Marsha Anderson has owned Banche for seven years. Banche is a 16-year-old female Tennessee Walking Horse that spends a lot of time riding trails and even swimming.

On the night of June 13, 2013, Anderson had the fright of coming home to a lethargic horse. Banche was tipping over and was in a full sweat. She wasn’t responsive to anything other than the pain she was feeling from the colic, or pain in her abdomen.

Anderson’s first instinct was to call her veterinarian, Dr. Burbary-Muston.

Dr. Burbary-Muston quickly gave the horse pain killers and ran several tests to try and come up with a solution to the colic, but quickly referred the horse down to the MSU Emergency Critical Care Medicine unit for emergency treatment.

Anderson immediately made the hour trip to East Lansing, Mich. down the headlight-lit roads as Banche rode behind her in pain.

Around 10:30 p.m., Banche was in the care of the doctors at MSU including Dr. Susan Holcombe and Dr. Joanna Virgin.

Dr. Virgin immediately started diagnosing Banche.

“Gastrosplenic entrapments are relatively uncommon, but when she came in, given how painful she was and the fact that she had gone through multiple rounds of sedation, my thought process was that she was probably going to be a surgical candidate,” said Dr. Virgin, “When we found out it was her small intestine, we knew we had to explore with surgery.”

Once inside the patient, it was clear that the beginning part of the small intestine had completely cut off the blood flow to three feet of the small intestine.

To relieve the patient of the problem, the three feet were removed; along with an extra three feet to ensure that the small intestine would be able to be stitched together in a healthy manner after the removal. The six feet removed were only a small percentage of the 70-80 feet of small intestine a horse has.

During the whole surgery, Anderson never left Banche’s side. She stayed in the Veterinary Hospital until 7 a.m. the next day and periodically came back down to make sure that Banche was doing okay and happy. Banche was released four days after being admitted to the hospital.

“I was scared because I wanted to make sure I doing everything right. But I was excited. I had a million different emotions,” said Anderson, “I was all of them – excited, happy, and nervous. It all went great and I was able to contact Dr. Virgin whenever I wanted. I had a ton of questions and she answered all of them for me.”

On June 17, 2013, Banche was taken home to 30 days of stall rest followed by 30 days in her own little field where she was not allowed any strenuous activity. Despite being bound to small enclosures, it didn’t help Anderson worry any less.

“I was a hot mess, I was a wreck just watching her out in the pasture,” said Anderson, “I was always checking on her and making sure she wasn’t down on the group rolling or kicking.”

Now, more than a year later, Banche is back at her physical peak. She is back on the trails and is able to go for a nice swim again with Anderson.