Isn't it always the way?
So, I pop outside just to muck out before I set off for a little trip down south yesterday, and what do I find but Zippy with a big leg, lame as he comes out of the barn. Checking him over I find a small hole half way up the inside of his leg between his chest and his knee. There's fluid draining from the hole, and it smells bad :-(
There is nothing in the barn or in the field that he can have given himself a puncture wound on. So the only way it can have been caused that I can imagine is from a kick. This isn't entirely unexpected. While Jazz could not breathe, Zippy was becoming top dog and pushing him around. Since Jazz realised he could breathe again he has been getting quietly less and less submissive and less prepared to be told what to do by the young whippersnapper. It looks like Zippy pushed him around once too often.
So .... decision time - the cut smells and has infection in or near it. Calling the vet for some antibiotics will seriously disrupt the plans for the weekend. Leaving it a day might result in a worse infection. On balance, I decide that since he is bright, eating, the wound is draining freely and nowhere near a joint, and we are not going that far from home, then we can take a slight risk and ask for an update from the house-sitter at five and be home by nine if needbe. I flushed the wound out hard with two syringe-fulls of hibiscrub, turned him out to walk off the swelling, and left with my fingers crossed.
Housesitter's report was that the swelling was a bit reduced by the evening (suggesting damage, not infection) and that he was bright and eating. The report was the same this morning. This evening when we got back I went outside with some trepidation to find him walking really well on the damaged leg, actually with no sign of lameness in walk. His knee is very full of fluid and the little wound is draining straw colour odourless liquid (ie plasma, not infection). There is nowhere near as much swelling around the wound as there was yesterday morning, but the knee is more filled. The lower half of his leg is less filled. There is only a small amount of heat in the wound.
So - there does not appear to be any infection in the wound. The wound is obiously fairly damaged or it would not be draining so much fluid. But with fluid coming out in that volume, it is very unlikely that anything is stuck in it. From the site of the maximum swelling, I would guess that Jazz gave him a double barrelled kick, getting him on the knee with one foot and splitting the inside of his leg with the other.
He's going to take a few days to get right again, but I think he'll be fine. Boys will be boys!
C
posted by cptrayes @ 6:02 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
ouch. You're a braver woman than me, Caroline - I'd have been on the phone as soon as look at it!
Well ... yes, I don't have a problem taking responsibility for a decision like that, but there was a lot in favour of it going well - a wound nowhere near a joint which is small but draining freely will usually heal fine without any intervention, otherwise there'd be no wild horses alive! Nature can usually heal itself. I think we are so used to medical intervention these days that we forget that the horse can usually sort itself out. A delay might have risked the cut getting infected, but since it couldn't be very deep because there was nothing to have caused it to be deep, adn it was open and draining and there was no blood at all, it was very unlikely to give him septicaemia in 36 hours. I wouldn't recommend anyone else to make the same decision, but I was reasonably comfortable with it.
C
I tended to wait and see in most situations as long as its not near a joint..been there got the T-shirt for that one!
Having said that I called vet out for it and it still resulted in a serious infection and ops.
Its the yellow'ish liquid your describing that has me a bit uneasy Polo's joint injury poured out like that.His cut was very small,no blood and further down from the actual elbow joint but because it was a kick the force of it must have sent the dirt further up and in.
Im sure with the wound being in the area you describe you've got nothing to worry about and its just time.
I dont like to give antibiotics for the sake of it thats what their immune system is for!
How f****** typical is that...I'm sure horses have a built in sensor for when you are going away!
I tend o just clean things up and whack on some cream or purple spray and let them get on with it.
OOh, I remember Toby's getting kicked that way by PJ twice when he was a a young whippersnapper. I told PJ to teach him to behave as he was going to be turned out with a larger herd at the end of summer and he needed to understand that hanging off another horse's tail and biting its bum was not a good idea.
At first, PJ just "tapped him," but, apparently, after I gave him the go ahead, he let fly. It took two sessions, and two big knees, but Toby wised up. And he healed just fine without the vet.
Like you, I don't panic for most injuries. Horses have a remarkable ability to heal on their own. I tend to follow the "three day rule." Unless I really think it needs stitches or appears to be serious, I give it 3 days to show some signs of improvement.
I will bandage and treat with various medications as needed, but I save the vet for the serious stuff.
Thanks Jean, you mean I've got another one to go before he learns :-) ?
All hunky dory this morning.
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