BEWARE - Black Hawthorne and feeling very depressed.. LONG

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Cyberchick

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Ok, here we go... I'm sure some of you are aware of this but I wasn't.

My horse was worked yesterday morning and turned out art 9:30am, he was absolutley fine. Went to bring him in at 2pm on my lunchhour and he was standing by the gate and wouldn't move. In a bit of a rush so kind of dragged him up the field muttering to myself about what a lazy sod he was.(he wasn't on 3 legs then, just walking very slowly) Legs covered in mud so washed them off, saw he was holding his left hind up but thought it was because I had the hose pipe on it and he was just being sensitive. Only when I went to move him did I realise he wouldnt and didn't want to put weight on it and was crippled lame. I washed the area again and checked and double checked his leg again and couldn't find a single mark. Very stumped as to what he could have done. Got him to the stable and called the vet, explained everything and they thought it might be pus in the foot but only because they couldn't think of anything else. They decided to come out and in this time I had sort of convinced myself he must have rolled and got up bucked and twisted and pulled himself somehow.
How wrong was I! Vet arrived,started from the hoof up, hoof tests showed nothing but when she got to the pastern he was very sore so gave him a sedative and clipped the area to see if she could see more. Finally just found a very small mark, and had a little pick and managed to pull out a small 1cm length of thorn. To be honest I just thought 'is that it?' She investigated further and said she wasn't happy and thought it had gone into his joint, gave him a local and injected into the joint. That was that, said she wasn't happy, she had drawn out pus and the joint was septic and I had to get him to Rossdales NOW. After a bit of a panic of how I was going to get there with no transport ( thankyou Susan who rushed from work to take us in her lorry) and phoning work to say I wouldn't be coming back from lunch that day, we got to Rossdales and he went straight in to x-ray.
He had got a 1cm length of Black Hawthorn in his pastern joint and the coating on a Black Hawthorn is HIGHLY TOXIC and in the short space of time of him in the field it had gone septic and was quite bad. Didn't appreciate how bad until the vet said he needed to go now for a general anesthectic and have a camera in to have a look and be flushed etc etc and if I dont do anything my horse will die! That was blunt enough for me so anyway, he has come round from the general fine but have just spoken to the vets and he is still as lame as last night and they would have liked some improvement but they are changing the bandage because this might be causing him discomfort and they will be able to tell me more tomorrow when they do another tap on his joint.

Now, my field is post and rail and he cant get to any bushes or anything to eat them and I bloomin booted him up yesterday to go out as well incase he had a hooley round the field because he hasn't been out for a while.

I didn't realise how toxic these things are if a horse gets a splinter by one and how the hell he could do it.

Honestly, only my horse could find something toxic to stick into probably the most awkward part of his leg!
 
I know Hawthorn can be dangerous and I have heard blackthorn is dangerous for thorns going into people mainly, but I didn't appreciate it was this deadly. I hope your horse is going to be okay, thank god for you having the presence of mind to call the vet when you knew something was up, the excellent vet that spotted it (to whom you owe your horses life) your brilliant friend Susan (Thorntons here we come) and the hospital which sounds like they did an amazing job. Just think if all this hadn't happened in that order you probably woudn't have your horse alive now. What an amazing story.
 
Think you mean Blackthorn (sloe bush) but that sounds really unlucky I had no idea they were so dangerous
Fingers crossed for quick recovery
 
Poor you and poor horse. So unlucky.

This tends to happen fairly frequently (well a couple a season) with us hunting around here, horses jump hedges and brush through the top picking up a blackthorn. A friend's horse got pricked in his knee last season (no thorn in there, just a prick) and he was in the vets for several days but was sound and able to be ridden again about 6 weeks later. A horse that I sold got one in his fetlock joint shortly after I sold him and had to have it flushed twice. It took him about 6 months to come properly sound, but he is back eventing now so no long term damage done.

Best of luck for a speedy recovery with yours and well done for getting the vet so quickly.
 
The vet called it a Black Hawthorne but I presume it must be Blackthorne.
I honestly had no idea how dangerous they were and how quickly things like this set in. There was a part of me that nearly waited and was going to get the vet in the morning but it was just that I had no idea what he had done and because they was no mark I thought I had better call them. I owe my vet big time as she was fantastic and certainly knew what she was talking about. Hadn't had this particular vet before but she was fantastic.
Looks like as well as financing the vets at Rossdales new Bentley I might as well take shares in Thorntons for the amount of chocolates I will have to hand out. lol.
 
You are very lucky- someone i know didnt bother to get the vet and the horse died
frown.gif
 
... aslo be aware that when the hedges are trimmed up they can stand on the trimmed stems and get it in to the soles of their feet. Keep well away from any freshly cut hedges when walking or hacking them out.
 
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