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).

Back in Business

 Tuesday January 10 2012

From the top photo on July 19 (that photo is Day 9)

to this (5 months and 23 days later):

and this:

Sunny is back to work after her horrific barbed wire accident. Miraculously, she never did take a lame step, and she rather kept herself in shape while she was penned up, spending her days pacing and sometimes sprinting along her fence, until she was turned out beginning of October.

She's a little uh… fat now, and despite her being sound, I'm not doing much with her. Just a little work at a time. But she'll be ready for an endurance ride this summer. John will be back on his favorite mare. 

Jose is supervising the progress.

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.)

: )

Another Setback for Amigo

Wednesday March 3 2010

Gary Sanderson's horse Amigo, who was impaled by a tree branch on January 17 and who has been fighting courageously for his life since at the University of Tennessee Large Animal Clinic had another serious setback yesterday.

After pulling through several crises over the weeks, Amigo was strong enough to be scheduled for one more surgery to remove one abscess that hasn't gone away with antibiotics.

He collapsed during surgery. "Both lungs collapsed," Gary reported. "they lost him. They were able to get him back and then put him to sleep via IV drugs. He is having an extremely rough time getting through being out cold!" Gary's girlfriend Kara reported Amigo looked the worst he'd looked throughout the whole ordeal.

Gary and Kara seriously discussed euthanizing Amigo, but once again, Amigo pulled through; by evening his bloodwork looked good, he was stabilized, and he was standing on his own.

You can follow Gary and Kara's daily updates on Amigo on Facebook at Amigo - One Amazing Horse!

Amigo Update

Saturday, February 27 2010

Amigo Update

Gary had a little bad news on Wednesday when Amigo's temperature spiked to 100 in the morning. "Not high, but something to watch." The vets re-scoped his system and everything was okay; fungus in the stomach was gone. There was a fluid build-up in his chest but it was minimal and was expected.

Thursday Amigo was doing well and continued to improve. His temperature was down to 99.6 and his PCV was 36, in the normal range. He enjoys his 'vacation pen' outside when the weather is nice. He eats hay, but not enough grain - he's on a medicine to stimulate hunger.

Amigo was going to go home today, Saturday February 27, for a few days anyway, but he's had an abscess that has been resistant to antibiotics. He could have possibly lived with it, but, Gary reported, "Amigo has surpassed all expectations and the Vets feel that he is strong enough to be able to withstand yet another step toward recovery." So, they have decided to go ahead with surgery to remove the abscess. The left chest drain was put back in to prepare for his surgery on Monday or Tuesday.

Gary reported today, Saturday, that "Numerous fans came by to wish Amigo well while Kara and I were there. They were the nicest folks! Amigo is munching on treats, grass and hay but seems more interested in watermelon, fruit loops (of all things) and a few carrots than grain!"

As of Friday February 26, donations to the vet school and from paypal accounts have totalled $6500.

Amigo - One Amazing Horse

Saturday February 20 2010

It's been a traumatic 5 weeks since a shocking and distressing sight greeted Gary Sanderson the afternoon of January 17 at his barn door in Tennessee. His 9-year-old Arabian endurance horse was standing apart from his herdmates with a tree branch impaled in his side.

"I couldn't talk," Gary said. He did manage to call his veterinarian, Dr Martin, and his girlfriend Kara Disbrow. "He was incoherent," Kara said.

Though they still don't know what happened, Gary and Kara surmise Amigo either slid in the mud into a tree, or a tree fell on him in the 110 acres where Amigo and his two buddies roam. One veterinarian later deduced that Amigo had had the stick lodged in him for 10-12 hours before Gary discovered him.

Dr Martin recommended putting Amigo down immediately. Gary asked him if he had any chance of survival. "Dr Martin said he might have a 2% chance to live if we got him to the University hospital." Amigo had shown Gary nothing but heart in their 5 years together, and, besides, Gary says, "What are you going to do? He's like my son. I had to give him the chance to survive."

Amigo walked on his own and loaded up into a trailer and was hauled to the University of Tennessee Large Animal Clinic, where his surgery immediately began. He took it all standing up, and it took the team of veterinarians about an hour to remove nearly 30 inches of the 2-inch diameter branch from his body.


It had collapsed his left lung and broken two ribs, and introduced a deathly load of bacteria into his body. The veterinarians packed the gaping hole left by the branch with four rolls of gauze, re-inflated his lung, put in ports to drain fluid from the lung and wound, and put him on several antibiotics to combat the bugs and toxins in his system. Eventually his right lung also needed a port. "He looked like he'd been in target practice with all the tubes coming out of him," Gary said.


It was touch and go over the next few weeks; Amigo came close to death several times and defied it each time. He received two series of plasma from donors, but had an allergic reaction to the second series, where his platelets attacked the plasma, instead of the infections in his body. He went into respiratory distress several times, once falling down kicking in a seizure (a vet deduced he'd had a blood clot in his brain).


Then, 4 weeks after the accident, came the dreaded "L-word" - laminitis. Gary had been hopeful and upbeat up until that day. "That's what got me," Gary says. "He'd been doing so well, getting better, every day progressing a little, PCV (red blood cell volume in the blood) good, lung drains removed, wound healing, bacteria dying, then BOOM. He crashes." Gary had a hard time keeping a positive attitude around Amigo, something his horse definitely needed.

The vets had removed the lung drain because the blood work looked good, but the bacteria had increased. Drain tubes were put back in and the lung flushed twice a day. Amigo returned to the Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber for daily treatment and got ice boots for his feet. One antibiotic was changed, and a fourth added. He was put on IV fluids, he was put on tube feeding because he needed more nutrients than the hay he was eating (he wasn't interested in grain).

And once again, Amigo thwarted death. The laminitis threat was arrested. He's now alert, walking outside several times a day, and grazing (he is still being tube fed). He's down to two antibiotics.

Through it all Amigo has amazed and stolen the hearts of his veterinarians and the vet students working on him."He's an amazing animal," Gary says. "He's been the best patient. He has never fought or objected to his treatments. In fact, that's one of his problems - this horse doesn't show any pain. He's very stoic."

One of Amigo's veterinarians, Dr Nicholas Frank, concurs, calling Amigo the "most cooperative patient." He credits some of Amigo's amazing progress to Gary's devotion. "He has an extremely dedicated owner who loves him very much. We should never underestimate the power of that in a situation like this."

Amigo's friends started a Facebook page for him; he now has almost 3500 fans following his progress and sending good wishes his way.

While Amigo still has a long way to go, and he's not completely out of the woods yet, his chances of survival are now better than 50/50. He's on the upswing again, though he's pretty exhausted. He hasn't laid down once since the accident.

And while just coping with Amigo's survival has been traumatic for Gary, now comes the reality of the vet bills. The original guesstimate was $5-6000. But nobody could have predicted what Amigo would be going through, and those bills are now close to $20,000.

"Financially, I'm devastated," Gary says, but he doesn't regret anything. "What would you have done, when your horse is showing he's wanting to fight for his life? I love the horse. Next to Kara, he's my best friend. I had to give him that chance."

Gary is starting a second job; some fund-raisers are in the works, by local groups and Leslie Greenwood, a fan from from Canada; and friends and fans of Amigo on Facebook have begun sending donations, which as of Saturday February 20th, totaled over $1600.

Anybody wanting to join Amigo's fanclub and follow his progress and send good wishes can do so on Facebook.com, "Amigo - One Amazing Horse!" Anybody wishing to donate money towards Amigo's bills can do so through paypal using katpirate@comcast.net or by sending a check payable to

University of TN Large Animal Clinic Patient #211197 Amigo

Address:
University of TN c/o Business office
2407 River Drive
Knoxville, TN 37996

Leslie Greenwood from Canada has started a Fundraiser for Amigo, making Italian Charms (with a photo of your equine friend) for $10, with all proceeds going to Amigo and Gary and Kara. Leslie can be contacted at les.leroux@shaw.ca . Her fundraiser page on Facebook is on this page.

Any money raised over the amount of the vet bills will be placed in an Amigo Fund at the hospital, Gary says, to help other horses in need.

Now, all of you go out and hug your horse and say a little horse prayer for Amigo. He's not done fighting yet.


(most photos by Kara Disbrow)