Gunner's leg today....7 Weeks After Injury.......

****WARNING ~~~ GRAPHIC PHOTO BELOW*****  For those of you that are squeamish!

I finally got some pictures of Gunner's leg today. As many of you remember, 7 weeks ago he rolled over into the hay ring and somehow caught his leg and gashed it open in two places on the inside rougher part of the ring.  Up until just the past week, we were worried about the lower cut on the cannon bone...it still had a huge, hard, hump on it, and despite rubbing it down alot, it still would not go down. Well, over the past several days, I have seen a HUGE improvement... the swelling and hardness has went down tremendously....YAY!! The incisions look great, the hair is growing back in, and best of all....no proud flesh! The upper cut still has some scabbing, but it has almost completely filled in and looks great. I don't care how much hay they waste, I am not using the hay rings again...it's not worth the risk. We are very lucky....it could have been much worse, he could have ended up permanantly lame, the cut on the hock was very close to involving the joint capsule....(then we would have had big problems) or he could have easily snapped his leg trying to get out of the hay ring.  Anyway,  this first picture is when I first found him, and as they go down, how they look today......

Notice all the mud.....yuck! We have not had hardly any rain for a few weeks, and it is still muddy, but nowhere near as bad as it was 3 weeks ago ~it's gonna take alot of sunny days for us to dry out! It is beautiful here today, the horses and mules are all laid out enjoying the sunshine, and I even cleaned my truck out....can you believe it?  Have a great day everyone!!

Deanna

Pedicures, Haircuts, and Updates.....

It was a yucky, rainy day here, so we got all the horses up and trimmed their feet, de-wormed everyone, and gave haircuts. We decided to just pull everyone's shoes and give them a good trim this go round. We don't ride much in the winter and if we do it is very light riding, so we like to leave them shoeless for a few months about this time every year. They seem to be fine without them and it gives their feet a break from having shoes on all the time. We have been needing to do this for a couple weeks, and today was the day. We also cleaned Gunner's incisions up and doctored them, the leg is healing very well, I am so pleased with his progress......    Here are a few pictures of our day......

Terry pulling Dior's shoe.........

Dior getting a haircut, and Gunner watching from the stall..........

This is Mr. T....he was getting bored waiting for his turn and was doing a lot of yawning............

Mr T before his haircut.....his bridle path sticking straight up in a mowhawk  (his name was appropriate today, LOL)....

                                                                                      

                                                                                 

Mr T relaxing and enjoying all the attention..............

Terry trimming Mr T's hoof.....

                                          Sonny.....just waiting his turn...........

Mr T and Gunner saying hello.........................

And last but not least, here's an update on Gunner's leg .....it looks really good, there is only minimal swelling, not a lot of drainage, and no warmth or redness. Although he needs his feet trimmed too, we decided to wait. I didn't want to add more stress to him or his leg, and he is still a little sore. His feet are not bad, they can wait a week or two until his leg is healed more.  Here is the "just injured" picture and a picture of how it looks today....pretty good for only 4 days healing time, huh.......

Well, that's all for today, I am gonna have a bowl of Taco soup that I made this morning, after a long day in the cold and rain, it's gonna be sooooooo good! Have a great evening everyone!

So Far So Good......

Well, Gunner is doing very well today, he is walking almost normal, and taking it all in stride. Yesterday he was really sore and could barely walk, but he is much better today. There is a little swelling in the leg, but not nearly as much as we thought there would be. He stands great for his antibiotic and banamine injections, and cleaning of the sutures. We are hoping all continues to go well, and I should have some updated pictures in a day or two. Hope everyone has a great day!

Update on Gunner....

While the injury was bad, we don't think it was as bad as it looked. We cleaned it up, and was able to suture most of it up, leaving on a few small areas open for drainage. Terry doesn't seem to think it will cause any permanent damage, but only time will tell.  Our vet is aware of the injury and has prescribed antibiotics, a tetanus booster, and will be monitoring his progress. He will be on stall rest for a day or two, then he will stay in the small turnout area up by the barn so I can monitor and treat him daily.

Terry and I walked the field, and he was able to see what I didn't....Gunner cut his leg on the hay ring around the round bale of hay. We have used round bales and the hay rings for years and have never had any problems. We even made sure they were the ones for horses and not cattle, made sure all the bolts, etc were tight and not loose to where they could get a foot caught between the sections. Terry found the small blood trail and the very tiny amount of hair and skin on the ring. Apparently, he had laid down by the round bale and probably rolled before getting up, and his back leg went through the top section and then up getting caught, and when he jerked free, it caught his leg and ripped open the two areas. So, I guess we will be taking the hay ring out before turning him back out to pasture.

Here is the picture when Terry was stitching  up the top wound, there was quite a bit of bleeding, but he was able to get it stopped. Notice under Terry's hand,  the lower wound and the flap of skin that is hanging down, and will have to be pulled back up and sutured. The bottom picture is after he is all done and  partially cleaned up. Gunner did great, he hardly ever flinched the whole time, but the lidocaine helped with the pain.   It looks sooooo much better......my camera batteries died on me after these two pictures, but I will post more in a day or two...

Very Bad News....

I am shaking and so sad as I write this, but writing seems to help and pass the time for the next 45 min. If you are squeamish at all, do not scroll down and look at the following pics. I went out to water about an hour ago, and I found that Gunner, my paint horse had cut his leg pretty bad. It is his left rear leg, and there is a hunk of flesh cut out near the hock, and another more longer gash down on the cannon bone.  I immediately called my husband, who is on his way home from work and should be here in about an hour (he works 2 hours from home). As soon as he gets here we will get Gunner from his stall, assess the injury and decide if it's something he can handle or if we should take him to the vet. Now I know, when you see the pictures, many of you are thinking ~She's an  idiot, there's no way they can fix that themselves, those injuries are too bad. But, let me explain, my husband Terry, worked for a large animal vet for over 10 years. He knows how to sedate a horse, suture, pull teeth, deliver foals and calves, assist with c-sections, and just about anything else you can imagine he would have had to do working with a large animal vet. But he is not stupid either, he knows when it is something he cannot handle, and if that is the case with Gunner, we will have him at the vet's  ASAP! We have  all the medicines, and supplies, it's just a matter of what he thinks when he gets here.

Now, back to the injury,  I have NO IDEA how he did this, we are super careful about safety, we don't have anything in our pastures that he could have cut his leg on, especially up that high~~I checked the fence line, the run in shelter, the hay ring and walked every inch of the gates that make up the riding arena, and I have not found a speck of blood, hair, NOTHING.....so I am very frustrated to say the least, since I don't know how he did this, I can't fix it....but I am gonna go look again and see if there is something I missed. In the meantime, I have wrapped the leg, to control the bleeding and to keep dirt out of it, although the bleeding has almost stopped now, and he is in his stall munching contently on his hay. I was very wary about how he would react to me wrapping his leg, he has never had an injury like this, but he stood like a statue, so that helped a lot. He is putting weight on it, so that's good.....I just hope and pray he will not have permanent damage....scars don't bother me, he will never be sold, he will be with us forever, but I have plans for him to be my next trail riding and cattle working partner.... I'm gonna go back out and check on him, and Terry should be here anytime....so here are the pictures, and I will post an update later.......