As anyone who happens to stumble in here knows, I suck as a blogger. I have a multitude of things I want to write about, all these things running around inside my head, but never able to actually get anything down on paper (or web page as it were). Things like the economy, celebrity idiocy, government, my house, my horses, our adoption, the holidays, cancer, erectile dysfunction, the weather, and any other bullshit that's constantly banging around in my noggin.
Sadly, as I've said many times; I'm a reader, not a writer. I read so many great blogs that once I start writing, I read what I've written and think it's just crap. There are so many talented writers out there that usually one of them happens to articulate what I'm trying to say. Then I just delete what I wrote, happy in the fact that someone, somewhere, has gotten my point across.
Once in a while, (okay, once in a GREAT while, just look at how often I update! :)) I actually sit down and write something that will (gasp) actually be posted. Like tonight... TA DA!!
Last Wednesday, I was driving to a job I've been trying to finish before the weather turned to complete crap, when my phone rang. It was the lady who boards our horses. It seems her hired man was checking the herd when he noticed my wife's horse standing stock still, at the opposite end of the pasture from all the others. He found the poor guy had a really bad wire cut on his right front leg. He called her, she called me...
The vet said he could see him as an emergency, so I scrapped my plans for the day and went to get the trailer. When I saw how badly he was injured, my stomache did a flip. This horse is such a gem; he's practically bomb-proof. He's a great mountain horse, but he's also just about a perfect kids horse. Hell, anyone can ride him, he's that good. Anyway, The entire back of his leg, just above the hoof, was peeled back. I don't know how he was standing there (I guess three other legs helped). Now the trick would be to get him in the trailer so I could get him to the vet.
Usually he gets right in the trailer, but being injured, he was very hesitant. I finally got his head in, but couldn't get him to step up inside. I tried everything; food, pulling, pushing, nothing worked. Then I did the dumbest thing possible; I tied his lead to the inside of the trailer and was going to get behind him and push. Just then, the wind blew the damn door closed and it swung into his side. This of course startled the hell out of him and he tried to back away, but the lead held him. He started thrashing and kicking trying to get loose. The rope pulled so tight I couldn't pull it free. Of all the days not to have my knife with me.
Luckily, he is such a good horse that as soon as he realized he was trapped, he quit thrashing. I talked to him and got him calmed down, and finally got the lead loose. I looked at his leg and almost cried. He had opened it up again and now it was bleeding terribly. I told him he had to get in this time, or he might not make it. The wound was actually spraying blood. Arterial. Bad news. He looked at me and walked right in, leaving a trail of blood.
I drove as fast as I dared the 25 miles to the vet, praying all the way. Luckily, the senior vet was there (it was his day off) and he took over his care. He shaved the leg and cleaned it up, then spent a few minutes poking and prodding till he was satisfied there was no nerve, tendon, or bone damage. The wound was so large and deep that he was able to put two fingers completely inside. Luckily, like I said, there was only tissue damage. Severe tissue damage, but tissue has the best chance of healing.
The Doc put about 20 stiches in and when he was done, you could hardly see the injury. He then put a cast on him to keep him from flexing the joint and pulling the stiches out. The bleeding slowed to an ooze and I asked about the arterial damage. Luckily, it wasn't an artery, just that his blood pressure was elevated, and that caused the spraying. Thank you God!
Anyway, The Doc figured he'd be in pretty severe pain in a day or two, and would probably keep his weight off that leg. It's been five days and he only limped a little the first two days. since then, he's had full weight on it, and eating like a pig. In fact, he's starting to look like a submarine!
On Saturday, I went and searched the pasture and found the wire he got caught in. I wanted to make sure that none of the other horses could get injured. It looks like he got a piece of barbed wire (the only section of fence that HAS bw) tangled around his leg. I fixed the fence and thanked the Lord for keeping the other horses safe, and for keeping the damage to a minimum. It could have been a lot worse. Doc says he should make a full recovery. Whew.
I hope we don't have any more days like that, but I'm sure we will. Horses always seem to get into something...
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