Horse stuck in river!!!

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jomax

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I have had a dreadful afternoon/evening, still in shock and stressed!! Whilst as work i had a call from YO saying that a walker on the bridal path had seen a horse in the river under the bridge that the path goes over. I called my daughter and my sharer both of whom got down to the yard pdq. I finished work and set off too. They couldnt get her out, the river was in full flood and she was in water of about 5ft depth, dont know how long she had been there for. I got my daughter to ring the Firebrigade and i rang my vets. When i got there, the road was cordoned off and cars and fire engines were everywhere. There was a specialist team in the river with all their equipment trying to get her out. Eventually they managed to get her to the lowest bank and with a real struggle she was got out, my mare is 17h and a real big girl. She was trembling and shivering and so very scared. The vet said it was important to get her walking and then get her rugged up, we did get her back to the stables. Where the vet could assess the full extent of her injuries after we had hosed all the mud off her. Both the insides of her back legs were a bloody mess with lacerations everywhere, one was so deep it was through the muscle and you could see the bone, both her legs where badly swollen, we dont know how long she had been in there, but the river is full of all sorts of 'stuff' including barbed wire. Once we had her 'double' rugged in stable rugs, we put her in the indoor arena, rather than her stable, and started to walk her for a little while during which the vet prepared her injections and meds. He gave her an antibiotic injection and also a painkiller injection the name of which i cannt remember, but he said it was three times stronger than bute. He didnt do any stiching to the cuts, but said that we must bathe her legs twice aday with antibacterial wash. He is coming back on Monday to see how she is doing, we have to give her antibiotic powders twice a day and painkilling powders once aday. He has recommended that we keep her off grain feeds, the important thing now is to get the swelling down and to keep her moving.

The poor darling is so very very sorry and sad. Got to get back down there for 8am to move her into her stable for the day, as the YO needs the arena for riding lessons. We have repaired the fencing that she had broken through, she appears to have crashed through it and gone straight down the embankment and into the river, the side of the river that she has gone down is too steep for her to get back up and so she ended up stuck in the river.

Really upset now and worried for her, the vet has said that the best thing now is to get the wounds to start to heal over and to get her back out into the field as soon as possible, as movement is the key, not box rest.
 
Oh how horrendous, you must have been beside yourself with worry and it must have been so upsetting to see her in such a predicament!
So glad she is going to be okay. Try not to dwell on what has happened now, just be thankful that the walkers spotted her when they did, and look forward to the future. Your mare was found and now she is safe, and with some TLC she'll be back to normal. Hope she makes a full and speedy recovery!
 
Oh no ! Sorry to hear this.
It must have been extremely stressful and frightening to see your horse like that. But at least now, she is safely back at the yard and receiving the best of care.
I'd think the vet might have wanted to leave the wounds open, rather than stitch because of the high risk of infection. Could the painkiller have been Fynadine (sp ?), I know that is similar to bute but much, much stronger, and can be given by IV injection. I'd imagine the vet would also have given her a tetanus injection too in the circumstances.
She will no doubt be pretty sore and stiff in the morning, even with being in the school overnight. She might still be in shock too, so it's important to keep her warm.
She has her AB powders and painkillers, you know to keep the wounds clean and keep her moving. No grain feeds as that combined with the shock of her accident "could" induce laminitis....can you give her fibre based feed for her meds ? Your vet is coming back on Monday, but remember, you can call him/her out if needed before then.
Sending lots of healing vibes for your horse and wishing her a speedy recovery.
(((((HUGS))))) for you, your daughter and your sharer. x
 
Oh my lord that sounds like a terrible ordeal for all concerned:(

You must have been so worried and your poor mare must have been terrified.

On the plus side at least someone saw her and raised the alarm,and at least she seems relatively ok.

Sounds like a cliche I know but sounds like it could have ended so much worse,so grateful for small mercies maybe??

Holding loads of good thoughts for you and your girl,and do keep us updated with how she's getting on.
 
What a disaster :( Thank goodness the walker saw her. Do you know why she broke out of the field? It sounds promising for recovery though, I guess the river would have kept washing the wounds clean even though she got covered in mud coming out. That has to help a bit to reduce the chance of infection. I hope you all feel a bit calmer soon.
 
