Things you've panicked about that turned out to nothing...

T

The wife

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 August 2012
Messages
752
Location
It's a working progress
Visit site
A bit of a fun thread ...

So I am absolutely mortified and extremely relieved to find out that the show pony has an abscess. Unfortunately and somewhat embarrassingly we had all thought he'd ruptured a tendon. Heat and swelling in the leg, none weight bearing, field resembling plough where he has been careering around. Box rested over the weekend with plenty of bute, still hopping lame, vet came this morning, picked up hoof testers and it suddenly dawned on me. Why did I not just call the farrier like we usually do if something is that lame? Feel like such a plonker now, especially when the vet gives you 'that look' as though to say "You should know better." Please enlighten me on things you've absolutely worked yourself into a frenzy about and felt a bit silly about afterwards just to make me feel better! :)
 
Fellow livery spotted I had blood on my upper lip. I was convinced it was a nosebleed, and a bit concerned in case it was symptomatic of anything serious, as I had clunked my head on the rug rack earlier. Convinced myself I was in bother, panicked a fair bit. Kept finding spots of blood about the place but my nose seemed fine?

Turned out I had a paper cut on my finger, and had transferred blood to my face whilst blowing my nose! And then left a trail of droplets whilst rushing to the loo to check my supposed nosebleed in the mirror...
 
Thankfully age seems to be bringing some wisdom to me, so I haven't done anything too daft for many years. When I first got a horse 20 years ago it was a different matter and I did some embarrassing stuff.

Probably the worst being calling the vet because I couldn't get rid of the lice I assumed my horse had. Every time I took his rug off he was scratching like mad for ages, despite using various powders etc. Turns out a full winter coat and a heavyweight Rambo rug was making him uncomfortable:o

20 years on and he's out in the field with maximum a LW sheet if its snowing
 
MrGS had a much loved hunter mare who broke down she had two seasons off and loads of walking etc etc and returned to work .
She hunted one Saturday just before Christmas and on the Sunday morning I was met by a lame horse with a big leg called the vets mobile ( a friend as well as vet ) in tears convinced the mare was for the chop vet arrived in ten mins ( lives nearby ) and pronounced " she has mud fever " I felt a complete prat .
 
A friend of mine was riding a mare on our yard for the owner, friend turns up to ride, mare is hopping lame que panic phonecall to owner who said ok call the vet if its that bad... Turns out she had a stone stuck in her hoof!!!! Never laughed sooo much!! God knows why she didnt pick the feet out before she rode!! The best part was this friend worked for the vets so knew the vet and had dicussed with him in work how much knowledge she had of horses and how she never called the vet unless a leg was hanging off!!
 
Sorry, not horse related but a few years ago I felt really off, sick and tired and just bleugh. I was on the Depo injection but thought Id do a pregnancy test to put my mind at ease. I checked it and 2 blue lines appeared. To say I was gutted was a complete understatement. I burst into tears and rushed straight to the chemist for a second test. Bought one of those expensive digital ones which came back negative. Picked up the first test, THEN read the instructions to see a positive result was actually a + sign in the second window and my second line was in fact a - meaning negative! Worst hour of my life EVER!
 
Few months ago, big lad started drooling froth from his mouth... Me in panic, do horses get rabies!!!! Called vet, this all happened suddenly, turned out he had eaten something on a hack and had an allergic reaction and had started drooling to excess! Vet said wash mouth out, and he should be ok... Yes back to normal after few hours!
 
Smokes had us convinced he'd slipped his hock- he was non-weight baring, swinging it out when he walked, it was hugely swollen and where the tendon usually sat was very soft with the area below harder and suspiciously raised. Literally textbook case of a slipped hock, in the way that means that at best with surgery the horse might be able to return to light hacking. Vet phoned, everyone distraught.

Vet arrives, leg explodes pus everywhere. He'd managed to nick himself and get an infection, and it had tracked up his leg. Literally never has a group of people been more relieved to see pus...
 
Oh many times!

Horse comes in from field, can't stand on leg, won't put any weight on it, it's all swollen, can't get near it...... Everyone's thinking 'tendon'...... Actually it was a tiny abscess that came out within days!

Recently in the foggy days we have had I went down the field to give some haylage to my horses. Normally when I call they come straight over to me... This day there was nothing! Unfortunately if they push through the brambles hard enough they could if the wanted get out of this field due to a slightly collapsed fence.... So I was thinking today of all days to a have finally pushed the weeds down and gone for a wander in the next field!!!!!
So started trudging around their field getting more and more screamy! All of a sudden I walked into two big blobs and they looked at me like I was absolutely barking mad! I have never been so pleased to see to muddy monsters in my life!
 
Ours is terribly embarassing, but fortunately resolved before we called the vet! It was while we were still at a livery yard, brought the horses in, noticed blood on the roans leg, thick and nasty looking, rushed for hot water and salt to wash the wound, only to discover when washed, that it was just sticky mud splashed up her leg! It was both a heart stopping moment and a very red faced one! :D
 
FestiveG said:
Ours is terribly embarassing, but fortunately resolved before we called the vet! It was while we were still at a livery yard, brought the horses in, noticed blood on the roans leg, thick and nasty looking, rushed for hot water and salt to wash the wound, only to discover when washed, that it was just sticky mud splashed up her leg! It was both a heart stopping moment and a very red faced one! :D
Click to expand...

