Saturday, June 14, 2008

Friday the Thirteenth...........Oh My!




I'm really not a superstitious person but I must admit when I realized that today was Friday the thirteenth and I was getting ready to leave town with my Arabian horses, I had just of twinge of discomfort. Little things keep happening throughout the day to blow my schedule all to h*ll but I just chalked it up to Murphy's and keep on my way, hours behind schedule but on my way none the less.

Then on the ride home I got a frantic call from Lindsay telling me I might want to get myself home as soon as possible. Such a call is not the norm for Lindsay. She's made many calls with problems at home but never once has she told me I needed to be there ASAP. I knew immediately that something really bad had happened.

When I asked her what had happened she told me that the yearling colt, Andy, had cut his leg and blood was squirting from the wound. I know Lindsay well enough to know that if she tells me squirting, then squirting is what it's doing. I told her to tell Dad to put pressure on the wound. I would call the vet and be there as quick as traffic would allow.

I don't know what it is about Friday night traffic but it seems all the nuts come out of the woodwork to make hay on Friday nights. There were cops with flashing lights and drivers still bouncing from lane to lane acting like they owned the road and my truck and horse trailer just plane p*ssed some of them off. Not because I was doing anything but minding my own business but because I was there in the first place. Not driving like a lunatic just isn't acceptable behavior to those Friday night freaks.

So I'm trying to survive my trip and call the vet at the same time. But that's another funny thing I've noticed about Friday nights, vets are rarely available. I called Jack, my regular go to vet (also the only one who runs a tab for me.....bless his sweet little heart) and the man was in town at a wedding. The first back up vet still had patients at the clinic and couldn't come for a couple of hours. Thanks, but no thanks, my horse could have bled to death by then.

Driving and calling on the cell phone are not really my thing. I can talk just fine. It's the finding the right number part that causes the problem. My go to vet is always in my recently dialed numbers so that was easy enough to find but when I needed to search for vets number two and three and still stay in my lane, I was getting a bit frustrated. Flashbacks of the night the twins were trying to be born and not vet could be found were popping in my head.

Thankfully by vet number three I got a service that promised a call back in at least twenty minutes. This service did know enough to advise me to apply pressure to the wound so that gave me a shade more confidence. However, I was worried about that twenty minute call back.

Fortunately, my cell phone rang in about two minutes. That and this vet was only twenty minutes away, gave me a bit more breathing room. I hadn't heard from Lindsay or Dave so I assumed they were managing the wound ok. However, not having an idea where it was made me nervous.

I was really relieved when I turned the corner down the road to my house. I parked my rig and opened the back door of the horse trailer so the horses inside wouldn't cook while Dave screamed his lungs out at me to get him more guaze as he lay down on the ground next to this yearling colt grasping his right front pastern with both hands.

To say that Dave was stressed would be a gross understand. This is the most excited I've ever seen the man be. The gauze he was using over the top of the wound to apply presssure was completely drenched in blood. Dave was worried it wasn't being effective anymore with it being so sooped.

I tried to soothe his fear a bit by telling him to remember that horses have a LOT of blood. More than you would every expect! So even though it looked like a lot of blood had been spilled, it was really nothing in the big scheme of things. As long as it wasn't squirting anymore, we were good. The vet was on the way with projected arrival time just twenty minutes.

I headed to the barn and grabbed my emergency kit and brought the whole thing back out to the horse. Then I double checked the location of the wound. It was from the front to the inside and from the coronet band on up across the artery and around the side.

I figured that the more direct the pressure was, the better off I'd be. So I opted to not use guaze and apply a firm but not too tight pressure wrap directly with vetwrap. I figured by wrapping around and under the hoof I might be able to stop the flow of blood.

It sounded good in theory but it didn't work that well. Even with the vetwrap in place, we still had to apply external pressure. However the vetwrap worked more effectively than the guaze that Dave had been using to try and stop the flow of blood. So we took turns keeping the pressure on and waited for the vet.

to be continued..........

This picture is Andy last year at my open house.

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14 comments:

  1. Gee, it never ends with horses does it! Hopes are with Andy that everything works out okay!!! I'll never forgot how scared I was when my gelding cut his leg and hit an artery, actually scared is an understatement, I was histerical. But just like you said, it's truely amazing how much blood they can loose without it having an affect on them!!!

    As for Firday the 13th...I've never been supersticious either, about the worst thing to happen to me on a Fri 13th was I was on a bus and the driver cut the corner, clipped a Give Way sign which smashed the window directly above me. Not good either though!

