A Healing Update - It's Never Simple

The first week post-carnage went fairly smoothly.  The Horse Gods saw this & felt it necessary to remind me that this is an unacceptable premise.  As if I need reminding.

Both horses were wrapped for the first week & I was pleased with their progress.  Then Friday morning, I came out to feed breakfast & Solo was suddenly non-weight bearing on that hind leg.

He is a seriously stoic horse, so my panic level shot to maximum while I coaxed & pleaded him in hobbling hops back to the shed.  I took his temperature (normal), pulse (slightly elevated at 44 bpm, but not extreme), & unwrapped his bandages to check for any signs of infection.  Nothing appeared to be any worse than it had been 12 hours before.  Solo was eating & drinking & pooping with a happy face, he just did not want to move that leg.

Doing fine the first week

I called the vet & parked the hose over Solo's hock.  There was still a fair amount of swelling around the hock, but it's a pretty ugly wound, so that's not unexpected.  Dr. Bob talked me off the ledge (he's getting way too much practice at this).  He agreed infection was unlikely & thought Solo had probably just tweaked one of the many bruised tendons/ligaments sometime during the night.  He increased his SMZ dose to be cautious & if we didn't see improvement by Monday, we might try a heftier antibiotic.

I hadn't thought of that possibility, but I now think he is probably right.  Solo could have slipped or torqued it getting up.  I'm glad to say that he is improving -- he's walking, albeit slowly, as well as standing on it, including resting on that leg, which alleviates many of my concerns about the joint.  I also think, based on how he moves, all that delicate healing skin on a high motion area is pulling, especially as it dries & gets tighter, which probably doesn't feel great & he's protecting it.  I know he didn't run around, Solo is a careful guy.

The cuts are healing very well.  Everything is closed except for a small hole at the front, which is good for drainage (only a small amount now).  We're sticking with the SMZs - after Solo had TWO resistant bacteria show up while he was at the vet school in 2017, I am uber-conservative with antibiotic use in all circumstances.  Well, plus, I'm a biologist & I know better.  Only when prescribed, only when truly necessary, & the lowest level possible, as appropriate to the situation.

Front view, this morning, before hosing - WEIGHTBEARING!

Side view this morning (day 9), base layer is closed

It will take a while for the cannon bone scrape to fill in completely, but it has clean margins & it doesn't worry me.  I will keep wrapping until the hock is closed & dry since flies are still out in force.  Why not, I've already purchased my body weight in Co-Flex/VetWrap since one bandage job takes a whole roll.

This is what is under the standing wrap

Echo is doing just fine.  Well, aside from making me crazy by trying to stick his nose into every. single. damn. thing while I'm tending to Solo.  Children.

He's been wrap-free & bute-free since Friday & his last dose of SMZs is today.  The cut on the outside of his leg is pretty much closed & his chest is all healthy skin again except one stripe which will soon be done.  Nothing on his chest actually cut the skin, these were friction burns & they were not sore after the first day or two.

3 days ago; today it's now all healthy, normal skin

3 days ago, that one stripe is still healing

The scary-looking hole behind his knee filled in very quickly.  I'll have to stay on top of proud flesh since I can't pressure-wrap the area, but it's not painful at all.  No swelling & he should be back in work this week.  I just keep Dr. Bob's Magic Red Sauce on it & slather Corona & Swat on the rest to keep the bugs out. 

2 days ago, drying out & filling in

Thanks to everyone for your well-wishes, as always, they mean a lot!  I know horses are experts at mangling themselves no matter what, but I'm going to be angry at myself for a long time for missing that jumper wire.  I did a lot of modifications to the fence when I moved in & thought I had removed all of those, but I was wrong.  However small the odds that the horses would hit the fence at that corner, out of all the corners -- it happened.  Shame on me, but it won't fool me twice.   

I'm cautiously optimistic that the worst is behind us.  Thanks to Erica for helping me finish the last of the fence repairs yesterday!

Cross all the things for us & hopefully the next update will have NO ooze or vet calls. 

Hey, let me have my dream.

Categories: injury, vet care