Especialy embarrassing as we had to ask YO for the hot water from the kitchen.
 
My young horse came in on 3 legs so naturally called vet out he was more concerned with his back as horse nearly fell on the floor when he touched it. Horse was petrified of vet and was trying to avoid him he had stood on busted post bruising his sole. Nothing wrong with his back at all ;)
 
I've done the really lame horse, heart skipping a beat- was turning out friends little pony, who has cushings and can be lami, she was hobbling on one of her feet. though omg she has gone down hill.... picked up foot- huge piece of wood wedged in her heart-bar shoe, took about 5 minutes to try and pry it out.
also- once though my boy has lice or something in his fur- nope, turns out midges resting on his back look like little white creepy crawlies!
i'm sure i have leaped to other stupid conclusions, especially when i got my first horse. you learn a lot!
 
The 'silliest' thing I have done is to call my vet out in a panic that my cob had a hay seed stuck in his cornea....vet rushed over, warned me to be ready to get the horse to hospital......

Turned out to be a bit of pigmentation that I just had never noticed before!

Im my defence, I managed to convince several other liveries it was a hay seed too, and they all agreed I needed the vet asap.

And yes, i have also been guilty of the 'oh no, he's done a tendon' for a mere foot abscess, on not one but several occasions.
 
This is just a few weeks ago.

Young cob mare with a dark nodular lump between her teats. I inspect and prod a bit. It's a sarcoid and I am mightily unimpressed. I cuss a lot and leave a message on my vets mobile (vet is a life long and very dear friend who is well used to my odd hissy, hysterical fits), asking her to have a look when she has chance.

Vet calls in, has a prod and suggests I groom the cob a bit better as she removes a lump of gunk from the mare. Oh well, I have only had horses for 35 years.
 
When I had my first pony I was very excited to take him to our first show. My best friend came round to help me bath him the day before. As she was washing his back legs she suddenly stopped and looked at me panicked saying he had a huge scab near his fetlock. I came and had a feel an she was right it was huge. Felt the other leg and oh no there was one on the other leg too.

That was the first time I ever saw an ergot :rolleyes:
 
I had a livery come running over to me in hysterics saying her horse was dead. Went and checked only to find the horse flat out and snoring :-)
 
Oh God, yes.

Mystery swelling on hock, no heat or lameness but I was convinced his ridden career was over.

Turned out to be a very mild thoroughpin.

Luckily I hadn't called the vet out (although I had called for advice!)
 
First time I saw my mare flat out sleeping in the field I started to have a panic attack as I thought she was dead! Started to scream and she lifted her head and looked at me as if to say eh u daft woman cant you see I'm catching up on my beauty sleep. was rather mortified.
 
Went out for a hack at the weekend with a friend. We had been out for a couple of hours and then when we were about 5 minutes from home my friends horse sweated up from head to toe. He was literally dripping and foaming up, even his face was caked in sweat. We were both really worried about him, he didn't look well at all and we both instantly thought he was colicing. She jumped off and marched him home ready to call the vet.

As soon as we got back he had the longest wee ever, and instantly calmed down. Turned out he was just holding it in until she got off and had got himself really worked up about it!
 
I recently did the 'omg my horse has a broken leg' when she was on three legs and couldn't/wouldn't move. I rang the vets, saying I thought she had broken her leg. She went and laid down and I was sat with her crying, convinced that was it, we would never get her up again and she would have to be shot. She had an abscess!
 
I remember years ago panicking and phoning the vet as something looked like it was exploding out of my horses pupil. Stupid summed up how I felt when the vet said my description sounded like the corpora nigra, totally harmless and there to help filter light!
 
CobsGalore said:
Went out for a hack at the weekend with a friend. We had been out for a couple of hours and then when we were about 5 minutes from home my friends horse sweated up from head to toe. He was literally dripping and foaming up, even his face was caked in sweat. We were both really worried about him, he didn't look well at all and we both instantly thought he was colicing. She jumped off and marched him home ready to call the vet.

As soon as we got back he had the longest wee ever, and instantly calmed down. Turned out he was just holding it in until she got off and had got himself really worked up about it!
Click to expand...

Ahhh Bless him!!
 
The other one is 'your horse is stuck in the fence'. So far, this has always turned out to be a horse reaching right through the fence to eat something.
 
I did the worse thing ever and read up on the internet re my horses lameness, I'd diagnosed him with Equine Motor Neuron disease which is a really serious illness but only 200 horses in the world have been confirmed as having it! The sad thing is I actually asked the vet if it were possible? she is a really well respect vet and probably thought OMG we've got a right one here!!!! :o
 
the wee thing!- both my friend and i on separate occasions have though our mares were not quite right, maybe had a bad back, thinking about getting physio and saddle check.... 5 minutes later when on grass they've done a massive wee, walking like normal!
 
Thought the pony had broken his back or something as he could barely walk. Called vet out on a Sunday and it turned out to be a huge abscess. It did get a little serious when it turned out he was allergic to penicillin and he spent the next three days lying down looking like he had a hangover...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top