Took black horse off to horsepital this morning =/ Worried!!

[Toast]

My first homebred, pride and joy 2yo had an accident back in December when he fell over in the sand paddock and cut his knee open on the wooden fence.
After a brief bout of cellulitis it all healed up and was nothing but a tiny scab on his knee, i felt quite sure we were out of the woods.

fast forward 4 months and the day before yesterday he came in from the field with a leg so swollen you could barely see where the joints were. The little scab had burst open and it was weeping from the wound. This is out of vets hours on a sunday...typical.
Emergency vet called and concluded that there must be something in it that his body is rejecting. Ranging from a grain of sand or a splinter of wood, to a bone fragment. We decided it was best he went in for diagnostics to see what was going on.
So we took my poor lad to the vets this morning for scans and xrays. And we're looking at a surgical removal if there's anything lurking in there.

Bit shaky and worried for my boy Just waiting on the phonecall to see what's wrong.

 

[Janesomerset]

It's so horrible waiting for the phone to ring. Hope your boy goes on OK; it is amazing what can be done these days. x

 

[Meowy Catkin]

*Vibes*

I hope that he is OK.

 

[Jesstickle]

Don't panic Toast. My filly did exactly this last year on her hock and is right as rain after the surgery. She coped with it all incredibly well and never seemed to feel sorry for herself at all.
Even if it is a foreign body reaction and surgery is required it will be ok.


((((vibes))))) for you and your black horse from me and Nitty. If it is what you suspect and you're interested I have pictures documenting the whole thing I can share.

 

[joeanne]

Thats pants Toast!
Hope your little one is feeling right as rain soon.

 

[ELFSBELLS]

Hope he get's on okay, (( hugs to you ))

 

[Maesfen]

They're always a worry. Hope yours makes a full recovery from whatever is causing this; don't worry, they are very resilient at that age so has time on his side to heal well.

 

[Toast]

Don't panic Toast. My filly did exactly this last year on her hock and is right as rain after the surgery. She coped with it all incredibly well and never seemed to feel sorry for herself at all.
Even if it is a foreign body reaction and surgery is required it will be ok.


((((vibes))))) for you and your black horse from me and Nitty. If it is what you suspect and you're interested I have pictures documenting the whole thing I can share.

Would love pictures Jesstickle!!!! I'll PM you my email address

 

[joeanne]

I think you should share them with us all Jess!!!!
Bet its bloody fascinating!

 

[Toast]

Yeah, on second thoughts, stick them on here Think i need another cuppa to calm my nerves..

 

[Jesstickle]

Ok, some of you will have seen all these before so if you have, I apologise. There aren't any new ones but I will get you a current one tonight so you are bang up to speed!

Firstly, Nitty was a real odd ball and did some very odd things (I'll explain as we go) so I would expect yours to progress much quicker than hers Toast

This is the wound that started it

which stayed swollen for about three months but basically healed over with sporadic instances where it would open and weep and then start to heal up again. Due to the swelling though we scanned and xrayed as suspected it was foreign body response (sorry, I don't have those images but there was nothing to see on xray but very small particles on scanning)

This is what it looked like the day it was scanned

Vet felt it would be too difficult to remove surgically at this point as it was still quite solid and 'attached' so we waited until it looked like this and then she went for surgery

This is her at the horsepital on the day after her GA (as you can see she is happily weight bearing and eating and doesn't even look tucked up)

massive bandage

second bandage

then she had a bit of a pressure reaction as she is insanely thin skinned and so had to go without a bandage. If she hadn't she would have come home at this point though, which was day 5 post surgery I think

So this is the wound at that point (it shouldn't have had to stay open but obviously couldn't rebandage her as she was reacting badly, hence the prolonged stay at the vet so they could make sure she didn't rip her staples out!)

once the stitches and staples were out she came home to me and it looked like this

and then this

then she had a reaction to her internal stitches so blew up like a balloon (this also won't happen to you Toast, she is just hyper sensitive, I only include it for completeness) but as you can see she was already back out by then. Phew.

but that all settled down over time and this is it in November (original injury was beginning of April time)

It looks even better now but I haven't got a recent pic. she didn't take a lame step throughout though and was completely unfussed by it all really.

The wound is now completely healed after mending and popping back open multiple times before the surgery She was three when she did this. I backed her over Christmas and she is a ok now.

