Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The dreaded phone call...

This morning at 7:15 my phone rang and it was Brandi. SHe answered the phone by saying "it isn't my horse, it is Boomer". Oh shit. She told me he had a cut on his withers/shoulder. I aksed if it was bleeding, she said it had been but wasn't now. I headed out, expecting to apply pressure, rinse with iodine, and do a cold water rinse. I didn't go out there prepared for this:

For size comparison, look at this:

Here is a close up at a different angle which shows how deep the puncture is:

So, as you may have guessed, I called a vet. Now, I didn't actually have a vet, so I had to call around and find one. I had heard that Dr. Luftman (sp?) was the best, so I called his office and it turns out that the has a new partner who could come out. Dr. Hawkins turns out to be great. Though his first words were "Oh, yeah, this really is very bad." He sedated Boomer, numbed his muscle, and cleaned the wound. What you can't see in these picture (more to come, don't worry) is that the cut on the deep tissue/fatty part goes up further under the skin flap. So, he sutured up the deep tissue with 5-6 sutures and then sutured up the flesh with about 15 more sutures. He then gave Boomer a tetnus shot and some Banamine for swelling. He gave me a powdered antibiotic which I feed once a day. He said to keep Boomer inactive for 10 days. Hosing his shoulder once a day is a good idea. Handwalking ONLY if he gets stocked up or gets rowdy. If all goes well, he will come back in 7 days and check it out and take the top sutures out. If all doesn't go well, there could be infection or worse- Boomer could pull out his sutures, which is actually not unlikly because it is in such a high action area.

So, he left and I moved Boomer to the round pen and put some water buckets and hay out there. He drank well all day and napped and grazed. I sat in a lawn chair and read a book. I was out there for a total of over 12 hours. Nothing excitng happened, thankfully. When Brandi got off work she helped me set up some of her fence panels around Boomer's shed so that he could be confined but not totally shut in his shed. I will take pictures of that tomorrow. I gave him a big bucket of water and he already had hay.

We walked around for a while and finally found what did it to him. I will record video of how exactly this happened, because it was random and totally up to chance and hard to describe. Between Boomer's paddock and Chief's paddock is a support post of steel. Chief's back gate is bolted to it. The bolt sticks out on to Boomer's side of the post. Boomer must have been scratching on the fence and the wire supporting the fence panel broke, popping the panel away form him and slamming him on to the post and unfortunatly, on to the bolt. The bolt was about 1.5" long. I know this is the culprit because there is hair caked around the base of the bolt, dried blood all over it, and the top of it had dried, crispy, yellow fat stuck to it. Don't worry, I have pictures of that too. Seeing that bolt made me so sick. My horse was impailed on a freaking bolt. John is pretty upset too and wants to saw the bolt off and file it smooth.

I will keep updating and will have pictures as soon as John gets home.

Oh, I quit my job.

5 comments:

Kim said...

Oh, yeah, that looks just harrible.. I mean horrible. I could tell when I looked again, that the cut went up and under the skin like you said. Because the skin flap is sunk in where the tissue was. That's a nasty cut and scrape out of him. Also, if I were you, I'd want to work at the barn, taking care of the horses :)

I'd definitely spend all day at the barn, lol.

Also, how much do you pay per month on horse board? the prices very from like, 100-500. I don't know what barns do to earn 500 a month for horse board, but I have seen advertisements for it. What I saw, was the facilities are VERY nice and fancy, and beautiful. I wonder if they do more than feed, water, turnout and muck? like, maybe they supply the horses hay.. and pay any vet bills.. lol :)

Anyways I pray for a speedy recovery for boomer, and that he can survive slow movement til he heals, and all.. being an Arabian and all lol..

I remember my horse had stall rest for a laceration on his fetlock, and when he could finally run and get longed, he was kicking and farting, and was just full of energy! it was like "WOAH!" lol.

But today he was an angel, since I have ridden him 4 times in the last week. I was on such a rush to put on his bridle (why would I be in a rush, I was going to go bareback?) to catch up with some girls I saw riding on the side of the road with their horses, and I wanted to join in. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to catch up and find them.. but he was an angel, even though I didn't know until I took off his bridle, that I forgot to fasten his throat latch.. lmao! oh my! lol. But he was such an angel. I don't see why people think they are crazy, if they get lots of exercise and ridden a lot, then they are angels! Arabians are angels! they're very athletic angels, and they're very smart. They are angels, angels, angels! Can you tell, I love my angel? maybe I am the airhead though, lmao!

Kim said...

Did I mention, it looks like a heart, inside of a butterfly? I wonder if he'll have a scar left? I've heard of remedies to make hair grow back on scars.

Heather said...

Kim- Wait until Saturday when I can post the pictures I took with my real camera (these are from my cell phone). There actually wasn't any flesh missing and the vet stretched the skin flap down and sewed it together. There will probably be a scar in the shape of a Y. I'm thinking I should change his name to Why? Kidding!
As for board, I pay $150 a month. It is a small paddock with a shed. I have access to all 70 acres of the place. I muck out the paddock myself (or John), I feed, provide hay, and deworm/ vaccinate myself.
Thanks for all of the good thoughts and prayers!

Kim said...

I am looking forward to seeing more pictures and info, and seeing how the progress goes on his healing.

Kim said...

haaaaay.... wheres those promised update pictures, huh?!?


lol.

Anyways, I hope you post soon.