Healing Power

Monday August 1 2011

WOW!

What a difference of 5 days makes in a dreadful gaping leg wound.

I worried all weekend while we were off exploring trails at the City of Rocks about Sunny's bandage - did I put it on tight enough, or was it too tight... what if I did it wrong... and when Steph talked to John on Sunday (when we were on our way home) and said the wound was weeping a lot through the thick bandage, I was really afraid I'd screwed up.

We were due to change the bandage yesterday evening when we got home, but the wind was blustering and a big thunder/lightning storm was almost upon us. We didn't want to get blowing dirt in the wound - nor did we (nor did *I*) want to hang out in the lightning, so we put it off till this morning.

The wound had indeed weeped a lot underneath and through the bandage layers - uh oh. Steph held Sunny and distracted her with feed (laced with her twice-daily dose of antibiotics) while I carefully peeled and cut away as much of the bandage layers I could before having to yank the rest off.


I was dreading what i'd see - and instead was blown away at how much the wound has healed in 5 days! (See 5 days ago here.) It's incredible how much it has closed already. The exposed bone is 2 inches instead of 4, and the tissue looks quite healthy.

That dark spot at the left (on top of the white bone) is a blood clot. Part of the clot washed away but the rest of it didn't want to come loose even with 15 minutes of hosing, and I didn't want to yank or cut it away.


The pain level was much less this time - Sunny held her leg up, but didn't flinch as much, and she wasn't shaking this time. In fact, Steph was even able to leave Sunny tied to the hitching post, and fetch a towel for drying and to call the vet to ask about the clot as I continued hosing the leg.


After hosing, and picking at dried blood and bandage material stuck to her ankle and hock, I dried the lower leg off (didn't directly touch the wound) and put baby powder on the lower part of the leg where the bandages are starting to rub her hair off, then started the bandaging process. I put a telfa pad with the prescription ointment directly on the wound. Sunny didn't flinch at all, and in fact kept her toe resting on the ground for the entire bandaging process.

I got the bandages on in the correct order this time and, I think, the correct tightness (last time I forgot the 4th tight gauze layer, so I had to take the last 2 layers off, put the gauze on, then reapply the last 2 layers).


When we were finished, Sunny was reluctant to put her leg down at all - feeling the tightness once again on the wound and thinking again she only had 3 functioning legs, but Steph talked her into taking a step - a big limping step - and Sunny realized she did have 4 working legs, and the 4th one didn't hurt so bad, and she followed Steph back to her pen with hardly a limp.


I'm just astonished at the healing power horses have within themselves. Of course the added healing power of all the welcomed prayers, thoughts, well wishes and hugs from everybody can't be underestimated either.

: )

Holy Moly

Wednesday July 27 2011

As I worked at cutting the layers of bandages to expose the wound, I kept thinking back to the movie Into the Wild, when Chris finally killed a moose in Alaska - he'd have food for months - and he was rushing to cut up the meat before the flies got onto it.

There were flies hovering around Sunny's leg even before I could get the bandage all the way off, and we desperately wanted no flies on that wound.

That wound. Holy Moly.


Today we changed the bandage on it for the first time since Sunny got back from the vet clinic. We're supposed to change the bandage every 4-5 days. This is day #9 since the barbed wire accident.

The hardest part for Sunny was my getting the bandage off. The more layers I got off, the closer I got to the wound, and the more it hurt. I had to peel and yank a bit.

The other hardest part for Sunny was hosing the wound. It hurt, hurt, hurt, boy did it hurt. And no wonder.

A gaping hole to the center of her hock. 4 inches of bone still exposed. I thought I'd be ill when I first saw it, but as I peeled most of the bandage away, I thought, wow, the vets did a great job cleaning it up. It's clean and healthy looking - if you can call that healthy.


Sunny tried to be still - Steph held her head still and talked to her - but oh my, it hurt. She kept her leg up in the air and after a while was just shaking - but she stood bravely. I hosed it for 5 minutes, then reached for the bandages, while Steph guarded it from flies.

I referred to the handy sheet the vets sent Steph home with,

and had the bandages laid out just like in the picture,

and got busy wrapping.

Once the water stopped touching the wound, it hurt much less and Sunny was able to put her leg down. And she never moved it again, not even when I put the telfa pad with the ointment directly onto the wound. Next was cotton cast padding, then a cotton sheet, then gauze, then vet wrap, then the Elasticon (as CG said - great stuff!). It sticks to the bandage and to Sunny's skin, at the top and bottom of the bandage, to help hold the whole shebang in place. Definitely don't want that slipping down.


Once I finished and Sunny took a step forward - ouch - it hurt again. She held it up in the air and thought she only had 3 legs. Steph coaxed her forward and she limped big time until she realized that the leg was all bandaged up and it felt a whole lot better. She followed Steph back to her pen with hardly a bobble.


Nine days down... months to go...