Billy Bob - my miracle pony and his colic surgery story

Hi,

My name is Abi and I’ve owned Billy Bob for just over 4 years now.

On the 24th April 2024, Billy presented with severe colic signs. Billy loves a good roll but he was excessively rolling and he looked petrified. I called my vets immediately and they tried to relieve the colic symptoms. Unfortunately, no amount of sedation or pain relief was helping Billy. I cannot stress enough how terrified I was seeing Billy roll his eyes back because he was in pain. The lovely vet advised Billy either needed to unfortunately be put to sleep or give him a chance with Colic surgery.

Billy is only 18 years young and has given me everything I could ask for and more for the 4 years I’ve owned him. He’s never been sick or sorry, even when he isn’t happy that his treat ball wasn’t in the stable ready for him! Billy has never gave up or me, and I wasn’t going to give up on him now.

Emergency transport was arrange from a local company who made it to Billy within 10 minutes of me making the call. Billy had laid down, but wouldn’t get back up. If it wasn’t for the lovely transport guy flinging his hi-vis at Billy, he wouldn’t have got up to get on the trailer.

The 3 hour journey from Newcastle to Edinburgh began.

Luckily, we made it to the referral vets in really good time. If it was any later, he would’ve went down in the trailer.

Billy was immediately taken off the trailer and I didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye to him, god forbid anything severe happened during surgery.

Billy went into surgery and the following 4 hours were the longest 4 hours ever. I finally got the call that he was out of surgery and now in recovery.

Billy had Strangulating Lipoma Colic. The Lipoma was successfully removed and we hoped the small intestines would continue to be viable and non had to be removed.

The following day, I had been to see Billy, the first time after his surgery. As much as I was so happy to see him, he wasn’t himself, he wasn’t my cheeky Billy. At 10pm that night, I had the dreadful phone call saying that Billy had deteriorated excessively and I had two options. We could either give him stronger medication and hope he pulls through the night or go for a second surgery. I was 3 hours away from Billy and I was hysterical. I was not going to give up on Billy yet. Therefore, I decided to go for the second surgery. 17 feet of Billy’s small intestines were removed during his second surgery.

Although the second surgery had went well, there was still no movement in his bowel. He was showing the classic pain signs during the crucial 72 hours after his surgery and we thought we’d have to make the decision on the Sunday to have him put to sleep. Everything was down to Billy now, only he could pull through this.

And he did! Monday morning, Billy had bowel movement and was looking bit more like himself!

Days went on and 10 days after Billy’s surgery he was off the drips and was finally allowed some food! Then Billy’s incision ended up getting infected. He went on antibiotics to try and clear the E-Coli infection. However, this caused him to have Colitis. Billy was not happy to go back on his drip (which he kept on rubbing out!) as we needed to keep his fluid levels up.

The colitis finally cleared up after a couple of days but we still needed to tackle this infection. It was not clearing at all with oral antibiotics so the vets decided to try an alternative route by using Synulox which is usually used for lactating cows. Billy was quite resistant to most antibiotics but luckily the Synulox worked!

On the 30th May 2024, Billy was finally given the go ahead to come home.

37 days after he first went to Edinburgh.

Now it was down to me to look after him at home. I did not sleep a wink the first few nights he was home!

A couple of days after he came home, the infection had came back so he was put back onto the Synulox again. He stayed on these for roughly 3 weeks to ensure the infection had fully cleared.

A hernia belt was purchased from VetoFlex as we needed to reduced any possible risks of a hernia and I could not find one in the UK that I could borrow. Billy needed 8 weeks box rest and in hand grazing daily.

He is doing very well now and is very much back to his usual cheeky self by knocking over the wheelbarrow as I’m mucking out around him or stomping his feet when I don’t give him his treat ball quick enough. I let him off with this though as he didn’t have his treat ball for 37 days.

My insurance company only cover claims up to £6000 less excess.

The final amount left for me to pay Edinburgh vets is £10414.68. However, I also have invoices from my local vets and for the transport company.

Every single person I have spoken to about Billy’s colic surgery have said he has defied all odds and everything he had thrown at him, he fought. I said from day one I would give him every chance and Billy did not give up on me either.

Im now asking for your help on supporting my miracle pony and help with these vet bills as my insurance has only covered £5500. This would’ve been okay for the first surgery, however due to all the complications, my insurance was not able to cover the full amount.

Any amount helps.

Thank you for taking the time reading mine and Billy’s story!