You've Come a Long Way Baby

Baby!

From this (on July 18 2011)

to this (today)

and this

Sunny has made it a long way from her dreadful barbed wire injury last year.

She never was the worse for wear, never did take a lame step. The injury only hurt the first few times we changed the bandage, but even before tissue completely grew over the exposed bone, she took no more notice of it.

She'll be ready for an endurance ride by summer. Maybe even spring. I'm thinking John should even do a 100 miler on her at the end of May. (Haven't told John that yet).

Just About Gone

Sunday December 11 2011

Remember Sunny's dreadful barbed wire accident back on July 18? (The photo above is from the first bandage change, 9 days afterwards.

After about 2 1/2 months of bandaging, we left it open and turned her out - as it was getting increasingly hard to keep a bandage up over the hock, with all her sprinting back and forth in her pen! The vet said it would be fine to turn her out, and we did.

Without a bandage, the wound was slower to heal though it continued to do so. I hosed it every day or every other day and usually put Shreiner's spray on it, and covered that with aluminum spray as a 'bandage' to keep the flies off.

Around that time, her lower leg swelled to about the size of a draft horse leg, from the hock on down. It stayed that way for a month or so, but she was never lame on it, and the vet was unconcerned.

There was some proud flesh persisting on the inside of the wound, so I switched from the Shreiner's to a sulfadine cream (the vet gave us two kinds: one for healing a wound and one for preventing proud flesh). I put the anti-proud flesh cream on just that area, and the healing cream on the other part. The vet thought he might have to remove some of the proud flesh - but it want away on its own with the cream.

This blog entry here shows the progress through October.


Now the water hoses are frozen, so the wound doesn't get hosed often - but it's still healing. This last photo is 21 weeks after the injury, almost 5 months later. It's only about 1 1/2 inches tall by 3 inches wide, and pretty much a surface wound now.

Amazingly, it's almost all healed up. Never would've imagined it.

Sunny - The Barbed Wire Injury

Monday October 17 2011

This is an update on Sunny's continued healing from her July 18th hind leg barbed wire accident.

If you want to review the whole healing progress, see Aug 14 Amazing Healing and Sept 9 The Healing Continues.

She'd continued to stay penned up and bandaged since then. She did have Perry, the other gray mare, for a companion, till the one day I found Sunny cornering Perry in the corner and kicking the bejeezus out of her. (The nerve of Sunny, doing that to her babysitter, without which she'd probably have killed herself for lack of companionship!)

I moved Perry into a pen right next to Sunny, which was just fine with Sunny, because it gave her more room to really work out hard - wind sprints across her pen, short gallops and spins and rears on her hind leg (to get the most efficient change of direction), much of which involved banging one of her 4 legs on the fence panels - etc. I managed to keep the bandage from slipping down for 3-5 days at a time despite her acrobatics; I'd remove it and leave it open for a day, spraying the silver alum spray on, then re-bandaging her the next day. (Closing of the wound is much faster with a bandage on.)

Our vet looked at her at the end of our 5-day Owyhee Canyonlands endurance ride on October 1 and was rather astounded at how well and how fast it's healed. He thought it might require a little proud flesh removal (on the inside bottom corner of the wound) at a later date, but in the meantime, he said, "Turn her out!" If I could keep a bandage on her, fine, and if I couldn't, that was fine.

Sunny was so relieved to be turned out with the herd (even though they were often standing 30 yards away from her). Despite the much-less moving around, her bandage slipped down after 2 days, so I've left her unbandaged since (11 days so far).

The wound continued to heal - I hosed it off every day for 10-15 minutes (strong hose pressure), and dried it off and then sprayed it either with Schreiners Herbal solution (supposed to help with proud flesh, of which she still has a small lump on the lower inside of the wound) or the Alum spray (which as far as I can tell is just a protectant seal, not a medicine).

(Top photo is July 27, Day 9)

Sept 13-Day 57


Sept 21- Day 65



Sept 26 - Day 70
(the wound is actually a little smaller - it's just a closer shot, I should have kept the camera at a consistent distance for all of these. I'll know next time although I hope there is NEVER a next time. Note that there is a little more proud flesh to the inside of the wound.)


Oct 5 - Day 79 (left unbandaged after this)


Oct 14 - Day 88 - a week without bandaging


Then, Friday of last week, I noticed her leg was a bit swollen, from below the wound on down to her ankle. Saturday it was worse. Definite swelling, from the hock behind the wound to the ankle. You can see the difference in the size of the left lower leg and hock in the photo just above.

