Why?

1

Okay, since the beginning of July my horse Melody has been having problems. She was lame from back problems, then feet problems…all that fun stuff. Yesterday we finally got back into the swing of things, she was awesome, we were ready to start going back to normal work. Then…today happened.

I decided to pull her mane because it had gotten pretty long. I had my friend hold her and she was being good, then she got a little fussy so my friend started backing her up, then we started again. She got fussy again so my friend backed her up, I turned around to pick up some of the hair. I turn around again and my horse is out of the aisleway in the back area where there is construction going on, her back leg in a hole. I don’t know what the hell happened, but she got her foot out and man was it ugly.

I took the lead and led her into the washstall to hose it off, then I noticed how bad it was. The laceration was a bit above the fetlock all the way down to the coronet band, the laceration was on the outer side of her leg. It was about 8 inches long, 1/2 inch wide…and 3/4 inch deep. It was gushing blood.

I stopped the hosing, grabbed a hunk of cotton and put as much pressure as I could on it. Eventually we wrapped it nice and tight and we were able to stop the bleeding. We called our vet, I don’t think she really believed it was that bad. This happened about 3:00…she didn’t arrive until 6:00. She unwrapped it and the bleeding started again, though not half as bad. The worst part was the fact that there was blood squirting out…I cringed at that. Then our vet decides…oh, it’s to much for me, you’ll have to go to this emergency clinic, which luckily was only 15 minutes away.

Now through this whole thing Melody hadn’t really a care in the world, she didn’t have any painkillers for 3 hours, but was as bright and alert as could be. So we got to the clinic, unloaded her and they cleaned her up and stitched her up. Luckily she didn’t do damage to her ligaments or tendons, she could walk, though with a limp. They had to put a cast on her and are keeping her 7-12 days. I’m glad she’ll be okay, it wasn’t exactly the best experience of my life. The vet said that she will either heal quickly 10-12 days, or it will take months 3-5. Though it was really ugly, to me it was a pretty straight-forward laceration, and he didn’t say anything about her not making a complete recovery.

Hopefully she’ll heal quick, I want her home! :frowning:

2

Wow! That must’ve been really scary…I’m glad she’s going to be okay though!

3

Wow, scary! What breed is your mare? I had a TB gelding who was always getting himself hurt (I could entertain you guys for hours with stories of his various injuries, lol), and today my friend’s TB flipped over on him and broke the guy’s elbow, so I’m wondering if maybe it’s a breed thing.

4

Yea, she’s a thoroughbred…

5

I hope Melody is doing batter now, sounds like she was a really good girl. We have a crazy ex-racers on the farm. When my instructor first got her, the first day he ran right through the fence and slit her chest open. I was no help, I fainted . . too much blood for me. She’s fine now, still stupid and crazy, just thought I share that little story. I’m sure you and Melody will be back riding in no time. good luck with everything.

6

That’s horrible! Sounds like you reacted just right. It’s annoying when vets take so long to get out when your horse is hurt/in pain. I’m glad Melody was such a trooper about it.

My worst horror stories were my TB gelding somehow slicing his forehead open by the swirl thing in like a 3" gash (Vets had to put like 2 1/2 bottles of tranq in him and he was still trying to rear while they stitched it in between staggering around drunk…) and my mom’s Arab opening a gash on his chest somehow while he was a baby.

Neither time was as traumatic as that sounds. It’s terrible that happened right when she was getting better again. Good luck with the recovery! I’ll be hoping for the best case scenario for you.

7

I hope Melody recovers well. Sounds like you reacted in textbook fashion and probably saved her a lot of damage/blood loss.

I dunno if it’s a breed thing…my TB mare broke her leg and had to be put down, but that was from another horse kicking her, not her own stupidity (unless one counts a lack of social skills stupidity). My TB/WB filly also broke her leg, which WAS due to her own stupidity, but she was 6 months old at the time and just being a rambunctious baby…her major colic requiring surgery was just her being a pig, though. :roll:

Anyway, I hope Melody recovers well and quickly, and you can ride her again soon!

8

Thanks for the support guys.

I was suprised that I didn’t get quesy, there was so much blood and I’m not one for blood, yet I was standing there holding a cotton roll against her leg as her blood ran down my hand…eww. Though i guess I was more worried about stopping it rather than my stomach.

