Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Will it Grow Back?


What a way to end a fun day. My show horse Spider started limping at the show so I put him back on the trailer. I still ended up having a good time with my friend Sue, he daughter Cara and son Colton. Cara is a trainer in Oklahoma and Colton just became a trainer in Illinois. They worked their horses and I used Gerald's turnback horse to help them. I get home and go out to the pen to feed the mama's and babies and Flash is not with them. He is usually first in line. First I thought he got out, I wish he had. I found him in the run in lying down with one third of his hoof shaved off. I ran to get Gerald and started bawling so hard I could hardly talk. We have had so much rain that his foot sunk under the metal siding on the lean to and was shaved off when he pulled it up. It didn't take much hide so I have high hopes that it will grow back. We talked to our farrier and he thinks it might. He will be out next week. I weaned both babies so that he could be treated easier. Then he gashed his other back leg in the stall. We could not find where he did it. So that one is treated twice a day and the other one is changed every other day. He will be in a stall for months having bandages changed. If anyone has any advice, I sure could use it.

12 comments:

cdncowgirl said...

Not sure if my other comment was lost! Computer shut down Explorer on me. Stupid thing. lol

Anyhow, your poor baby! Here is something for you to check out:
http://www.smoothrunequine.com/
They have a product called "Competitive Factor" Its listed under Products, submenu is Competition Horse Supplements.
My friend Kimfer fed it to her barrel horse Baron after a horrible injury to his foreleg this spring.
He degloved about 4-6 inches of it, between the knee and pastern. The vet could fit her whole hand between his actual leg and the loose skin. ( maybe that was TMI??)
Anyhow, they predicted 6 months to a year for recovery. Also very thickened skin and a nasty scar.
She was able to ride him, and compete in our Prov. Finals, in about 5 months with it completely healed other than the hair needing to finish growing back! He has NO thickened skin and scarring will be minimal. :)

Midlife Mom said...

Oh my goodness! I am so sorry this has happened! I would think it will grow back, have seen some pretty nasty hoof deals that have. Good luck to you. Have you tried the Mack boots? Don't know how small they make them but they work really well in some situations.

Callie said...

OMG! I'll ask around and geezus! I can't imagine!

Mrs. Mom said...

Jess- only thing Dear Husband and I can think of is contact Dr. Ric Redden PDFQ. In an amputation to this extreme, we really think that Ric is about the ONLY man who can help this colt.

I *think* ric's site is: www.nanric.com, but if not Google his name.

Best of luck with the baby, and please keep us posted...

Andrea said...

Oh my goodness! Your poor horse! I really don't know what to say. I would think the hoof would grow back, but I am not sure if it will be normal or not. Where is Mrs. Mom? She would know.

I do hope your horse is doing better today and not in any pain.

Twisted Oaks Quarter Horses said...

Thanks cdncowgirl, I will check it out. This baby is worth putting the time and money into. It would figure that my all time favorite baby would get hurt. He is being a very good patient. I'm not sure about the Mac boot, my farrier is going to design a special shoe once he heals up a little. Now it's just a lot of vet wrap around the whole hoof with a sanitary pad on the wound.

Mikey said...

Holy crap! I had to blow that up. OMG! Dang...
um, don't know what to say. Yes, it should grow back, eventually. But months and months of rehab for sure.

I have a case much like this if you'd like to see. Found it at a rescue, a stud reared up over an 8 ft fence with barb wire on the top... yeah. Took off a big hunk of foot much like this. Photo is 2nd to last at the bottom of the page here.

http://www.fearlessfarrierservice.com/beforeandafter.htm

Oddly enough, this horse was pretty darn sound! He got around just fine and was being ridden!

So have hope! It looks bad, and I would have cried too. My heart goes out to you and your horse.

Twisted Oaks Quarter Horses said...

Thanks Mikey, I checked it out and it gives me hope. My little guy doesn't look as bad. Since he is so young I think he may come through this sound. I'm keeping him so I don't worry about the cosmetics so much. Thanks to everyone.

Denise- LessIsMore17 said...

OMG :-o what a freak accident, poor guy... I'm so sorry for you both, major jingles for a healthy hoof!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Oh how devastating!! I've never seen it where the hoof was actually off, but our paint gelding's foot was hanging by a thread when they found him. The one thing that ended up being difficult to get him healed up was the bone infection he got. So do take care with that. This gelding's foot did not heal well and most of the time people can't believe that he is sound, but he is(as long as his feet are trimmed regularly). I think you got some good advise and only time and regular doctoring will tell you.
The only other advise I can offer up is when it comes to antibiotics. I would suspect that your poor little guy is going to have to be on them for some time-long-term use of synthetic antibiotics can be hard on a horse's system. I don't know if you believe in "natural" products but we switched to using Frank Lamphley's VitaMix as an antibiotic. It can be used long-term and will not upset a horse's system. It is expensive to purchase initially, but ends up being cheaper in the long run. When my buckskin horse cut his foot badly this spring, I doctored him by soaking his cut with water for 5-10 minutes a day, pouring Lamphley's External Rub in it-letting that set for about 5 minutes and then packing it with Lamphley's Wound Powder, then bandaging it. For the first 5 days I fed him Lamphley's Vitamix 2X's a day and then went to once a day for another 5 days. For something this severe though, I would keep him on the VitaMix for 10-15 days(@2X's a day). Within 6 weeks my gelding was all healed up and won't even have a scar. He never got to fighting the doctoring either because these products don't burn.
If you are interested you can google Frank Lamphley and his web site will pop up. There is always someone you can talk to about their products and probably Frank will talk to you directly. He might have other suggestions. I feel kind of bad plugging his products but we have had such good luck with them. Far better than with anything else. When you have 30 head of horses, it seems there is always one that needs some sort of doctoring.

Best of luck and keep us posted. I'm sorry it happened-it always seems to be the favorite ones too.:(

Twisted Oaks Quarter Horses said...

Thanks, browneyed cowgirls. I will check into that one. I was worried about putting him on antibiotics. So far it is pink and healthy when we pull the bandage. He is starting to get a little crabby about it.

Anonymous said...

I just noticed your posting for Competitive Factor. I have also heard a lot of great things about that product, and the other Smooth Run Products. I wanted to post a direct link that I found to Competitive Factor:
http://www.smoothrunequine.com/Competitive_Factor.html

It is pure Bovine Colostrum so is an excellent source for helping your horse to heal quickly.