Damn! What was it - did she get kicked? Jam it somehow? Was she suddenly standing around too much at the hay bale with the herd after 2+ months of self-imposed conditioning in her pen? Did the hock suddenly become infected? How could the joint be infected now, after almost 3 months?? (The wound had healed from the inside out, quite cleanly.) That would be dreaded news if that was true. She still was not lame on it, which was a very good thing.

The vet was out on Sunday, and he took one look at it - and was astounded again at the progress of the healing. Even the proud flesh has decreased. "But what about the swelling?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it. Sometimes tissues just restructure themselves as they heal. She's fine. Keep doing exactly what you're doing."

What a relief! We had fears, but didn't want to voice them, about All That Work fixing her up, and she's doomed anyway.

But she's not!

In fact, John's probably going to start riding her again soon. (Might as well, since she's kept herself conditioned through all this.)

: )

Sunny: The Healing Continues

Friday September 9 2011

We've been following Sunny's healing from her hind leg's battle with barbed wire on July 18.

I did an update through August 13 (Day #26), Amazing Healing.

The following is her steady progress since then. The pain has gone away and in fact, she spends a lot of time pacing and/or running her pen when the herd has left (she doesn't care about Perry, who's babysitting her - and in fact I had to move Perry to her own pen this week when I heard, then saw, Sunny outright attacking her!). Which has led to the latest problem: her sore hock. The bandage starts slipping down, and the wraps above the hock become tight, and have started cutting into the skin right above the top of the hock, and leaving the point of the hock swollen.

Last night for the first time, since the wound is looking so good (it's about half the original size now), I left her unbandaged. I figured it would be cool enough overnight that the flies would leave it alone. I hosed it a long time with water, dried it off and sprayed Shriner's spray on it, and a coating of fly spray. This morning I rewrapped it. I'll probably keep doing that - leave the wrap on 3-4 days, then leave it off a night. We'll have Dr Washington out to look at it one of these days... she still may need that lower flap of skin, and some proud flesh removed, but overall, she continues to heal marvelously and at an amazing pace - and still no sign of lameness.

Day 28:


Day 30:


Day 33:


Day 37:



Day 40 (see the bandage cuts above the hock and the swollen cap of the hock):





Day 42:






Day 47:


(today) Day 52:

Amazing Healing

Sunday August 14 2011

What progress!

You read about Sunny's battle with barbed wire, where she about ripped her hind leg off.

You saw the wound the first time we changed the bandage, Day #9 after the accident, where 4" of bone was still exposed: Holy Moly.


Next update was August 1, Day #14; you can see how much the wound healed in just 8 days: Healing Power.


Here are new updates:

August 4, Day #17 - still a small blood clot over the hole - which is still shrinking


August 7, Day #20 - still a small blood clot over the hole, which is shrinking more


August 10, Day #23 - I knew something was wrong in the evening when I went to feed, and Sunny nickered for her evening hay, but she didn't move her nose from the hay feeder where she was waiting. She always follows me around hoping I'll have some grain on me. She didn't want to move, didn't want to put any weight on her leg. Uh oh.

We took her out (she followed Steph reluctantly and slowly) to change her bandage; as I cut then peeled the layers off, a lot of hot fluid poured out with the bandages - not from the wound, but from her lower leg - which was hot and swollen and irritated, and almost hairless. I must have put the last bandage on too tight. Dammit! The wound itself look very good and had, incredibly, almost completely closed over the bone except for one small spot.


You can see how pink and irritated and fat the rest of the leg is below the wound.


I tried to think back to how long she'd been standing in one spot. I was quite sure she'd been moving around that morning - but the longer a horse stands still with no weight on a leg, you start to worry about the "L" word - laminitis - in the other leg(s), because you just don't have enough to worry about with one gaping wound.

I cold water hosed the wound and hot leg for 20-30 minutes. It brought the temperature of it down (and she was able to relax, after a while of holding her leg in the air), although as soon as I dried her leg off and started bandaging again, it was hot.

Steph suggested vaseline on the lower leg to prevent any fluid from sticking to the leg/bandages, and this time I made sure I left the lower leg wrapped looser. I put the sticky elasticon (to hold the whole bandage in place) at the least irritated spot I could find near her ankle, and I put a lot of it above the hock to hold the bandage up. We gave her some bute, too, to reduce the swelling and pain in the lower leg (the wound itself seems remarkably almost pain-free). Steph walked her around a while to get her using the leg; by morning she was moving freely and the bandage looked good - staying up, and not too tight at the bottom.

