...a check-up...

...today the vet comes back to check Tom.  Fingers crossed...

It's windy today, very...and the horses are out in restricted grazing still, but they're finding the small space simply a challenge which they meet face-on.  They are speeding about, but I am keeping an eye on them.  Tom is not supposed to be leaping around, he has stitches, but I guess he's feeling better?  Off the anti-biotics by yesterday, but still a sachet of Bute morning and night, for it's anti-inflammatory properties more than pain relief now.

I decided to add some happy photos to remind us all why we go through all this worry, just look at their pretty little faces, and that's all you need to know.
 

 

The plan is for Tom's stitches to come out next week, you can see here the swelling has lessened.  Then I am hoping things can get back to normal around here. Out again at night and free-range to graze.  Tom will get some well-earned rest alongside Henry and because his scar sits under his saddle area, I'll need to be extra careful he is ready and pain-free before I ride him again.
 

Fingers crossed.

The vet actually used the word WOW when she saw Tom today, which is good news.  happy with his recovery and on-track for next week.

Single dose of Bute only a day.

Henry is making his feelings about Bute quite clear!

 

...planning for emergencies...

...it's not nice to think about, but trust me when I say, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail...

Be prepared, it's the Brownie motto for a good reason, those Brownies (and I was once a proud member) know what they're talking about.

So, managing your horse in emergencies is important:  what provisions are there for individual quiet turn-out?

Luckily, I keep Tom and Henry at home, so I can devise a flexible living arrangement when needed, and as I have said to Henry many times, Tom has had to suffer restriction when Henry has a tendon injury.  

When you look for the perfect yard for your horse, ask about injury turn-out, can his friend join?  is it quiet?  is it flexible, in other words can the area change size as the horse progresses? if he needs box-rest is there a separate quiet place for rest?  where his pal can join him.  Studies prove horses recover much faster if the herd bond is close by.

Tom and Henry are in at night until the vet comes Wednesday and gives Tom the nod.  So I am trying to make their living arrangements as interesting as possible, this means interesting dinners and a bale of Horsehage each in haynets hung outside their stables.  not only does this mean their stables are less messy, but they can keep a look-out and eat at the same time.  I can't tell you how much my 2 appreciate this arrangement.          

...turnout...

...restricted turn-out can be tricky...

But, as I keep reminding Tom, he's lucky to be alive, I'm sure he doesn't really mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Saturday am:  I folded back the 'gate' end of the corral to allow two large horses room to pass.  Tom was tentative at first and Henry huffed and puffed a bit, but once they got the idea, they were out together and happier.

 

 

The day is calm and sunny one minute, cold and grey the next.  Tom has his customised fly sheet on and they are wandering about together after some mutual grooming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If your own horse gets wounded badly, take heart, because it's easy to picture worse case scenarios, but horses are surprisingly stoic, and whilst your own insides feel like they're about to boil over, your horse will likely remain calm like Tom did, and he's a big boy, so I'm very thankful for that.

 

My advice:

• apple juice, to encourage him to eat all his dinners including the powders,
• flexible electric fencing to allow restricted turn out,
• cheap flysheet to protect the wound (assuming it's on his body),
• apples and carrots to keep him occupied,
• a great husband for support (and to make the tea - tea is VERY important to the process),
• Hibiscrub, in case the area needs a quick clean,
• a first aid cabinet in your feed room, stuffed to the gills with everything you need.  Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have any!  I now have more first aid stuff than a small saddlery!
• Haybars, John customised these for outdoor use and they fit on a straight edge in my yard, with hooks on the back to be movable, this means their points of feeding can be flexible too,
• lots of hay, since your horse likely will be stuck in without access to growing forage,
• web-cams, I know this might sound expensive, but so is your horse?  I can watch every inch of my land from anywhere in the world on 'PonyCam', (of course it helps that John is and IT geek-genius), which means when I go back to work on Monday morning, I'll know exactly what's going on at home.

 

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by a trauma on your own horse, but look at what a difference a few days have made to Tom, Monday am early, nasty tear in his side, the following Saturday am, turned out with Henry in the Pony Paddock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom seems fine, he's not as stiff walking as the beginning of the week and his wound, apart from a bulge over torn muscle underneath and bright blue stitches, looks encouragingly good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom & Henry have missed sharing drinking time, mutual grooming and generally wandering about together, fingers crossed, deep breath, it's all going well.

 

Here they enjoy a drink, it can't be beer, Tom's on anti-biotics! And Henry chews Toms mane, to say hello.

...healing...warning: bloody wound picture...

...it's incredible to believe, but I've seen it with my own eyes...
warning, below is a bloody gaping hole picture: but it ends in good news...

