through her lungs. The vet came back right away and tubed her. She wouldn't swallow the tube and it kept going into her lungs - was definitely a good thing judging by the amount of fluid that came out the lungs. He managed to get the tube into her oesphagus and got most but not all the choke cleared. She was given more buscapan, 2 litres of IV fluids as she was getting dehydrated due to not drinking and the vet said to call in a couple of hours once the sedatives wore off and let him know how she was. Because of the amount of fluid that came out her lungs her breathing was better but she was consistently at a heart rate of 80, temp of 39.2 and resp rate of 26 and after a couple of hours with no improvement the vet came back and we decided to take her to the vet hospital.
She got to the hospital (one of the best in the country) last night and was descended on by the vet students and vet. She was examined, had gentamicine, metronidazol, frusimide and lots of fluid. This morning they've scoped and scanned her and she has longitudinal ulcers down her oesophagus, lungs looked ok and scan showed some consolidation in her lungs. She's staying at the vet hospital on the IV antibiotics for at least 4 days and they're going to re-scan and re-scope her mid week and see how she goes.
Sorry for the long question and I guess the actual question is what sort of time scale are we looking at for recovery from this?
I'm seriously angry at the vet who was scanning her, our vet has said that if she'd had the buscapan right away she probably would have cleared the choke without all the complications, as it is our regular vet saved her life, of that I have no doubt.
Thanks, I am definately going after the vet that just left her!
She's normally a very fit and healthy mare, on the podgy side so decent amount of reserves to cope with the not eating for several days (at least her diet will get a boost)
When I spoke to them today after they had scanned her (ultrasound I think) they said she had 2/3cm's of consolidation at the tips of her lung lobes and that she's on the IVs for a few days and then they're going to rescan and see what's happening. I believe her temperature has come down slightly but can't remember for sure - I wasn't really able to take in much of what they said, as you can imagine I'm kinda a wreck just now, not helped by her being 3 hours away from me! But the she at the University of Edinburgh's vet school and they are one of the best in the country so couldn't be in a better place.
I'll update how she goes.
2 Answers
- gallopLv 79 years agoFavourite answer
Well, this is a tragic and completely avoidable outcome due to a blatant negligent malpractice on the part of the original vet.
Recovery depends on numerous factors including the horse's overall health status and whether or not secondary complications develop. Being hospitalized early and treated aggressively will go far to improve the prognosis for recovery, which could take a month to six weeks or longer.
Potential complications would include development of pulmonary abscesses and/or septic pleuropneumonia. Pneumonia involves fluid and/or blood accumulation in the air sacs of the lungs, but if inflammation spreads into the lining membranes surrounding the lungs (pleura), it is called pleuritis (or pleurisy). Fluid and exudate may accumulate within the space between the two layers of pleura (pleural space). Pleuropneumonia involves both the presence of pneumonia within the lungs, and inflammation and fluid/exudate present in the pleural space and may include abscessation within the lungs.
Normally there is a negative pressure compared to atmospheric pressure maintained within the pleural space, which exerts a pulling force that keeps lungs inflated. If accumulated fluid or exudate in the pleural space changes the pressure from negative to positive, the lung will collapse. Obviously, this would seriously impact the prognosis for recovery.
The ability of veterinary intervention and treatments to eradicate the inflammation and clear the fluids and any exudate from the lungs and to prevent development of secondary infections, abscessation, or pleuritis, and your horse's health and ability to cope will all impact the prognosis and recovery time.
I'll be thinking about you and your horse and praying for her recovery, and i hope you will keep us posted.
Source(s): Registered Nurse and 59 years with horses - 9 years ago
I can only wish you the best and hope that your horse recovers fully. We had a 3 year old choke and he was treated by my vet immediately but still aspirated. He was one of the worst cases that my vet has ever seen... he battled with the pneumonia and a secondary infection for months. We thought that he had beaten the odds, he did have some permanent damage to his lungs but it looked like he was going to be fine. Sadly last summer when the temps hit well over 100 degrees he was just not able to breathe... it was like watching a child have an asthma attack. We lost him last july.
