Tia: How is the horse with the hole in its head?

Hi CC
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. PBS is right, the hole sealed over in 3 weeks unbelievably. I have some photos from a few months ago which show it sealed, but as the horse does not belong to me, I don't leave the photos available on the Internet for very long.

I will go out and take some updated photos in the next day or so and you can see how she is doing now. A VERY successful outcome though.
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Wow! HOW did I miss that with the HHO addiction *I* have!?
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Glad it healed well - how on earth did it heal so well and so quickly? L's gash is 4 days old now and after vet treatment granulation is beginning which is good news. It is so difficult, though, because as he's so big and it obviously hurt, he won't let me near it to continue cleaning it/adding gel (the vet said this is not the end of the world now it has been cleaned and clipped - she did have to sedate him though!).

Well done, Tia!
 
Yes it is tricky isn't it. The mare in question is a very nasty mare and I thought I would have a hellish time with her, but actually she was pretty good about it all. I obviously had to twitch her to plug the hole, but she just seemed to accept it after I made it clear that it WAS going to be done, whether she liked it or not. I did feel for her though and as I say, considering what was being done to her, she did really well. I was tending to her a few times a day, it was open to the elements and fresh air (and flies, which were my biggest concern, but they didn't do any damage). I smeared an antibiotic ointment on it a few times a day, this kept the flies away somewhat, and really once the skin started growing, it did so very quickly. Some of the skull bone grew back but not all, as so much was removed. In the second photo you can see that the extent of skull fracture was greater than we had first thought - you can clearly see that there is a fracture running all the way down by her nearside eye, but it has fused back together, so not any long term damage.

I took my camera out this morning but it was so sunny, all the photos I took had a glow to them, so no good. Instead I'll just repost the update I did a few months ago.

Here it is a few days after she ran into the gatepost, taken on September 4th;

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And another taken on the 11th November - this was a couple of weeks after it closed over.

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Do you have a photo of George's injury?
 
It's Lou with the injury
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If it was George I think it would be easier!

I cannot believe how well it has healed! You (and she) have done so well. You can hardly see what has happened at all now. Not much of a scar at all!

The vet has told me Lou will have a scar, but as he is bay it will not show too much with any luck. Saying that, I am not too bothered - I just care about if it heals well and there's no proud flesh or anything.

I don't have a picture of the wound on the day it was done because the YO brought my horses in on Friday night (and I am fuming that she did not see fit to phone me to tell me what had happened. She chose to wait until midday Saturday when I arrived at the yard and he was smothered in zinc and caster oil cream so I could not see the extent of the damage). I had the vet out last night and after sedating him, she was able to clean it up and I could see how deep the wound is. She then put in a special gel that will encourage any dead skin to leave the wound. I took some pictures and will upload them later. When I got to the yard this morning, the wound had already closed a little and granulation had begun.

I am fuming when I think about what the vet said (that if she'd been able to see him on the night it happened, it may have been stitchable, which would have helped prevent infection, which he had last night; and would also have left a much smaller scar). The YO seems to treat Lou like he is her horse which drives me nuts - she should have called me. She is not like this with other people's horses, but she absolutely loves big horses, and everything I do with Lou is under scrutiny.

I hope Lou's wound heals as well as that mare's; however, it is nowhere near as bad - there are no breaks and although the wound is quite deep and SOME bone has been revealed, it's only a 3 or 4 inch by 2 inch wound. Plus, as I said, it has closed a bit.

I have asked for the vet to call me back so I can talk to her about not being able to get the gel on him. He is normally the gentlest creature you could meet, but get near the wound with even the slightest touch and his head goes up, he paws the ground, tries to push through you. It must really hurt, poor mite
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I have tried standing on a big mounting block with him tied up to two tie rings either side of him, and still he manages to stop the stuff getting anywhere near him. Then the bloody YO comes and butts her flippin nose in this morning, takes the gel away from me (which is in a nozelled tube which you have to squeeze in) and puts some on her finger and tries to shove it in the wound. Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh
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I just keep reminding myself that the vet said that now the hair has been clipped away and the wound has been cleaned, gel put in there etc, it is not the end of the world if I can't get near him to help the dead skin work its way out... it will work its own way out.

Poor bleddy horse. I am about sick to death with livery yards after the last few months. Good news is that the YO has moved her devil pony out of the herd and he has a field much bigger than the gelding field, all to himself! The herd (minus Lou) was so much more settled today.
 
Sorry I meant to write Lou, don't know why I wrote George by mistake ... must have had him on the brain, Lol!

Can you twitch him? That was what I did with this mare initially. Once the swelling went down though, I didn't have to but I did chifney her for the next few days just incase she did anything.
 
They are an impressive pair of photographs Tia.

What a shocking injury. As an owner I'd have been beside myself if I saw inside any of my horse's heads like that. I'm sure it looks worse than it is (in terms of life ending melodrama).

What a grand job of healing. Well done.
 
Yes that was my problem too. When I was having to stuff the gauze down into the hole, it was simply impossible to do it myself though, so somehow I managed to get someone to help hold her for me whilst I prepared the sausage and then stuff it into the hole. The stuffing only lasted for a couple of days though as the witch figured out how to extricate it from the hole, so I canned that!

Once I went onto using just cleaning, flushing and applying the ointment it was fine though. I just made sure I had everything I needed very close to hand and had everything prepared before I caught her. Then I twitched her and worked very quickly to get the job done in as short a time as possible. I remained on the other side of the fence at all times though, as bending down and picking things up meant I couldn't keep my full attention on her at all times and I never totally trust twitching, however in this case it worked very well indeed.
 
Thanks C
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. Once over the initial "will she live or die", it was actually one of THE most interesting things I've ever dealt with. I never in a million years expected to be able to see inside a horses head - heck of a sight though! And yes, in real life, you could see so much more. The photos are good but don't give you anywhere near the perspective of how much was viewable. I found it a very educational journey.
 
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