I am such a stupid, stupid idiot

Birker2020

Birker2020

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For those that have followed my thread re: my horse with the lateral branch of the suspensory ligament injury.

Bailey had PRP (like stem cell) treatment last Tuesday followed by a weeks box rest.

The PRP was due to the fact that very little progress had been made with the treatment he had been given to date, which basically consisted of five months of box rest, in hand walking and a gradual increase in work under saddle from walk to trot, a course of shockwave, LW ultrasound, and pulsed magnotherapy.

This Tuesday gone I turned him out on vets instructions after the weeks box rest following the PRP. I sedated him (4 rings of sedalin) and he was fine. Same again Wednesday with three rings (fine again). Today I thought he'd be okay without sedation. Horse just went mad in field, bombed around like a nutter, rearing, bucking, galloping and screeching to a halt. After half an hour he was calm. Went back to check on him and he was fine. The staff bought him in later and when I went to visit this afternoon he had a filled and warm leg. Not lame, but not brilliant either, very sore on palpation.

Have hosed, iced and iced some more. Put a support bandage on. My physio friend pulse magnotherapied him for me. I could weep. I rang the vets for advice, they said if still swollen/warm tomorrow morning keep in over the weekend and my vet will see on Monday. If not warm/swollen tomorrow then turn out with sedation. I said if I could possibly turn him out I would rather do so as he is a colicky horse and got quite bad diarrohea whilst on box rest which was getting worse each day. Obviously I am stuck between a rock and a hard place (colic v leg).

Why oh why did I not sedate today? If I had of sedated, he may have done the injury tomorrow or the next day or the day after that but I guess I should have cut down the sedation gradually, it just never occurred to me to do so.

I could weep. I am keeping everything crossed that it isn't too bad tomorrow but I know in my heart of hearts it will be.

Guess I can say goodbye to competing until the spring now. And all because I didn't think.
 
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Dont beat yourself up over this, horses are so unpredictable , even with sedalin he could have acted in the same way it is only a mild sedative and he would still have been able to do as he did anyway, it may have been worse if he was sedated.
Hopefully it will settle over the next few days, fingers crossed for you.
 
Firstly, don't beat yourself up anymore..its done now and hindsight is a marvellous thing..been in a similar boxrest to turn out quandry before myself with a very sweet tb I bred..injury and then also had massive colic op on top of it all & against all odds pulled thru.but had to go out to gradually keep moving,not only for the gut but for the muscles & strength he'd been on 5 months boxrest and was (obviously) colic prone still...luckily respected elec fence..I managed to rig up a very small area of grass..double the size of the stable -they were massive boxes 14x18foot..and luckily it worked unsedated(you can't sedate colts without certain extra boys issues!!). The fortunate thing for me was the layout as I was able to 'pen' and gradually increase the pen. Then the natural reaction is either eat or explode..I had the luxury of being able to look on from the house so stood watch for the first hour & kept regularly checking...I appreciate this may not always be possible, but as you are able to sedate it will be simpler..there are also some excellent herbal calmers..possibly try steady up by feedmark too, takes the edge off..they have equine nutritionalists who know all the sciencey side to the products like a 1st language..so will give you an unbiased suggestion specific to your individual horse-free next day delivery & excellent service throughout-products are amazing & they cover everything...gradually increase the pen slowly slowly till its all of a sudden field shaped again...then keep on with the calmers..I really hope its ok & looked worse than it actually is best of luck
 
Don't beat yourself up, I've been there to it's awful but sometimes they just don't know what good for them.
I hope it's good news for you and it all goes well .
 
Don't feel so guilty. It can happen - just last week we let horses out into a field and this field has a road going through it. Normally we'd take them go onto the grass before we let them loose but as a truck was coming down the road next to the field and they were panicking we thought it would be safer all round just to let go - most bolted onto the grass but one slipped on the tarmac and came down and really gashed his leg :(
Chances are if he had gone out sedated he may have done the same thing but caused more damage not really knowing how much it was hurting.
K x
 
one can forget even the most placid can go mad after box rest .

God knows what my mare will be like when she goes out for the first time since 12th July 2011.After her 4 months ( so far box rest ) give him some pink powder it helps mine when they are loose

I will have to sedate her too :(
 
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Hi guys thanks for your responses. Still feel stupid and guilty. Going up the yard in a while to see if the leg is still the same. Thanks for the suggestion re: electric fencing, this would be ideal but for the fact he has no respect for it and will go straight through it which is why he has to stay in a paddock with post and rail.

And for the other poster who said about pink powder, thanks for that too. However he's been on it for the last two years, he's also being treated (by myself) for possible gastric ulcers with meadowsweet, slippery elm, and NAF haylage balancer.

Just have to grin and bear it I suppose. At least the vet is coming out on Monday, so he can have a look and let me know what he thinks. I'm out of work at the moment so I suppose the one plus side of signing on is that I can go twice a day and tend to his every need :)
 
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After my horse fractured his leg, i gave him a load of sedalin before he was turned out for the first time. And he still went MENTAL. I just had to cover my eyes it was awful! So don't beat yourself up, like others have said it only slightly takes the edge off and if the horse is going to bomb about it will anyway sedalin or no sedalin.

I hope that it is just a mild flare up and goes down again soon, maybe an adhesion has been pulled and caused a bit of bleeding and swelling. Fingers X
 
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