Any questions just ask.

 

[Toast]

That is so exactly like Otti's its scary.. Nitty even looks like him!! Its all the same except his is on his off fore not hind. He hasn't been lame at all either, its just been sore to touch and it must've been irritating him as he was rubbing and biting it.
Thankyou for posting this!!

ETA- Just so i have an idea, what was your vet bill? i know mine wont be the same as your mare had extra treatment as she had those reactions.. im just trying to get an idea so it'll hopefully soften the blow

 

[Jesstickle]

I know hers isn't perfect and she has some scars from the pressure (the actual scar is tiny, barely there) but it's completely useable and doesn't bother her at all and that's all that matters to me

It does look neater still now, will definitely get you a photo tonight that shows both views so you can see how tidy the scar is etc

He really will be ok. She loved it at the horsepital. I think she'd have stayed there happily forever!

 

[Toast]

Thanks for your words of wisdom.. the vet called before but my stupid stupid phone lost the signal so she's going to call back in a bit. I'll let you know how we get on

 

[Marydoll]

The fact that its busrting out and has gave itself a release is good, better than back building and spreading inside, im sure they'll sedate, x ray and scan, if neccessary, knock out and remove the debris inside then have a bloomin good flush out, cover with antibis and analgesia, the buggers scare the life out of you, and while i can calmly type this, if it was my horse i'd be feeling the same as you, what im trying to say is Im sure your horse will be fine , but will x everything anyway

 

[Toast]

*sigh of relief* Just had the call!! There was something in there! So surgery scheduled for tomorrow morning and all going well we'll have him home by Wednesday

Thanks everyone for your support and especially Jesstickle for your advice and pictures

 

[dafthoss]

Good news hope he flys through surgery and is back home making more trouble before you know it.

 

[Jesstickle]

I know it sounds funny to say that it's great news that it's just a foreign body when you're looking at an op but it really is. Means it's a nice simple fix and he'll be back to normal before you know it


Fingers crossed everything goes swimmingly for him tomorrow.

 

[Toast]

Gonna go see him tomorrow after his op so i'll take a few pictures, i also have pics of the initial injury and when it blew up the day before yesterday so i'll do a post a bit like yours jess

 

[Jesstickle]

oo excellent, I love photos of wounds etc. I think they're fascinating

 

[Toast]

I do too, im always browsing through that thread in the Vet section.. its great!

 

[Jesstickle]

Here you go Toast. This is today.

This is the actual surgical scar (so nothing much to see there!)

And this is what is left of the swelling,

like I say not perfect but a damn site better than

 

[Tiffany]

Sure you'll feel better when he's home.

 

[Toast]

Update:
Surgery went well, they reopened the wound and gave it a good scrape out. It was pretty infected and nasty on the inside im told. They've put a drain in to make sure any gunk that's accumulates in there will drain out and stuck a splint and mahoosive bandage on. With a bit of luck he'll be home tomorrow When i find the other pics i'll do a post similar to Jesstickles, but for now heres one of him in horsepital

 

[Carefreegirl]

Great news

 

[weesophz]

this sounds very similar to what happened to my boy. wee cut, was fine, then suddenly it was all swollen and there was goo oozing out it. vet said it was possibly bone fragment but i didnt think it would be something so dramatic, turned out he had infact chipped the bone and had a fracture!

he's healed perfectly now, with nothing but a little bumb where the fracture was. Sending vibes your way, im so sure he will be fine !

 

[Jesstickle]

Great stuff. Really pleased to see he is out of recovery and up on his feet

He looks about as bothered as mine was about the whole affair! To kool for skool these young uns of ours!

ETS: sorry, didn't see your question about the bill. I never paid much attention as it was an insurance job but I've just been to find it to look

Mine is the grand total of £2142 for the surgery and the scans xrays were probably £300 ish before that?

But mine was in for absolutely ages and was complicated and had far more ABs and anti inflams than she should have.

I think about £1500 of it is what I would have got if it had all gone to plan! A lot of it is livery and nursing costs for the three weeks she was in!

My insurance were amazing and paid all of it without quibbling. Massive thumbs up to Stoneways

 

[MrsMozart]

Good to hear it's going well lass.

Carrots and hugs and fingers crossed for continuing good healing.