SillySausage
Well-Known Member
My OH and I are currently in possession of one of the most accident prone horses I have ever met in my entire life. To cut a long story short, we got this horse about 8 months ago on loan and four days after getting her she stood on a nail and was given a 50:50 chance of surviving. The link to my previous thread below if anyone is interested:
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/foru...ce-of-survival-UPDATE&p=11930302#post11930302
She has had seven months off with field rest and the plan was start hacking her again on Boxing Day. Christmas Eve I bought her in from the field and she had sliced her leg in the field, leaving a cut on the verge of stitches. Vets said to go ahead without stitching but she has been on restricted exercise with a large dressing (filled with as much dermagel as we could manage) and a tight bandage over the top to encourage it to heal.
I sat on her a total of four times and the cut was/is healing well. Whilst I was mucking out last Wednesday (New Years Day) all of the horses (6 in total) managed to get off the walker and loose on the yard. They were all caught except for this horse of mine and one other. Charlotte is not normally much of a follower but a combination of being in season and having not been out for a fortnight meant that she followed this horse in to one of turn out fields (to which the gate had not been shut) and messed around. She did not gallop, just cantered with her tail in the air following the other horse. They did not make contact with each other at all, and Charlotte eventually saw me and gave up, standing still to let me catch her.
I walked her in and washed her legs as she was covered in mud, and as I walked her to our barn I noticed that she was short stepping on one back leg. I tied her up and went to find somebody to walk her in front of me so I could check that she was sound. In the three minutes it took me to find somebody, she became unable to weight bare on that leg at all, looked very distressed (but no sweating) and stood looking tucked up.
I called the vet immediately who said to put her in her stable and he would be there asap. He arrived about an hour later (11am) and it took both myself and my OH to keep her upright in order to get her back out of her stable without falling over. There was no obvious swelling, no cuts/grazes and no obvious heat, vet believes it is around her fetlock/bottom of her leg where her pain is.
He gave her a large painkiller injection and told us to leave the leg open and bandage that night, as hopefully a large swelling would appear somewhere to point us to what was going on. Nothing came up and we bandaged her leg, with two gamgee and two bandages from just below her hock all the way down to her coronet band, and fairly tight.
That night she had a minor episode of colic, and I rang the vet again. He advised to syringe her two bute and if she was able to move to walk her around. She came out 80% sound and after a 20 minute (very!!) gentle walk around the yard did a large poo and settled.
Since then she has gone from 4 bute a day down to 2, and from tomorrow we have to cut her down to 1 a day. She has been walked in hand twice a day for ten minutes as advised, to keep her circulation going. I re-did the bandage yesterday and there is still no obvious swelling. Tonight she walked out looking 100% sound in walk.
Vet has said to call him back on Wednesday for a chat, but that chances are she will be sound and it will be one of those things where we will never know what happened.
Unfortunately, he did mention in the first instance that it could be a hairline fracture. My OH and I lost another horse to a hairline fracture which broke when our horse was grazing in our front garden at home (we were unaware of the fracture) 7 months ago, just after Charlotte's previous accident, which was the most traumatic incident I have ever witnessed. I now have a major complex that this may be the case again, and I want to push for an x-ray even if she is sound to keep my mind at ease.
My OH's mum has had a horse with exactly this a few years ago, and he was x rayed and bandaged up to the elbow for it only to be soft tissue, so he is more laid back than I am that it is not a fracture.
Sorry... that was extremely long and rambly I know!! Just looking for any similar experiences or words of advice? Am I being paranoid pushing for an x ray or should I stick to my guns, if for my own peace of mind? Someone also suggested that it was a 'dead leg', but I have seen these before and the ones I have seen were instant, and did not appear after a period of time.
It is probably also worth saying that the fetlock on her injured leg has always been a bit puffy as she has a large scar across it. Vet believes she may have gone through the tendon sheath in her polo days. She's never had a problem with it in the 5 years we've known her, but it obviously would make it harder to pinpoint any more swelling than normal.