9

Aww, so sorry to hear about your horses injury. I hope she gets better really soon. You did a great job taking care of her.

10

I’m sorry to hear about Melody, musta been scary! I’d definitly be freaked! Glad things are looking up though.

On another note, maybe TB’s are accident prone, I’m not one to say since my TB ex racer was completely sound and I never once had any issues with him (besides the time when he tied up, but that was my fault for not cooling him out thoroughly after a hard work).

11

Wow, what bad luck. My first horse got alot of leg injuries(at least one a week >.>), but nothing that bad. I feel so sorry that you had to see that happen :frowning: I hope she heals up soon!

12

Isn’t it amazing out horses seem to hurt themselves in the most unusual ways? It’s like they wake up that day thinking, “How can I give my owner a heart attack today?”

My crazy horse injury story is rather interesting. My horse got kicked by another horse… it was about 3-4 inches above the knee. The bone didn’t exactly shatter, but it fractured enough that serval bone chips where kinda “floating around”. Mind you that this was on the same leg he (the horse) had suffered from an old racing injury. Our vet basically told us he wouldn’t be ridable at more than a walk if he recovered from it. My mom (she’s crazy, haha just ask Roo)… got it in her head that she would try everything to make him better. She started giving him daily massages over the injury leg, ice and heat, everything she could come up with. We took him to a speciality clinic where he received 4 radiation treatments to try and shrink the bone chips. Surprisely it worked… and he is healed up to about 98%. He’s fully ridable again, even at the canter. Every once and a while he gets sore and starts limping again. Also, this old fart of a horse is 19 years old. heheh… he just keeps going!

13

Went to visit her this morning…she’s very alert, she hates being there, all she does is paw. She’s walking, though awkwardly…the cast has her foot flexed so she has to walk on her toe. The people there said that all she wants is out…she tried to run out on them when they opened the door. Poor horse…don’t know how she’ll survive 7-12 days.

14

Would they let you bring in like a stall ball or something for her to play with? Something to help keep her entertained? I imagine it is pretty darn boring in there.

15

Maybe you can give her herbal stuff to calm her down. I know it’s going to be hard, but eventualy you’ll be able to hand walk her to make her feel a little better.

Rain: your story reminds me of something that happened to me. We had a Walking horse mare and she got kicked by our stud colt. She had broken a bone in her hock but we didn’t know. I remember we rode her and ended up selling her that day :cry: Shes only broodmare sound now.

16

Aww the poor horsey. Must be scary and lonely to be in a foreign place. I think it would be great if you could bring a ball or something as Andrea suggested. And, hopefully she will begin to adjust and not be so nervous there. I wish you the very best with her. :slight_smile:

17

She does have milk jugs hanging from the walls and they amuse her for a bit…she just doesn’t like being there, nothing to watch also. At least at our barn there is always something to look at. All she is looking at is an aisleway, no windows.

18

i hope Melody gets better soon. you could put a witches hat for her to play with alot of horses like them.

My TB mare is the same always injuring herself she always manages to get her leg over the fence how i dont know and is constanlty cutting her legs although not very bad. but it must be a bad week for horse injuries friends of mine their champion standardbred mare shattered her pastern in morning workout so she is all bandaged up, they are hoping they can still use her as a broodmare. all the best with Melody!

19

Visited her again today. She’s settled down a bit, and I let her hang her head out the stall door which amused her to no end. My mom told me that she’s not on any painkillers, which could explain why she hobbles on three legs, also the fact that she has to walk on her toe. I guess keeping her off pain medication is good because if she starts feeling good she’d move around more and might do damage to herself, though I don’t know how with that plaster on her leg. :roll:

20

So I’m going to be working at Dr. Miln’s. Don’t know what exactly but I can guess…mucking stalls, water, etc. God knows how much this whole thing is going to cost. I’ll probably be working there until I am six feet under.

Anyway, Melody is getting around a lot better on her leg than before. Sometimes she even walks completely normal, but then she’ll remember she has a cast on and has to gimp. Her cast is going to come off either Saturday or Monday, and hopefully it will look good so she can come home! :smiley: