Towel in a bowel: tiny filly undergoes surgery to remove unsuitable snack

Towels don’t fit through donkey bowels, as vets treating a miniature filly found out.

Specialists at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, US, had to operate on three-month-old Harper, as it turned out she had eaten a whole towel.

A spokesperson for the hospital said Lexi Tarpy, manager of Stone Ridge Stables, brought Harper in after she developed a fever and showed signs of colic.

“We brought her in here because our vet said it was an emergency situation,” Lexi said. “Come to find out when they went in for surgery, she ate a towel — an entire towel.”

Vets performed an exploratory celiotomy, a surgical procedure to enter the abdomen, and removed two pieces of towel that were blocking Harper’s colon.

“Removing foreign bodies from the digestive tract of an equine like a horse or donkey is uncommon,” said Elaine Claffey, assistant clinical professor of large-animal surgery.

“They’re usually pretty good at sticking to the things that they should normally eat; we don’t do as many foreign body removals as a small animal veterinarian would because dogs, as we know, are indiscriminate eaters and eat all sorts of things that they shouldn’t.”

Harper’s condition improved quickly after the surgery but her dam Daisy then went downhill.

“Daisy arrived the day after surgery to allow Harper to nurse and put them back together,” Dr Claffey said. “But she developed a couple of fevers and had some medical issues, developed a little bit of enteritis, which is inflammation in the intestines.

“When we recognised she had these additional illnesses, our internal medicine team took over and took primary care for her case, which was great, because we really needed their expertise for her.”

Daisy was treated with IV fluids, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication and both she and Harper made a full recovery.

“It’s been hard because we couldn’t come up and see Harper and Daisy so often but they were in great hands, and we’re ready for them to come home,” Lexi said.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout Horse of the Year Show, London International and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

You may also be interested in: