dixie_belle
Well-Known Member
Well, just goes to show that even with the most precautions possible, a horse will always find something to hurt himself on. Last Friday evening when I put my boys to bed, both were fine. Saturday morning when I went to get them up, my big boy, Spot, wouldn't come out of the loafing shed but whinnied for me instead. Now that is highly unusual so I called him again and he came limping around the corner. I jumped the fence and ran to him and saw a large laceration on his right hind ankle. Somehow he had cut his foot, right by the coffin joint, down to the bone. We coaxed him into the yard, washed it out, put hydrogen peroxide all over it and called the vet. They were wonderful. They were there in an hour and a half. They laid him down and did emergency surgery right there. Cleaned it up, stiched it and bandaged it. They said he cut an artery (which explains the giant pools of blood in the pasture), cut everything, in fact, on that side of his leg. Luckily it did not go into the joint, which was a major concern. We had to get him to the equine hospital for further treatment and he should come home on Monday. The doc said it should not affect his walking and that he should regain full movement of that foot. He is going to have one heck of a scar and it may not grow hair on it. There was a large "flap" that was cut and hanging and not all of it has regained blood flow so about 25% (give or take) will have to be removed as it is dead. But we were very lucky. He could have easily bled to death or gotten a terrible infection. This is not something I could have treated at home with a band aid and a little neosporin!!
But here is a rather humerous story related to the "incident". We had a mini trailer for three years. We never used it. It sat in our yard, unmoving and just going to rust. So one day someone offered to buy it from me and it seemed like the prudent thing to do. Flash forward to last weekend. The vet says to get him to the hospital right away and we don't have a trailer. So hubby and I leave the vet in our yard doing surgery and we take our truck and go riding around looking for anyone with a trailer parked in their yard. We finally find a house where they have a trailer and someone is home. Never met this lady before in my life. So I bang on her door. She makes the mistake of opening the door to find this crazy woman on her doorstep. I am frantic, I tell her I have this injured horse and I've got to have her trailer. Well, naturally she is a tad (actually very) reluctant to let me have her gorgreous trailer as she doesn't know me from Adam. She says she couldn't possibly let me borrow her trailer unless she talks to her husband who wasn't home. So I lose it. I start bawling. I couldn't help it. I was hysterical. So she takes pity on me, really she did. She says she is a horse person and understands. So I give her my license number, the plate number from my truck, my name, address, phone number and $20 (all the money I had in my purse) and off we go with her trailer. That was possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. We took Spot to the hospital, cleaned the trailer and had it back to her in 2 hours. So if ever you see a crazy red headed woman driving up your driveway, with a wild look in her eye, looking at your trailer....it's just me with another emergency!! Now I have to call her this weekend and borrow it again so I can get him home next week.
And, I will never be without a trailer again. I am actively searching for a trailer. I don't care if it sits here unused for 10 years, slowly going to rust, I will not ever be in a panic like that again.
My other horse, Fluffy, is beside himself because his brother is gone. He is most depressed. I have spent extra time with him, talking to him and taking him for walks but he really missed his brother.
When Spot comes home, he will have to be stalled for two weeks to limit the use of his foot. The doctor will be coming out every 3-4 days to check on his progress, remove any more dead flesh and change the bandages.
It was very bad. I have never seen an injury like this where you could look and see the bone. We were all very lucky.
I'll keep you posted.
Shelley
But here is a rather humerous story related to the "incident". We had a mini trailer for three years. We never used it. It sat in our yard, unmoving and just going to rust. So one day someone offered to buy it from me and it seemed like the prudent thing to do. Flash forward to last weekend. The vet says to get him to the hospital right away and we don't have a trailer. So hubby and I leave the vet in our yard doing surgery and we take our truck and go riding around looking for anyone with a trailer parked in their yard. We finally find a house where they have a trailer and someone is home. Never met this lady before in my life. So I bang on her door. She makes the mistake of opening the door to find this crazy woman on her doorstep. I am frantic, I tell her I have this injured horse and I've got to have her trailer. Well, naturally she is a tad (actually very) reluctant to let me have her gorgreous trailer as she doesn't know me from Adam. She says she couldn't possibly let me borrow her trailer unless she talks to her husband who wasn't home. So I lose it. I start bawling. I couldn't help it. I was hysterical. So she takes pity on me, really she did. She says she is a horse person and understands. So I give her my license number, the plate number from my truck, my name, address, phone number and $20 (all the money I had in my purse) and off we go with her trailer. That was possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. We took Spot to the hospital, cleaned the trailer and had it back to her in 2 hours. So if ever you see a crazy red headed woman driving up your driveway, with a wild look in her eye, looking at your trailer....it's just me with another emergency!! Now I have to call her this weekend and borrow it again so I can get him home next week.
And, I will never be without a trailer again. I am actively searching for a trailer. I don't care if it sits here unused for 10 years, slowly going to rust, I will not ever be in a panic like that again.
My other horse, Fluffy, is beside himself because his brother is gone. He is most depressed. I have spent extra time with him, talking to him and taking him for walks but he really missed his brother.
When Spot comes home, he will have to be stalled for two weeks to limit the use of his foot. The doctor will be coming out every 3-4 days to check on his progress, remove any more dead flesh and change the bandages.
It was very bad. I have never seen an injury like this where you could look and see the bone. We were all very lucky.
I'll keep you posted.
Shelley
