One of the worst nights ever!

I went out to lock everyone up for the night, one of my horses (Snoops) was at the gate as usual to greet me but my baby wasn't there (I call her baby but she is actually 3 yrs old). I go to the gate and she is standing back in the corral. She can't walk and I see something white on her knee. I panic and run and tell hubby there is something wrong with Baby and I think maybe her leg is broken.
Hubby (who is super squeamish and a gagger) come running and goes to Baby as I stand at the gate bawling my eyes out. He thinks the leg is broken and the white thing I seen is the actual knee joint, there is no muscle, no flesh no nothing there any more.
So now there are two of us with no knowledge of what to do and we don't have a vet anywhere near us. So I call my son in the city who has a friend that is a horse guy, thinking maybe he would come here and look at Baby. I break down on the phone with my son and start bawling again, I can't even talk and know my son is almost crying cause I am. So I finally tell him what was up and him and his friend come out. He sees the leg and right away thinks it is broken as well but didn't want to say too much to me...probably scared I would start crying! He examines the wound, sprays it down with the hose and moves it from side to side. Good news it isn't broken...Bad news, the front tenon has been completely severed and there is a massive hole, no muscle or flesh. So he cleans it with salt water, squirts penicillin in there, packs it and wraps it.
Good knew is as long as she doesn't get an infection she will survive, she will have a bad leg and I won't ever be able to ride her but at least we don't have to put her down.
I just felt so helpless tonight, I had no clue what to do to help her. To see such a horrific injury on my poor baby and nothing I can do to make her feel better, it crushes my heart.
We have a long road ahead of us, my sons friend figure it will take at least 3 months for it to close up. He has offered to come out to the farm everyday to change the dressing for me until I am able to handle doing it myself, that is such a blessing.

Thanks for listening, now I need to figure out where the shut off valve is for these darn tears!

Oh dear! I wish her a speedy recovery with no further incidence. And not to worry the tears will run out at some point

Good luck. Too bad you don't know a nurse or doctor that could suture the tendon back together...

So sorry to hear this!! Not sure what you are using for treating it, but if you hose it down with COLD water then pack regular black pepper in the wound. This will keep any proud flesh from growing and it helps heal wounds amazingly fast!! You do not need to bandage the leg when you use black pepper. This is a trick passed onto us from an old native fellow and it works awesome.


Good luck with healing her. If you decide not to try this, and then find later that you do end up with proud flesh you can use the pepper to get rid of it. You do the same as above, but then you need to bandage it snugly! The pepper will slowly kill the proud flesh.

So sorry that this has happened! Hoping it heals quickly without complicationns.

The wound was packed so it can heal, then he will be putting pepper on it once the flesh has grown to fill in the hole, if that makes sense.

I know she will be in so much pain for the next while, I hope she can handle things better than I can.

Horrible! How could something like this have happened?

Sorry to hear that Val
Have you figured out how it Happen?
Honey also will help with healing
keep us posted on how she is doing
Joe

Prairie Chick wrote:The wound was packed so it can heal, then he will be putting pepper on it once the flesh has grown to fill in the hole, if that makes sense.

I know she will be in so much pain for the next while, I hope she can handle things better than I can.

So sorry about this. I do hope she heals well.

I'm curious about what he will be doing with the pepper. Don't know if it is anything similar but I did see a program about them using hot pepper as a pain treatment (it was in an ointment). There is an anesthetic effect after the initial application (like how you can't taste anything after eating hot peppers).

Oh Valerie. I feel terrible for you and Baby. It will definitely be a long road to recovery for sure. But on the bright side of things Baby has you to care for her. If I can help please let me know. ( lou

I am so sorry to hear about this. Do you have any idea how it happened?

If you are able to get some bute from a vet, it will help a lot with the pain. Also watch out for cellulosis, a creeping swelling that is not infection, but just an extreme swelling that horses can be prone to after injury. It is hot and painful. A few days of bute powder in some pelleted feed will help get over the initial pain until healing is under way.

Fingers crossed that there is a good outcome.

Such a heartbreaking thing to have happen. Fortunately the horse will live. The recommendations here will help if you're at a lossas to how to proceed. Good replies!

Fowler wrote:

Prairie Chick wrote:The wound was packed so it can heal, then he will be putting pepper on it once the flesh has grown to fill in the hole, if that makes sense.

I know she will be in so much pain for the next while, I hope she can handle things better than I can.

So sorry about this. I do hope she heals well.

I'm curious about what he will be doing with the pepper. Don't know if it is anything similar but I did see a program about them using hot pepper as a pain treatment (it was in an ointment). There is an anesthetic effect after the initial application (like how you can't taste anything after eating hot peppers).

You pack the pepper on the wound and it stops the flesh from growing too much. It also seems to almost cauterize the wound when the wound is fresh. I know the horses I have used it on have healed beautifully. Especially one the vets had given up trying to heal up. He had been cut to the bone then proud flesh set in growing his leg to three times it's size with the vets doing surgery to remove some of it and then finally telling us the horse needed to be put down. We started the pepper treatment and 2 months later his leg was pretty much fully healed a month later we started using him on gentle rides

I'm so sorry to hear about this and I'm wishing her the best.

The active ingredient in the pepper must be the capcaicin or however it's spelled. I can see that working for sure. It's anti-bacterial and stimulates blood flow as well.

All the best. Keep us posted.

Valerie, So Sorry to hear this. Baby is lucky to have you and you are lucky to have children and friends who love you.

Schipperkesue wrote:Horrible! How could something like this have happened?

At first we thought it was a bite because so much is missing but she most likely got tangled in something. I walked the pasture and so did my hubby and son, we can't find anywhere that it could of happened. She was born here and is just over 3 and has never had anything like this happen before.

Thanks everyone for your support.

I can post a picture but it is pretty nasty.

scary indeed Val. Hope you can get it healed up. She will probably handle the pain better than we would, often they will quite docile when they are injured which helps with the dressing work.
I would be very curious to discover what she cut herself on butcould be you may never find out....animals can get themselves into the strangest situations sometimes.
i didnt know about the pepper, good to know, thanks guys.

Thank you for the update Valerie
With your care I know she will do well

I have made the tough decision to put Baby down, she has an appointment today at 2pm . I know it is the best thing for her as her quality of life would not be good and that isn't taking into account the many months of healing and pain she will be in.

Rest in piece my angel

Prairie Chick, there is nothing to say that will make this one bit easier. To say I admire your good heart that has bravely make this hard decision when your animal is suffering, is no comfort to you at all. I am very sorry you have to go through this. I've walked this path and my heart was heavy for a long, long time. You are in my thoughts.