Here's August 13, Day #26:


Unbelievable! The wound has now completely grown over the exposed bone. No more blood clots, and the tissue still looks quite healthy. She's getting a little proud flesh, but we have ointment for that, and anyway she'll have to go back to the vet to get that lower flap of skin cut off at some point, so if she has too much proud flesh, he can deal with it. The lower leg is still a bit fat, but not hot, and not weeping, and is looking slightly less irritated.

I don't have a photo of the original wound - I think the vet might, if we can get that I'll share it - but you can see the amazing progress Sunny's made already. Despite human's sometimes not-so-competent bandaging, the leg is healing itself.

She still has a ways to go, but her progress so far has been simply astonishing.

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...

Return of the Walking Wounded

Monday July 25 2011

Sunny's back!

After 7 days at the vet, she's back home after her battle with barbed wire.

Prognosis is good - although it will be a long convalescence: another week of oral antibiotics, and 4-6 months of bandaging. Yikes!

The vets don't think the wound reached the joint capsule and they don't think it's infected (which would be the best news) - though that could still happen and it could show up much later. A couple of inches of cannon bone are still exposed.


She's not lame on the leg (which is also the best news) and the vet says she could make a full recovery.

We'll change the bandage first time tomorrow - if they aren't too gory, pix should be available! We'll all be bandaging experts for sure by the time she's healed completely.

The Owyhee herd is glad to see Sunny again, and John's pretty happy to have his favorite mare back.

Cottonmouth

Monday July 18 2011

As we're driving up Bates Creek, getting home from the Big Horn endurance ride, we're discussing the possibility of a new endurance ride at the City of Rocks that we've just toured, talking about who we'll ride around here tomorrow.

John has called and said he was going up the canyon to fetch the horses since he hadn't seen them yet today.

I'm thinking of feeding Rhett (who's been calling for his dinner every night I've been gone), hugging Jose, and smooching on Stormy.

I jump out of the car with my cameras and wait for the horses to come thundering down to the house in the golden evening light for some fabulous back-home photos... but the only dust I see is John on the ATV.

His face is sober when he arrives.

"The horses are way up the canyon. Sunny's cut her leg bad and Jose's on the other side of the fence." He looks sick.

I feel sick.

John heads for the truck and trailer. Steph heads for the ATV. I grab 3 halters and climb on the ATV with her.

Up the canyon we go, hot wind drying my mouth, bumpy road setting my stomach to churning.

A quarter mile from the end of the canyon, there is the herd. Jose is standing by himself on the other side of the barbed wire fence. Sunny is standing off by herself well away from the fence, but well away from the herd. Steph and I climb off the ATV. She heads to Sunny. I head for Jose.

I can see two old thick fence posts half laying down, 4 strands of barbed wire detached in places and hanging at 4 different dimensions. Somebody had a battle with that barbed wire fence and lost. I feel nauseous. My legs are shaking. I might cry. Please God, not Jose too. I have cottonmouth, tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, throat painfully dry and cracked.


I first come across my horse Stormy. Stormy knows barbed wire - he once got into it badly enough to spend 8 days at the vet. Thank God he is fine this time.

I get to the fence and Jose next, dreading what I will see, but miraculously, a quick glance tells me he is fine, with not a mark on him. My hands are shaking as I put his halter on and I give him a quick hug. I can't speak to him because my mouth and throat are so parched, but I know he knows how relieved, how grateful I am.

As I start leading him up the canyon to the nearest gate back into the acres with the rest of the herd, we pass closer to Sunny. I can only see her upper legs for the tall sagebrush but there is dried blood and cuts up there. She must have been standing there a long time, maybe all day. I can't see the worst of it, but Steph just says, "It's bad." I almost cry.

I lead Jose back in with the herd. i walk up to Steph and Sunny, wishing time backward, wishing this hadn't happened.

It's bad. Huge gaping gash on the inside front of the left hock. It looks a lot like Finneas' leg when he tried to tear his hind leg off on a fence 4 years ago - only much worse.

John has followed us in the truck and trailer. With Steph leading, and me insisting from behind, we get Sunny loaded in the trailer. Steph and John drive her to the clinic 90 minutes away.


Many hours later, after midnight, they return with an empty trailer. They've left her at the vet. We'll know in the morning if the gash avoided the joint capsule and if it avoided infection. We'll know if she'll make it.

The herd follows the horse trailer back to the house. As Sunny leaves for the vet, I take Jose out to feed him. I give him a fierce hug. I look him in the eye, and I tell him thank you for not getting hurt. He listens, and I know he understands me. I hug Jose, I bury my head in his mane, I hug him, I hug him, and I don't let go for a long while.