Any advice welcome.... A very anxious, tired and confused SillySausage!
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/foru...ce-of-survival-UPDATE&p=11930302#post11930302
She has had seven months off with field rest and the plan was start hacking her again on Boxing Day. Christmas Eve I bought her in from the field and she had sliced her leg in the field, leaving a cut on the verge of stitches. Vets said to go ahead without stitching but she has been on restricted exercise with a large dressing (filled with as much dermagel as we could manage) and a tight bandage over the top to encourage it to heal.
I sat on her a total of four times and the cut was/is healing well. Whilst I was mucking out last Wednesday (New Years Day) all of the horses (6 in total) managed to get off the walker and loose on the yard. They were all caught except for this horse of mine and one other. Charlotte is not normally much of a follower but a combination of being in season and having not been out for a fortnight meant that she followed this horse in to one of turn out fields (to which the gate had not been shut) and messed around. She did not gallop, just cantered with her tail in the air following the other horse. They did not make contact with each other at all, and Charlotte eventually saw me and gave up, standing still to let me catch her.
I walked her in and washed her legs as she was covered in mud, and as I walked her to our barn I noticed that she was short stepping on one back leg. I tied her up and went to find somebody to walk her in front of me so I could check that she was sound. In the three minutes it took me to find somebody, she became unable to weight bare on that leg at all, looked very distressed (but no sweating) and stood looking tucked up.
I called the vet immediately who said to put her in her stable and he would be there asap. He arrived about an hour later (11am) and it took both myself and my OH to keep her upright in order to get her back out of her stable without falling over. There was no obvious swelling, no cuts/grazes and no obvious heat, vet believes it is around her fetlock/bottom of her leg where her pain is.
He gave her a large painkiller injection and told us to leave the leg open and bandage that night, as hopefully a large swelling would appear somewhere to point us to what was going on. Nothing came up and we bandaged her leg, with two gamgee and two bandages from just below her hock all the way down to her coronet band, and fairly tight.
That night she had a minor episode of colic, and I rang the vet again. He advised to syringe her two bute and if she was able to move to walk her around. She came out 80% sound and after a 20 minute (very!!) gentle walk around the yard did a large poo and settled.
Since then she has gone from 4 bute a day down to 2, and from tomorrow we have to cut her down to 1 a day. She has been walked in hand twice a day for ten minutes as advised, to keep her circulation going. I re-did the bandage yesterday and there is still no obvious swelling. Tonight she walked out looking 100% sound in walk.
Vet has said to call him back on Wednesday for a chat, but that chances are she will be sound and it will be one of those things where we will never know what happened.
Unfortunately, he did mention in the first instance that it could be a hairline fracture. My OH and I lost another horse to a hairline fracture which broke when our horse was grazing in our front garden at home (we were unaware of the fracture) 7 months ago, just after Charlotte's previous accident, which was the most traumatic incident I have ever witnessed. I now have a major complex that this may be the case again, and I want to push for an x-ray even if she is sound to keep my mind at ease.
My OH's mum has had a horse with exactly this a few years ago, and he was x rayed and bandaged up to the elbow for it only to be soft tissue, so he is more laid back than I am that it is not a fracture.
Sorry... that was extremely long and rambly I know!! Just looking for any similar experiences or words of advice? Am I being paranoid pushing for an x ray or should I stick to my guns, if for my own peace of mind? Someone also suggested that it was a 'dead leg', but I have seen these before and the ones I have seen were instant, and did not appear after a period of time.
It is probably also worth saying that the fetlock on her injured leg has always been a bit puffy as she has a large scar across it. Vet believes she may have gone through the tendon sheath in her polo days. She's never had a problem with it in the 5 years we've known her, but it obviously would make it harder to pinpoint any more swelling than normal.
Any advice welcome.... A very anxious, tired and confused SillySausage!
