Tuesday, December 8, 2009

This Dipstick...............


Managed to injure herself................Knowing that soon, a winter storm would be headed our way, Sunday morning when I returned home from work, I put on the girls' blankets and halters on them. Stephen had already fed them, and although there was little snow left on the ground, it was chilly and the ground had frozen, I still decided to let them out in the pasture area. They did not go crazy, just a little trot down to the end as I stood there watching poised to scream "Whoa!" if they got goofy and then went off to sleep. When I woke and went out to feed at 4pm and the setting sun, I found Miss Misty standing in the shed and thought nothing of it has I dropped the pellets into their bowls until she did not move. I tried to move her and there it was.........A three legged horse, SHIT! I called for Stephen and quickly separated them. It was her front left leg. She was unable to bare any weight on it and to move was doing the hind leg backward hop. I felt up and down that leg from shoulder to hoof, picked out that hoof and could not feel anything abnormal. I flexed it forward and her leg from knee down would swing........very concerning! I called the Vet and told her my findings. We decided that since she was attempting to eat still, that I would give her some Banamine and watch until morning. When I went back out after coming in to retrieve the Banamine and Poultice, she was clearly in pain, breathing heavily. I gave her the dose and after a call to Jeremiah for more advice, applied poultice from her shoulder down to her hoof. She was able to move herself from the shed to the end of the paddock, I'm sure doing the backwards hop. Vet & I decided that if she was not 80% better by morning that they would come out and take X-rays. Stephen did a late night check for me and did notice her with both front legs straight on the ground. At least I was able to sleep. By the morning, thankfully, she was at least 80% better, now baring weight and moving forward without a limp. Obviously tender, but so much better. Now able to more closely see, I notice that it is concentrated to her knee. It's swollen............So since Sunday we have been treating with Poultice in the morning and Banamine over night. The swelling has come down, but it still is swollen. The good news is she continues to move forward and bare weight. I imagine that this is just a matter of time healing. I must admit that this was very scary, thought at first it was a break. Unfortunately, I've had to put the big girl in with her now as the temps are dropping and the storm is well on it's way today and I have only one heated water source for them. And they do not like to be separated.........The plan is to keep them in the paddock with the shed for the time being and give her a night time half dose of Banamine for at least a couple of days. If it's not a blizzard by morning, I'll try and brush off the rest of the Poultice and give her skin a rest. Hopefully they'll stay quiet and Miss Kola won't spook her tonight. Part of the problem I have is we had mud that has now frozen into pot holes and they need to step carefully. They've been in together all day and have been relatively quiet, hoping it stays that way.

13 comments:

Grey Horse Matters said...

Oh no, I hope she's feeling better soon. That is very scary. I also hope you don't get a blizzard, that will make taking care of her so much harder. These horses are enough to drive you crazy!

Nuzzling Muzzles said...

Ugh. Not only a scary experience, but did it have to happen when it's so cold out? I'm sure you two are not having any fun playing doctor this time of year.

Katharine Swan said...

I'm glad she's doing better than she was. Keeping my fingers crossed that she continues to improve quickly. She must have slipped and sprained her knee... at least we'll hope that's all it was.

Paint Girl said...

I am so sorry she is hurting!! That is so scary!! Hope she continues to get better!
I know what you mean about the frozen mud potholes! It has been down to 10 degrees here at night, and maybe 25 during the day, so all the mud is now that way. It is so hard for the horses to walk, I feel so bad for them!

Mrs. Mom said...

Glad that you posted an update Cal, I had not had time to email and check on Silly Misty! Will continue to keep fingers crossed for her (AND YOU TWO!!!) Playing Dr in that kind of weather SUCKS!!

Will catch you tomorrow and see how things are!!

Tammy Vasa said...

Dang - they just can't pick a good time to get hurt, can they! Hoping all is well in the upcoming days.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad she's feeling a bit better - keeping fingers crossed!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Darn the bad luck. Keep working with it, hopefully she did not do permanent damage to her knee.

If I had to hazard a guess I suspect she hyperextended that knee. Frozen ground is a nightmare, but what does a person do when we live in such climates?

Jeni said...

Ouch!!!!! Very scary indeed. I hope she continues to do well.

John and Regina Zdravich said...

That is really scary....Luckily it sounds like she is going to be OK. How on earth do they manage to injure themselves in a contained environment??? Thank God it was not a break.....

Michelle said...

My goodness, it seems like everyone's horses waited until the winter storm to go and hurt themselves. Well, I'm glad it's not broken and that she's doing better.

Victoria Cummings said...

Just catching up on my favorite blogs - I'm so sorry that Misty and you have had to endure this - and I have a practical question - in case it ever happens to us here - what kind of poultice did you use and how did you apply it? Just in case...... I'm really glad she's doing better!

Callie said...

Victoria, , We actually took 4 steps forward and yesterday morning, we were 3 steps back again, paritially because on Thursday, she had an Ice turd stuck in the toe of her uninjured foot causing her to stand on that toe, putting all weight on injury and I had to make a decision to spend 10 minutes soaking and chopping away at the ice turd,also she decided to dive through snow drift to evade my capture, followed by a full dose of Bananmine, but by Saturday morning, injured leg was really swollen from knee all the way down, which them prompted another dose of Banamine and the poultice, It's a big plastic container called IceTight, and it's like a clay, so I slathered it on and this morning when I got home, the swelling was still there, but had decreased considerably from the day before, another dose of Banamine and another slather of poultice from 6 inches above her knee all the way down to her hoof, Always go with the grain of their hair, and they recommend 12 hours on, 12 hours off, because it can errode skin, It generally dries and flakes off. But, it does help alot, It goes on warm. Kind of like deep heating rub.I have ligament gels too, but decided to go with the poultice, I think the gels can get into their skin more easily where as the "clay" tends to sit on top of the hair and still gets the job done. I imagine this will take months of healing, so I'm going to have to deal with long feet, thankfully it's winter and hoof growth is slower. I'll not stress her anymore. Ideally, she should probably be stalled, however, she does not like that, and if I force that issue, I could open myself up for more injury. This will be a long journey back and I'm not sure if we'll ever really get back to 100%. It was pretty disheartening to see us go backward after great strides forward previously. But the initial improvement had me relieved. I think if something was broken we wouldn't go forward so fast and I think the Vet felt the same way. I'll keep my fingers crossed, poor baby.