Self harming TB, need some advice on his latest antics please??

Nickles1973

Nickles1973

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 April 2009
Messages
540
Visit site
I posted on here the other day about my lads latest efforts to injure himself by pulling off a front shoe on a wire fence on Saturday. He was virtually on 3 legs without his shoe on which was very worrying for me. Once the shoe went back on he was definately sounder but was obviously sore so I gave him a couple of bute and kept him in. This was much to his annoyance and as such he box walked and weaved terribly and caused himself a horrible burn/rub on his neck which is about 6 inches in length.
There was virtually no swelling in his leg but a bit of heat but given that he is so manic in his stable yet calm in the field I decided that turn out with a very old calm friend was the best thing to do and then get the vet as soon as bank holiday was over. The vet came yesterday and said that he couldn't feel anything that would indicate anything more than a minor strain and since he trots up sound that I should just carry on with the cold hosing a couple of times a day and the calm turn out. Thing is I was so relieved with hearing that news that I didn't think to ask how long I should keep doing this for and how long I can expect the heat to last before I ought to get the vet back???
Also again with his leg being the priority I also didn't ask about the burn/rub on his neck. Does anyone have any magic cream suggestions to firstly sooth and moisturise his skin and then to get the hair to regrow. I have been using dermagel but if anything this just seems to make the skin look dry/scaly.
Sorry this turned into an essay..Thank you if you've got this far xx
 
Some TB's are self harming - but the majority aren't! :D

I've found that the bigger the space you give them the safer they are. Small areas have them playing boy racers with handbreak turns, brakes usually applied too late or don't take into account the state of the ground.

One of mine decided to pick up a piece of the wrapper of the haylage bale - of course it flapped at him and he was off 200mph around the paddock - he was in 5 acres and used it all before he had the sense to open his mouth and drop the flappy thing! Where are their brains?!

The size of the paddock kept him off the fencing - in a smaller paddock he may well have gone through the fence.
 
Thank you for those suggestions, I will look into those tomorrow. A fellow livery has some MSG which she uses on her horse's mane but the smell is quite strong and she hasn't used it for long enough to tell if it's any good.
I always seem to have one worry or another where my lad is concerned :-(
 
WonderGel has always worked for me with horses, from smallest scrape to the more angry wounds! Also used it on myself when I burnt myself on iron - only gel i had to hand that was cooling!!

As for the vet question - give them a call and ask on the phone, not worth another call out charge!! Most vets I have dealt with are more than happy to answer these questions over the phone - you might need to speak to the receptionist and ask vet to call you back.

Best of luck!
 
Good old Sudocreme!
We had a TB one time... And all he did was injure himself one way or another, it was just a case of slapping some sudocreme on most of the time :)
 
My 4yr old TBx is a self harmer too!!! A few months ago he fractured his splint bones by kicking himself and on Saturday he pulled his shoe off a little, moved it and trod back down on it. The toe clip ended up going through the sole of his foot which resulted in a lot of blood and a very very lame horse. He is much better with the shoe back on also, i just hope he can keep it on now!
I generally use sudocreme for all scrapes and minor cuts as long as they are not too open. It tends to moisturise, heal the skin and keep the flies off.
 
Have to say that mine would never be on box rest. I'm sure in his racing past, he has been boxed all the time but he needs to be out whatever now and would do more damage to himself if kept in and be far more stressed. Just not worth it from my point of view. Mine is actually not that accident prone, his field mate seems to find him tasty enough to take a chunk regularly, poor boy
 
Bubble wrap. It's the only solution.

Seriously, some of them are just injury magnets. I agree that keeping them in a good-size safe paddock is ideal but I think my mare would find a way to hurt herself no matter how and where she was kept. I am forever finding weird scrapes and cuts and nicks and dings and can never figure out where in the world she got them.

I am now so ho-hum about it that injuries that would send a normal person screaming for their vet now have me blithely cold-hosing and slapping some Corona ointment on.

Agree that you should just telephone the vet and ask.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top