Thursday 29 December 2016

A kick-ass kind of Christmas

*Warning* Gross pictures. If you are squeamish, don't look!

I am not going to lie, 2016 has kicked my butt. However, I have maintained a level of (obliviously ignorant) optimism and still think 2017 is going to be all the best shit, farting rainbows the whole way through.



But 2016 was not done with me. One final kick at the cat, so to speak.

Christmas morning was glorious. Coffee full of Bailey's, kids excitedly opening presents and me opening the best present ever - a safety vest for eventing!! Best husband right there.

I had fed the horses triple amounts of hay bales the night before just to ensure I could do chores Christmas morning after present opening. I had chopped up huge piles of apples and carrots and had a three bags ready for three wonderful ponies Christmas morning, so once presents were done I headed out with their Christmas morning treats.

First came Meyla and Shiraz, happy to see me heading out to their paddock. But where was Savvy?

Then I saw her, head peeking out around the back of the shelter. I called her and she didn't move. I called again and shook the bag of treats and she finally started to move. As her neck was revealed I was horrified to see something red hanging from her neck.

FML. Sorry for grossness.

For those of you familiar with that moment of discovering your horse is injured, you know it. Feeling leaves your arms and legs. My brain went into assess mode. Vet or no vet level of injury? Once I realised the "hanging" red bit was just frozen bloodcycles and not something worse, I then looked to see what kind of wound I was dealing with. Honestly, I was expecting to see a chunk of neck ripped from a bite. Meyla is a tough pony and leads the group. Savvy always pushes her too far and makes Meyla put her in her place almost daily. I would not be surprised at a bad bite resulting.

But it wasn't a bite. To my utter shock and surprise, it was a perfect circle.



Time to call the vet. On Christmas morning. Let me tell you, that is not an easy call.

I am so lucky to have such a great vet. He came over right away and assessed the hole. Puncture wound versus gun shot. Luckily my vet is much smarter than me obviously, and knew it was a puncture wound because hair was scraped off at the site. Bullets can't do that. He inspected the depth (almost 2 inches!) and did not find any trapped objects. He said the puncture is very close to where her jugular vein runs so she is a very lucky horse to still be alive. She got a shot of pain meds and a huge shot of antibiotics.

I would later have a double shot of Creme de Cocao.

She will be on antibiotics for at least a week and a half, daily saline rinses and topicals. It needs to stay uncovered and draining. My biggest worry is the cold. I am worried about exposed tissues freezing and damaging the healing process, but since it needs to stay open to air, I really can only just wait and see how it does. Luckily I had no intension of riding in the next little while because winter is just too horrible this year. Fingers crossed this injury resolves well though.

Day 3 - before rinse out and topical meds.

I have triple-walked her paddock and still cannot find anything that could have done this. Only Wonder Pony knows.





12 comments:

  1. Wow.... That..... Wow I think I would have freaked out at seeing that type of injury. Dear god. Glad it wasn't worse... But still. Sheesh. Heal quickly Savvy!!!! (And maybe an extra shot of liquor for Wendy!)

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    1. Savvy may just end up in a padded paddock and covered in bubble wrap if she keeps this up.

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  2. Oh geez! I find blood against white/gray horses looks extra alarming too (Apollo had a laceration above his eye once that looked like a murder scene). I actually like winter injuries a bit though (no bugs and it's so cold I don't care so much about not riding). Hope Savvy is 100% soon :)

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    1. You definitely can't miss an injury on a white horse! So true, winter injuries means no flies and lots of clean snow instead of dirt and/or mud to contend with!

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  3. Oh my god- I'm glad that she's okay- I would have thought bullet too- but it's weird that you can't find what did it!

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    1. I am so relieved she's okay. The search will continue.

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  4. Holy moley! Man, I am so, so glad it wasn't any worse. How scary!!

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  5. That is really nasty. What a way to start Christmas! It sure sounds like for such an ugly wound she was very lucky. Hoping for a speedy recovery!

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    1. Thanks! Yes, I hope it doesn't take too long to heal up.

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  6. Oh, that's so scary. I'm glad it wasn't a bullet and I hope she gets better.

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  7. My biggest nightmare!!!
    Oh, and the bloodcicles, nasty!! I'm sure it hurt still, given that it was 2 inches deep. Geez, I'd have considered a bullet shot too, strangely just sort of because of the location...

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