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  2. OK I am a bit confused I thought you were going to Salem again this weekend or is that later in the year and your show local this weekend and you said you were on your way home on a Friday night when I thought you were leaving to go to the show??? I am missing something here, doesnt take much to confuse me.

    I feel your pain on this one as this is pretty much the same way that Blue cut his leg when he got caught in the roundpen but we didnt have the blood to deal with. It was a nightmare to bandage because I didnt understand the instructions about the pressure given by the vet for the first two or three weeks and we ended up with proud flesh. I will try to post a brief account of it on my Lori's Critters Blog sometime today. Once I had the pressure bandage down pat it healed quickly but he didnt chew it either which helped, he was also about 18 months old when it happened.

    I am waiting anxiously for the next instalment. (((Hugs)))

    Lori

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  3. Uh-oh. I think this is going to be another breath-catching, multi entry blog. Andy is very handsome. Darn his delicate hide.

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  4. Poor Andy, they sure do get themselves into situations don't they. Friday the 13th, is unlucky for him. I hope he recovers quickly. What a day you had getting ready for the show and now this, it never ends with horses does it?

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  5. Horses.. you gotta love em.... or they'll break your heart

    Phil 4:13
    gp in montana

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  6. gecko, you're so right it does never end with horses and the more of them you have, the more wrecks you get to deal with. lol I think histerical pretty much sums up how Dave felt. I had time to process before I actually saw the wound, so that helped.

    lori, I am leaving town for Salem in ten minutes. This is the last you're hear of me in comments until next week. However, I have scheduled blog posts that will be posted each day by dear blogger.

    molly, only two for now. Updates will have to wait until after the show. But as of this morning, sweet Andy is looking good. He hates taking his meds though so poor Dave is going to get a trial by fire. Not to mention what changing those dressings is going to be like. Poor Dave!

    grey horse, I guess it depends on how you look at it for luck. If he had done this when no one was in the barn, he probably would have bled out. We would have found him dead. So from that perspective his luck is good. If it had to happen this was the best time in some ways. Dave was able to save his life.

    fvclassic, ya, I'm with you. Owning horses can be a double edged sword. If I didn't love them there would be no point, but love can carry a long long way.

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  7. Wow Mikael, never a dull moment around your place! Yes, the more you have the more things to deal with. I'm glad he is all right and that Dave and Lindsey were there in time to do what needed to be done. You're lucky you have more then one vet to call. We have our one and he does have a part time one that does some call but that's it. Makes it hard sometimes, wish there were more around here.

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  8. Yikes, I cannot BELIEVE how often these things happen to you! I am guessing it was May 13 this happened, right? So hopefully he's much better now????

    L

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  9. Yikes! Not a good thing and now you've left us in suspense again lol. I hope the little guy is doing okay.

    Good luck at the horse show!

    I agree Friday the 13th traffic is awful. I had to run Hubby around yesterday to get parts for his truck and I wanted to just park and walk the 40 miles to the place. It was a mess and I swear people left thier brains at home.

    Patiently waiting for the next installment...

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  10. You little stinker:) I'm going to be on pins and needles until I hear everything is ok. It is, isn't it?

    Friday the 13th has never been a problem to me....but yesterday changed all that. It was a very weird and strange day. I swear there was something in the air directed at me (and all the crazy drivers you encountered).

    I'll be back tomorrow to see how you and Andy are doing.

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  11. Oh goodness Mikael, you do have the most suspenseful stories! I guess that having twenty-something head of horses (is it 28?) means that something is always bound to happen, eh? I can't believe that happened on Friday the 13th, too.
    And I get the traffic, oh nelly, it's a pain, isn't it!?
    Good luck in Salem!

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  12. Poor boy!! I hope he's is ok and makes a full recovery.

    I don't know if you've been down HWY 80 at all traveling to horse shows, but that highway is BAD during rush hour.

    The times we've gone down that highway with a horse trailer, people were complete a**'s.

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  13. Never mind, it must have been yesterday. Yes, I'm dumb... Sheesh, I hope he's doing well! Praying this show goes really well for you guys!

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  14. I bet you're very thankful that it is his BLACK leg and not his pretty white one. Unless, of course he decides to scar white on that black leg.

    Don't they always find just the right thing to do maximum harm to themselves? I've always believed that a horse could rip himself to shreds in a padded stall.

    I've seen them do terrible harm to themselves on nothing, and then go through the most horrific conditions and come out spotless. Must be in the genes.

    Good luck in Salem.

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