Oh my goodness that sounds so awful! Thank god someone saw her! Poor thing I hope she gets better soon, it does sound like a fairly good prognosis really.xx
 
Glad she's ok - lucky mare that she was spotted and you had others able to call the emergency services. Hope she's fine and stays well away from that fence in the future!

Aren't the Animal Rescue team of the fire brigade wonderful! Although when I had them out earlier this year, my ending wasn't a positive one, I ensured I took them a crate of beer to thank them for their efforts - it was very much appreciated. They do such a fantastic job in often difficult circumstances.
 
God, that's terrible. But at least she was saved & escaped with no broken legs. I knew of one years ago who was found in a canal. They believe he had been in there for several days, so Im not saying this will happen to yours, but a couple of days after being rescued, the skin on all 4 legs & beneath his belly all slothed off. He was fine though! Just took a long long time. I.remember being mortified that it was January, the fields were muddy & they were turning him out with no dressings whatsoever! It's amazing what they can recover from. He used to bound around the field like there was nothing wrong with him :)
I hope your girl isn't feeling too bad this morning. Take care of yourself too. Terrible shock xx
 
How awful for you and the mare. She will probably look much worse this morning, but don't dispair. NOT to add to your worries, but be careful with her feeding for a while as they can come down with stress colic after traumatic events. Hope she makes a speedy recovery, and another thumbs-up for the fire brigade.
 
How terrifying for all of you, I've gone cold just reading about it. Thank goodness for the rescue services. Hugs to you, you're probably in shock too, everything crossed for a full and swift recovery for your mare.
 
oh how scary,thankfully they retrieved her, and she has been treated promptly. You will be suprised how their legs can fill and swell and the vet is right to keep walking it will just get the swelling down a lot quicker but fingers crossed sounds like she will be ok(they can be quite swollen for a long time afterwards). Keep an eye on her temperature if they do fill.
I bet you will not have slept much. But the emergency services in the UK come into their own even for animals. As you say lucky the walker found and one fortunate horse.
 
Jomax

Contact Ainsworths tel 02079355330 and get some injury 200cc and make sure your vets gives you some silver spray (Alusray)

I have a lovely 6 yr old Arab gelding in my yard who ripped his shoulder open on Aug 15th today you can only see the scar line. He is going to do his first pleasure ride (he is an Endurance Horse) tomorrow.

I have a friend that has had 2 horses shin the inside of their hind legs, both came back into work with no visible sign of the injury.

Good luck and god bless
 
Well, my sharer and i have spent the entire day, since 8am at the stables with Savannah. Some of her wounds are still wet and seeping, so we have been bathing her legs with an antibactirial wash. She has had all her meds in her food, along with a dollop of mollases to encourage her to eat it!! We have spent most of the day walking her, to try and help the swellings to go down and also because she was soo tired all day, she just kept on trying to lie down in her stable, which due to the nature of her injuries, i didnt really want her doing in case she cast when trying to get up, she's not the most gainly at the best of times at getting up and down, this evening she is all rugged up and back in the indoor arena for the night. I will try and post some photos tomorrow of her injuries, just to let you all see, that i'm not over exaggerating how nasty they are. On closer inspection today, i would say that she has been rubbing her bottom on the fence post and it has basically given way under her weight and upon doing so, she has gone backwards down the bank into the river, i suspect this even more so as she has absolutely no injuries anywhere other than her back legs.

My sharer and i will be back down the stables at 8am in the morning to start the same routine as today again.

I'll let you all know how we get on, many many thanks for all your comments, words of support and good wishes, this is what makes the people on this forum so special, just knowing that you all care. :)
 
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What a frightening experience for you all. And with so much rain too. Can't say much but hope things start to get better. Stiff drink time
 
Sounds like a horrible ordeal that you have been through. One step in the right direction at a time is all you need and you are on your way to recovery!
 
Vibes to you!

I can empathise. We almost lost a foal in a stream the other year when the bank in the field gave way in a sudden flash storm overnight, poor weanling colt about 8 months old was the only one in the field stood on that part and got bogged down with it. Had to have about 12 firemen out for over 5 hours to get him out, as the ground was bottomless. Ended up having to get a tractor in and picked him up out in a sling. He took a long time to get over his ordeal, as he was exhausted and cold to the bone. He had no injuries luckily.

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Big vibes to you. It's an horrible ordeal xxx
 
Oh the poor mare she's very very lucky! Get some Hypocare ASAP bloody amazing stuff for preventing infection and helping with healing
 
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