3/26: Raven is home from the hospital!
She's doing just GREAT and is mad as heck that she's been in a stall for two days straight!
She's bucking, kicking, rearing and swinging her head to make sure I know just how ticked she really is. Basically, she's throwing a tantrum!
The surgery was very successful and now we just keep a close eye on the wound to keep infection away. She's on Sulfa 2x per day for 5 days, banamine 1x per day for 2 more days and Misoprostol 2x per day for 3 weeks (I'll explain this in a bit). They actually closed her wound up which is contrary to what I was expecting. The tooth that was removed was premolar #4. The hole in her jaw is about 2" in diameter. She's swollen but really not as bad as I was expecting. And she will allow us to touch on the area, not that we are a lot. She has about 10 stitches covered by a 4x4 antibacterial patch (bandage) and then her jaw (over the nose, under the jaw) is wrapped in a really cool material called Elastikon. It gives but allows her to open her mouth and chew. She's already back on regular feed and hay and can have daily turnout with no limitations on exercise. I just need to keep her by herself so the other horses don't take her bandage off for her.
As for the Misoprostol, there was a miscommunication at the hospital (and I do believe it was accidental) and it was caught almost immediately. She was given bute instead of banamine or some other pain med. I'm told bute is a very good pain med for bone injuries so that is probably how the mistake was made. The vet didn't ask for bute, but that is what was given. When he found the error they tubed her with charcoal and gave us 3 weeks of a drug that should help protect her colon from the potential damage from the bute. I could tell they felt horrible about it, but also felt that no harm was done since it was just once and it was caught so quickly. They didn't charge us for the nasal tube, the pellet or the Misoprostol.
And one final piece of good news...the whole bill was estimated at $2200 but our actual bill was $1400!
I'm so used to the actual bill being HIGHER than the estimate I was really shocked. Shocked but really happy! Spending $1400 that wasn't budgeted for sucks, but it's way better than $2200 that wasn't budgeted for!
I know she's not out of the woods and the vet even reminded me of this several times, but I sure am relieved that at least so far things are going well. She's such a little spitfire!
And the last thing and then I'll shut up. I know that lots of people in MO and the midwest think that Mid Rivers is too expensive and they spend too much money on their facility for appearances, etc. but I'm really sold on them. They've not let me down to date and they've saved more than one horse for me that I thought was surely gone. Any other place probably would have given up on Mira and we wouldn't have her now. Lots of people sort of raise an eyebrow when I say we take our horses there, but I think they're worth every penny. Yes, some charges are outrageous, but they sure know what they're doing and have the facilities to do the work. I'm glad they're local to me.
Thanks for all the well-wishes! I hope to take a pic when we clean the wound and will post for those that wish to see it.
Glad to hear that the surgery went well.
