Friday the Thirteenth...........On My! Part two

Part 1

I want to mention here before I continue, the second picture down is a picture of this wound after it has been stitched. I'm way too tired to remember how I hide such a picture, so if you're squeamish, please don't scroll down.

While waiting for the vet, I talked with Dave and Lindsay about how this accident could have happened to this Arabian horse. I couldn't even imagine how the horse could had done this in his stall. I really had trouble getting their idea of the story to settle in my mind.

Dave said he put the Arabian horse into his stall. The horse immediately dropped down to roll in the fresh clean pile of shavings. (Something that all our Legs babies seem to enjoy. Shortly after Dave heard the horse's water tub tipping over. Knowing that he had just filled that tub to the brim, Dave opened to stall door up to see water everywhere, the tub up sideways and blood squirting from the horse's leg.

This picture above is one of our water tubs. I've used them for years for our horses who drink lots of water. I have always viewed this tubs as safe. Never in a million years would I have thought they could harm a horse in this kind of way but that's what happened.

I really had trouble getting my mind around this idea. I went into Andy's stall and surveyed the situation. I looked at the stall and that water tub in the corner. Then I ran my hands around underneath the rim looking for evidence.

Not only did I find an edge but I found blood. From what I can tell the horse must have gotten his leg between the tub and the wall. Then feeling trapped he had forced his way up flipping the tub over when he caught his leg on the underside of that rim. That edge is like all unfinished plastic or vinyl edges, or even the edge of paper. Hit it just right (and with the weight of a horse behind it) and it turned into a knife. Go figure!

By this time the vet had arrived. First thing she gave Andy a sedative. Then before she opened this up, she wanted to know what the wound looked like. I told her I hadn't looked closely at the damage I just went directly to applying the pressure bandage so Dave gave her an idea about the location and what he thought was the extent of the wound.
The point he indicated was indeed the location of a small artery. The vet got her supplies ready to open up my makeshift bandage and work on this leg while we waited for Andy's drugs to take effect. Once she was sure he was good and numb she started working on him.

As soon as she cut the bandage off, blood began to squirt. If the horse picked his leg up and flexed the joint, the blood shot out about a foot. Literally, I do mean a foot. The other front leg of this horse was already bright red from this so it was important to keep the foot flat because it bleed far less. Although let me tell you, the amount of blood at the lesser flow was still enough to make me nervous..........well, nervous and nauseous.




While Dave was right about the location of the artery, he grossly underestimated the extent of the damage. What he thought was one small cut at an opportune location (the artery) actually ran across the coronet band disconnecting the skin for about four inches, up the pastern, through the artery and back around the side.

There is no way to repair an artery like that. The vet said they are really lucky if they can even find them, let alone stitch them. Stitching up as much of the wound as possible should add enough pressure to eventually stop the bleeding.

Looking at the damage and the loss of blood to the cut areas, the odds are that the skin is all going to slough. However, stitching it closed is the only way to get the bleeding stopped. The problem with this wound is that four inch section where the skin was cut away from the coronet band cannot be stitched so will remain open. Hopefully, the horse will stay quiet enough, a clot will be able to form and plug the bleeding up.

Looking in on Andy tonight, he is bright so my guess is the bleeding has stopped. Hopefully, it will stay stopped. That is our number one issue. We will be checking him regularly over the next few hours for bleeding.

The other than infection, the next real hurdle will be that skin growing back to the coronet band. Due to the extent of the damage there is the possibility the horse will have a deformed hoof. However, we're going to hope for the best and worry about that road if we get to it.

I don't know if you noticed but there are a lot of hopes in there. The best thing this horse has going for him is his young age. An older horse, as in three or more, wouldn't have nearly the recovery rate possible in a foal or yearling. The fact this wound has involved the separation of the skin from the coronet band really throws a huge wrench into things. There are lots of possibilities here and we just have to hope (there's that word again) that things go the best that they can.

Of course, I must add, this is all happening when I am just leaving town. Dave and Colleen will be giving medications and changing dressings. Neither one has had to do this before. Colleen did put a temporary dressing on a leg wound one time, so she is miles ahead of Dave. But Dave vows he can handle this. I sure hope so.

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