What was once a gaping hole in my horse has now healed over to the point where he can be allowed out into a restricted amount of land to graze with his friend.

...from this...and this.....with the drain still in...


 
 






 ...to this...







.....healed over and protected from the flies by the rug.  Tom has now slept on this side and rolled on it too.  The stitches have not shifted and the heal has not been compromised.





Tom and Henry have been more or less separated since Monday, but tomorrow the corral gets taken down and they can graze together again. 

...drugs...

...how to get your horse, who doesn't even like ginger nuts or garlic, to eat a massive dose of powders in his dinner...
again, stay calm, and carry on...
Horses are naturally suspicious of everything new, it's how they stay alive.

 

Tom, being of robust physical proportions at 17hh needs not a small amount of drugs in his dinner to get him healing from the inside. (Actually it is likely his slight extra weight saved him from a worse wound, remember it only missed puncturing his lungs by millimetres, the fat saved him).  If that's not an advert for pizza, I don't know what is.

 

2 sachets of Bute morning an night, and one and a half sachets of anti-biotics too.  And these aren't small doses either, his anti biotic powders are like an Angel delight, without any delight!

 

The Bute is easy: it's a small amount of powder and can be administered in a few cunning ways: dig out a cavity in an apple or large carrot, fill the area, replace the 'lid' and feed by hand?  This failed to work for Tom, he can smell suspicious powders at twenty paces.  So good luck with that but next, fill his feed with tiny pieces of delicious apples and carrots with a handful of treats chucked in for good measure and fingers crossed, this kind of worked but I had to chase Tom around with the bucket until he got fed up and over the course of an hour almost finished it.  Changing buckets and locations also helped with Tom.  If all else fails, try a syringe.  The vet can give you a plunger without the needle, simply add the Bute powders into it, mix with water or apple juice and shove it down his throat like a wormer.  I didn't say it would be pretty.

 

The Anti-biotic powders can only go in the dinner, try spreading the dose over a few meals too.  perhaps the makers of these drugs can make them carrot flavour?

 

So, after three days into a two week course of powders, he's Bute goes down to a single sachet morning and night.  This is a pain killer and anti-inflammatory, fingers crossed and deep breaths everyone.

It's Friday now, he's doing fine, he's bored at not being allowed out in the field with Henry. His fly rug is on and the wound underneath has sealed over nicely.

Tomorrow we plan on turning him out again with Henry, which considering the depth of the tear he had in his shoulder Monday morning is nothing short of amazing.

I have warned him: any shenanigans, and it's back to the corral!  I define this as galloping, bucking, rolling, leaping, jumping, rearing, messing about and generally being a Trakehner.  It'll be hard, but I'll be keeping my eye on him.

QUICK NOTE ABOUT EQUIPALAZONE:
If you've already had your horses' boosters done this year you'll have done this, but if you haven't, you'll be asked to sign a section in their passports, linked to the drug Bute and how it mustn't get into our food (well don't buy Tesco's or eat horses, then you'll be fine), signing your animal out of the human food chain.

...stay calm, and carry on...

...aftermath...

So, you've got a horse that has a massive healing wound on his side, with twenty stitches sitting proud of the swollen area. 

 

Your good friend Lesa has made you a special batch of red velvet cupcakes to cheer you up, and they definitely help.

 

OK, so the area doesn't need now to be kept sterile because the surface has sealed, we just need to keep the flies away, especially from the still open tiny drain at the bottom. 

So you buy a fly rug, the type horses who suffer with sweet itch wear, and customise it by sewing a dressing inside that sits over the stitches.

























Here I have a layer of dressing suitable for contact with the damaged skin.  Over that a layer of gauze dressing, sew-able.  I lay the pieces on the back after marking the area to be covered with a marker, and stitch the pieces together.  Outside it looks like quilting, not particularly pretty, but the job gets done.

Brilliant, no more dressing and worrying.
 

 

Next, your horse needs to move, the yard is no longer large enough to keep him occupied and of course Tom can see Henry enjoying the summer grass and quite rightly wants some.

 

So I have been grazing Tom up the driveway on a lead rope, here you can see him and Henry pruning the hedgerow.  But then John had another cunning plan: a corral.

 

So, John has constructed a small area of turnout for Tom.  A totally flexible electric tape area, to address living arrangements for emergencies, and we all have them from time to time. Unless of course yours is a horse forced to stay indoors so these accidents don't happen, but then your problems are likely mental rather than physical.

 

Tom is happier now, I have moved a Haybar so he can eat with Henry, friendship is important for horses.
 

 

The vet will return next Wednesday to check him over, make sure there's no problems, re-evaluate his drug intake, then a week later out come the stitches, and that, I'm hoping, will be the end of the matter.

 
 
 

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: