The Repurposed Horse

Reader beware: graphic images forthcoming When we last left our heroine, she was oozing pus and her leg was looking pretty nasty (although healing). Today the vet came out for a re-check and decided the time had come to remove some dead tissue to promote the healing process.  And guys. It was not pretty. But it was also impossible to look away.  First the wound was scrubbed thoroughly and the tissue manipulated so that the vet could decide what needed to go. This caused the hole (hidden most of the time by dead and dying tissue) to be fully revealed.  All that yellow tissue needed to go - it was beyond repair.  Bleeding, in the case of healthy vs dead tissue, is good. The tissue removed did not cause bleeding. Once it had been removed, though, everything left behind was much pinker in color and much more bloody.  Once the bad tissue was all removed, we took my sleepy mare to the wash rack to thoroughly flush the wou...

Little miss is healing as well as can be expected at this point - although her wound looks disgusting (IMO), the vet says that it is healing well. Unfortunately her good leg is really starting to show signs of strain, so we're trying to give it some relief in any way we can (although keeping it wrapped is not the best option).  The wound care process begins with the removal of the standing wrap that lives on Spring's good leg and then taking her to the washrack, where the vet wrap and gauze pad covering the actual wound are removed. I wear gloves for the removal part because usually everything is pretty saturated with drainage.  Gross picture warning!! Day 3 -> Day 5 -> Day 9 Once all the bandaging materials have been removed , I make an attempt to cold hose the leg (which Spring is not a fan of - it's the only part of the entire process that she still gets cranky about).  Then I throw gloves back on and use gauze and sterile water to gent...

Words from my vet: "IF it was infection/ rupture from hematogenous route to a bruised area then her prognosis is very good- stall rest until the wound closes up.  If there is also tendon damage involved which we cannot tell until she heals up more then we might have a longer road, but I have high hopes on the first scenario "

This morning I headed out to the barn bright and early (thanks, mare, for setting my internal alarm clock to 4:45 AM) to take care of Spring's leg before starting my day. She greeted me with a nicker, and looked brighter than she has in days. She was even putting weight on her hind leg! I pulled the wraps off and they were nasty - whatever lymph and infectiony gunk is draining from that leg had soaked through (I swear the wraps weighed about 5 lbs), so I ran them to the washing machine to start before coming back to her stall.  WARNING: GROSS LEG PICTURES TO FOLLOW When I came back, I noticed a weird lump on the inside of the RH that hadn't been there before. I didn't particularly *want* to take a closer look at it because why, why, why mare must you have a new problem every day?! But I did, and it was..alarming to see. Sometime in the night, whatever infection has been brewing apparently decided to make a break for freedom. An ooze of yellow and red was erupting...

On Sunday afternoon I headed to the barn to go through the ritual of unwrapping, icing, waiting, icing, and rewrapping Spring's leg. She gave me a dirty look and proceeded to be extremely rude about the whole ordeal, picking her leg up and threatening to kick and generally just being a less-than-ideal patient. (To be honest I'm glad that even though she's clearly in pain, she still has her normal personality quirks) I noticed that Spring seemed to be breathing more quickly than usual for a stalled horse and that she felt kind of warm, so after hunting all over the barn for a thermometer I took her temperature - 101.7. Not alarmingly high, but the mare's getting 2g of bute 2x a day so it seemed odd that her temp would be elevated. I had my trainer look at her, and since she was behaving normally and eating her dinner we decided to just keep an eye on it. Trainer called me later that night after she left the barn to say that the breathing seemed back to normal.  ...

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that things with Spring have not been great over the last three weeks. She got tangled up in a fence three Thursdays ago, and although she seemed relatively unscathed she did have some superficial scrapes and bumps. The vet happened to be out that morning to look at another horse (who had somehow managed to take a chunk out of her face on HER pasture fence), so I had her glance at Spring to make sure that nothing too serious was going on.  She recommended a few days of bute and stall rest with light work, then a return to normal work/turnout. Spring was feeling fantastic under saddle, and was more than happy to be turned out again after her brief stall rest stint. Unfortunately, she chose to celebrate her return to the pasture by pulling her RF shoe. On a Monday. The farrier doesn't come out until Thursdays. Still, she remained sound without the shoe and we got a few light rides in the indoor while we waited for Thursday to come...

What a difference a year makes, and what a journey this past year has been. 14 months ago I brought home a skinny, out-of-shape, $300 rescue. Looking back at these photos is a little shocking - I'd forgotten how thin she was when I brought her home.  Happy 14 months, Spring. Here's to hoping for many, many more.