..the aftermath...

...Tom, and the stitches come out...finally...

Today the vet came and gave Tom the big thumbs up, and took out his stitches:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First she cleaned the area with weak Hibiscrub, then proceeded to cut and whip out the bright blue wires one by one. 
 

 

 

Her blade was curved and the process quick.  Tom must have felt the top ones more because he fidgeted and raised his leg up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've had my fair share of stitches out, and though not painful it does have a weird pulling sensation, which I'm guessing Tom didn't like.  But without sedative, he did stand still and allow it.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I invited the vet to linger and watch as the boys were turned out finally, since she gave me the green light to allow Tom to test his scar to the limit!
 

 

 

 

 

...and test it he did, they love being out at grass since they have been restricted since the 'unfortunate incident'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take a look at these photos, you'll see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...I think you'll agree, all back to normal now...

TRAUMA: if you're squeamish, look away now...

what happens when you discover your horse has a massive trauma...
...firstly stay calm, your horse will appreciate it...please don't look if you can't handle gore, this is bloody nasty...

Bank Holiday Monday, about 7am, I came into the yard as usual and the boys were in each others stables, just standing there with their heads poking out.  I noticed Tom had some blood on his white sock and wondered what he'd done to his leg.  But when I got there, the blood trail led to a massive wound in my horse, his insides outside.

Our Anniversary week off was about to be a bloody nightmare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I shut him in the stable and called for John, called the vet, made their breakfasts.

 

 

Tom was stoic as usual, calm and unflustered.  He stood there munching his breakfast while I held cotton wool and a dressing to the area to keep it all in place, the vet arrived in half an hour.

 

She was very calm of course, and after clipping around the area and cleaning it with a weak Hibiscrub solution, (just palest pink), she put Tom under sedation. 

 

 

 

 

John had a syringe filled with saline and squirted under direction so she could cut away all the dead tissue.  the hole was so big she could put her hand to the wrist inside my horse.  Suffice it to say, I was standing at Tom's head being calm but useless, whilst John did all the work, helped and asked the important questions...and just as importantly listened and remembered. 

 

 

The vet then injected local anaesthetic all over the large area, about 40cm long!  She stitched the muscle together, then inserted a drain all the length of the wound, top to bottom, the skin was closed on top, all very neat in bright blue stitches.  From the bottom of the drain, all the way to under Tom's belly I had to smear with Vaseline to stop the liquid irritating Tom and attracting flies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She left me with after care instructions and boxes and sachets of powders I knew Tom would turn his nose up at, but he had to take them, his wound was so deep, we took photos for training purposes, and he'd missed his lung by millimetres.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOW?  Of course we can only guess, the vet told us he'd done it a couple of hours before she saw him, so 5am ish. 

 

We think he came charging down the field, skidded and fell into the gateway post, taking the catch with him, bending it and impaling himself onto it, bending the strong shape as he went.  trails of blood across my yard suggest he came straight into the yard to wait to be discovered.

 

A watery swelling grew during yesterday, this is perfectly normal, and has migrated to the lowest part of Tom's belly, this is just fluid from the trauma and will be absorbed in time.









 




I added a Citronella Tag to the dressing with Gaffa tape to keep the flies AWAY. Then hosed Tom's blood off my yard floor, and that was very sobering I can tell you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's Wednesday night now, and I have only just begun calming down.  Tom is in his stable, doing well, and after another visit today, the vet seems happy with him.

 

I have tried to add only a selection of photos here because they are gruesome, but if this ever happens to your horse, you'll know what to expect.

 

Now here is a lovely picture to end, so we can hope for a healthy future:

 

 

 

 

 

mud fever, and what to do if you've got it.

...this is a mud fever post...

........ a one-stop shop, let's beat it once and for all.

TCJ blog's most popular posts are all the mud fever ones (all year round), and ragwort advice. 

Tom and Henry are of course, in at night still, so they have hours with dry feet, this helps.

*It doesn't just happen in the muddy conditions of winter, Henry had it after a wet summer, as you can clearly see from the photo above. 

*don't be ashamed to ask for help, call your vet, I did, and my vet was brilliant, we couldn't have gotten through it without her help. your vet will give you pain killers and anti-biotics to fight it from the inside, whilst the creams fight it from the outside.

*ignore stupid advice from yard types who think they know everything, it's mostly passed along bad advice, and treatments have changed so significantly in the last few years your vet with have creams most people won't have even heard of.

*be super-vigilant, catch the small scabs and treat them before anything serious occurs.

*mud fever can cause terrible swelling resulting in incapacity, terrible lameness and pain.

*Wash the area thoroughly, use a diluted soloution of water/hibiscrub to pick the scabs completely off.  wear gloves, and disspose of them afterward.

 


*Without rinsing the hibiscrub away, dry the area completely.  The vet advised me to use throw-away blue paper roll to dry it, and not a towel as I had been using.  mud fever is contagious, and you need to be clean, work clean and throw everything away afterwards.

*Once dry, add a light coating of fuciderm cream, again wear gloves for this and throw them away after.  lay a dressing over the area, and hope your horse is as good as Henry here, not tied up, just standing and waiting for me to finish.

*Wrap the whole area in vetwrap, black is the correct colour for the season.  be careful not to make it too tight, your horse will need to move in it.

*Make a neat job, it'll be more comfortable that way.

*Slide the hoof-boot on.

*If your horse, like Henry, had secondary infection which casues the leg to swell, that's what your vet will give you equipalazone for, bandage the leg too.

*Fuciderm cream, it has a picture of a dog on the box, but trust me, it really works.  get it from your vet.

*Hoof-boots, very handy indeed.

*Above, after a week treatment, it's sore, but the vet told me to leave it alone unless a large amount of scabs returned, which they didn't. Henry was on anti-biotoics, bute and fuciderm cream. then after two weeks no cream, no anti-biotics, no bute.

 CHECKLIST:

• check the pasterns ever day, even the smallest scab can be very painful.
• clean the area with lots of water or if you can, stand your horses foot in a bucket of water to soften the scab.
• wear rubber gloves, the sort of thing you see at crime scenes on the telly.  mud fever is contagious, you don't want to spread it from one leg to another, or to another horse either. throw everything away afterwards.
• add a cap-full of pink hibiscrub to a 100 parts water, it's weak, that's what you want. wash the area, use this to help remove the scabs.
•  pick the scabs completely off, be gentle it'll hurt your horse.  be patient with him, he'll be in pain. if the scabs are many CALL THE VET.
• this part is important:  use disposable blue-roll to absolutely and completely dry the area.  you can throw it away. 
• give your horse an hug and a handful of well-deserved treats.
• once dry, put more gloves on and add a little cream from the vet to the area.
• add equipalazone or equibutazone to his dinner, alongside anti-biotics, and breakfast, usually for about three days. that's why calling the vet is important, it'll only last for weeks longer if you don't.
•  then, if your horse is going out, put a clean gauze over the area, with gamgee over that, held in place with vet wrap.
• and use hoof-boots, I promise you, once you get some, there'll be no going back, they're brilliant.  

LESSONS LEARNED:

• CALL THE VET, IT'LL SAVE YOU TIME AND YOUR HORSE PAIN IN THE LONG RUN, the mud fever infection will be treated from within with drugs, and without with cream and barrier methods.

Henry's pastern after three weeks:

 

TCJpart91 Amusing Noticings

HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED...?

...how your horse behaves for strangers?...and how, that behaviour is a reflection on you and will have a bearing on the effectiveness of the purpose of the visit.

 

 

 

When Tom & Henry get the regular visitors, and you might remember I won't let just anyone anywhere near either of them, they behave beautifully, and exactly as I'd expect from either personality.

 

 

Well mannered and polite, my boys are lovely to be around and amusing to.

 

Henry, of course doesn't like to stand still and is prone to an alert status whenever anything is happening around...and it needn't be close either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom, with his usual bored expression will watch whilst Henry gets all agitated, knowing it'll be a fleeting state and he'll be fine and calm soon.  Tom approaches everything with quiet calm.

 

Working with your horses own personalities can help you achieve a pleasant working relationship when it comes to vets, farriers, teeth doctors, physios, saddle fitters etc, because you will personalise your approach and the stranger will follow your lead.

 

 

Remembering all horses, just like us, are different.  They have different motivations and interests, and knowing how to work with these will help you as a team be effective in assisting a vet for example to treat a wound or trauma where a calm and still horse will be of benefit.