Take, for instance, what happened to my neighbor just a week ago, when I was busy working at the wildfires doing animal rescue. She was having an emergency situation on her very own property.
It seems that the neighboring cattle they had let in to eat down the grass to help with fire prevention had torn down one of their cross fences. The fence had been constructed of smooth, barbless wire. They used this instead of barbed wire in an attempt to provide safer fencing for her horses. Unfortunately, no wire is safe when it’s down on the ground.
She happened to be walking along their gravel driveway when she saw the cattle start to run and one of her horses joined them. What she saw and heard next will give her nightmares for quite some time to come.
The cattle ran through the cross-fence with CB, the horse, running after them. The next thing Linda heard was that bone-chilling sound of wire snapping. She knew, deep down, that this was not going to be good. She started running in the general direction of what she knew was going to be a disaster. Then she saw CB on three legs, holding up his hind leg. What she saw next was every horse owner’s worst nightmare. She saw bone and a huge flap of skin hanging down to the ground.
This is when everything starts to happen in slow motion and you want to rewind the film. You think to yourself, “NO! NO! NO! Make it not be!” But there is no time for bargaining, or self-recrimination, or wishing it away. You have to spring in to action if you want to save the life and limb of the animal.
Fortunately her husband was home and between the two of them, they were able to wrap CB’s injured leg in towels in attempt to stop the profuse bleeding. They then were able to get him to the barn.
Their vet told them that the horse had suffered one of the worst possible leg injuries, short of a break, and is still not out of the woods. He called it a “degloving” injury, where the cut is at the top of the leg and the skin is pulled off all the way to the bottom of the leg. One of the two main arteries was severed, but luckily no tendons were cut. The canon bone was exposed for the length of the 8” cut, which was between 3 and 4 inches wide.
He said that not too many horses survive this kind of injury. It remains to be seen if the blood supply will rebuild itself – if not, the horse will lose the leg and have to be euthanized.
Linda knows that I can empathize with her. Our picnic area, Dancer’s Diner, is not called that for nothing. I treated my sweet horse, Dancer, for recurring uveitis, which turned into glaucoma, for over 6 months, finally removed her eye, and then lost her to a broken leg. Horse wrecks are us.
CB was in an enormous amount of pain at the beginning. He was given pain killers and anti-inflammatories. They considered a tranquilizer at first because he was so uncomfortable, but they did not want to risk him going down. The stress he would put on the leg getting up and down would cause too much damage to the sutures and the tissue. Then he seemed to come around and be more at ease, so they were able to stay away from that.
You’re probably lucky that I was not around to take pictures. And Linda was too upset to even think about taking pictures.
I went over today to help with a bandage change so that I can assist with future treatments. Guess what? I took a camera. Not my good one, though. It gave up the ghost in the middle of the fires, so it’s been sent off for warranty work.
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No - I will not put my ears up!
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He's not as unhappy as he looks here. He was looking perfectly gorgeous and alert, until I snapped a picture. I must have taken a dozen, and they all came out with his ears flopping around. I finally gave up. The horse has me figured out.
Here’s what it looked like 2 days ago when they changed the bandage.
And here’s what it looked like today.
The leg was carefully inspected and CB was walked up and down the barn breezeway. He’s lame, which is to be expected, but he can definitely use the leg and foot. There is reason for cautious optimism. Then it was time for the new bandage to be applied. Everyone pay attention. There will be a test.
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Lift the good leg, if you can
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When it came time to wrap down over the heel of the injured leg, we wanted CB to put his weight on that leg. This took some doing. Here you can see Linda “pinching” his good leg, trying to get him to take his weight off that leg and bear weight on his injured leg.
Linda is still working to get CB to bear weight on his injured leg so the bandage can be applied properly. This is important so that it will stay in place and not slip. You can now see why this is best done as a 2-person job.
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Good boy! Stand on that leg!
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Thankfully CB is a cooperative patient. Some horses could be kicking their doctors and nurses to kingdom come at this point (not to mention their photographers). And notice how much help I’m being?
This is what a properly bandaged leg is supposed to look like. I think Linda and I should make a poster of this and hang it in the barn for future reference.
When all was said and done, CB went looking for a carrot. They always seem to know when it’s time for a treat.
CB is now going to be cross-tied in his stall at night because last night he lay down and the vet does not want him getting up and down on the leg. He thinks he pinched off the circulation while he was down, and the last thing he needs is less circulation.
Cross your fingers and toes for CB’s recovery. I’m off for a long weekend in Santa Barbara. I’ll try to come back with happier stories than fires and injured horses. And we may just be calling for tips on bandaging that leg. I hope you took notes.
UPDATE: To learn about CB's progress, read the following blog entries:
Bandage Change
One Happy Horse
CB Cuts Loose
End of the Trail
