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PBEC Success Story: Beloved Long-Serving Police Horse Miss Miami Gets a Life-Saving Operation

By Alice Collins / Jump Media

Wellington, FL – Miss Miami is one of Miami’s longest-serving and most-valued police horses, having joined the team 21 years ago and been through six police chiefs. In the early spring of 2024 at the age of 26, Miami Police Department (PD) had begun to wind down her workload and prepare her for retirement. However, on April 10 Miss Miami looked uncomfortable, and officers called their veterinarian.

“She was not feeling good, and it looked like colic,” explained Lieutenant Redondo of Miami PD. “The vet came and saw she was in distress and said we’d probably have to do surgery. They couldn’t do it and referred us to Palm Beach Equine Clinic [PBEC].”

Miss Miami was driven straight to PBEC in Wellington, FL, where the team carried out a physical exam, blood work, nasogastric intubation, an ultrasound, abdominocentesis, and a rectal exam. Their findings were consistent with a surgical lesion, and she was diagnosed with a strangulating lipoma, a small, benign, fatty tumor that develops within the abdomen and occasionally develops a long, string-like stalk. The lipoma and stalk can wrap around a part of the horse’s digestive system, cutting off the blood supply and resulting in death of that section of intestine.

On the day she arrived at PBEC, Miss Miami was taken to emergency surgery after an initial evaluation and operated on by Dr. Weston Davis DVM, DACVS, who ended up performing a resection and anastomosis, which is where a part of intestine is removed and the two ends are rejoined.

“Miss Miami was routinely induced under general anesthesia; the abdomen was clipped and aseptically prepared for surgery,” explained Davis, who is a native of South Florida and whose father was also a veterinarian. “A midline incision was created, and exploration revealed a large segment of mid-jejunum [the middle part of the small intestine] that appeared to have been strangulated by the stalk of a strangulating lipoma.”

The portion of the small intestine affected was no longer viable, so Davis removed the two-foot long segment of jejunum. Miss Miami’s abdominal incision was then closed with absorbable sutures in the deeper layers and stainless-steel staples in the skin.

Miss Miami was given intravenous fluid therapy including pain relief, electrolytes, anti-inflammatories, antibiotics, and gastroprotectants. She recovered from the anesthesia without incident, and a large abdominal support bandage was applied in recovery. 

She was not yet out of the woods, however. Miss Miami’s forelimb digital pulses were mildly elevated in the first 36 hours after the operation. She was managed with digital cryotherapy, and frog supports were applied to both front feet. Her appetite was also diminished following surgery, and she was fed via nasogastric intubation until her appetite began to increase. At that point, her rations were given normally, and the quantity was gradually increased. Her digital pulses returned to normal.

After a week at PBEC, Miss Miami was bright, with a good appetite, passing normal manure, and walking comfortably. She was ready to be released back into the care of Miami PD. Their local veterinarian oversaw the removal of Miss Miami’s stitches a week later, and her belly bandage was reapplied. The Miami PD team was also given four daily exercises by PBEC for Miss Miami to start at home two weeks after surgery to help support her recovery: barrel lifts, butt tucks, stepping backwards, and walking over poles.

“She would have died without the surgery,” stated Redondo. “She has recovered really well. She is still here with us in Miami, but we have started the paperwork to retire her to farmland up in North Florida. Everybody around here knows her and loves her; she’s one of our most famous horses. She’s been here longer than I have, and she’s one of the horses that we liked to use on the regular. Having a horse that already knows the job and is used to all the traffic and loud noises makes it easy, so we are going to miss her.

“The fact that the department agreed to take care of a horse who is old or not being ridden anymore says a lot, and the fact that PBEC took care of her was so great,” he concluded.

PBEC’s kindness and swift action ensured that Miss Miami will now be able to enjoy the retirement she deserves after her years of loyal service. If you or your veterinarian would like to learn more about Palm Beach Equine Clinic and how it can help your horse, call 561-793-1599 or visit www.EquineClinic.com.