Nature Study Tuesday~August 17~WARNING~The one with graphic horse injury pictures.

Because of the graphic content, I will post a separate post, so that you can link up without having to look at the pictures.

PLEASE NOTE THIS POST CONTAINS VERY GRAPHIC PICTURES!!

Last week during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, our mare was injured by another horse. When I went out to feed the horses Wednesday morning, our mare just stood in a corner by herself. My mama alarm went off in full force. I was on the farm with Brad (my husband) and Philip (oldest son) out in the field here at home baling hay. I called Brad, but he couldn’t hear his phone. I called our neighbor who owns the other horses that she was with, but he wasn’t quite up and moving yet. I was on my own to deal with an injured horse, a stud horse, and a spooked mare. Steve called to let me know he was on his way, but I knew I needed to do something FAST, she just looked bad. I got into the pen, shut the gate between me and all the horse. Found a tank float on the ground 20 feet from where it should have been. Got the water shut off, and managed to get it out of the way. By then my mare had come over to the gate I had shut, I helped her get out and shut the gate again. It didn’t take long at all to see that her life was in danger. In fact my first response was to have Brad “take care of her”. However, when I called and told him how bad it was, he said to at least have a vet look at her. By now Steve was here and as shocked as I was.

We teamed together to find a vet who could get here. His vet that he uses was the one who would be here by 10:30. So, it was Dr. B.N. I was a bit nervous, as I had never used him before. However, he is AWESOME and very kind. He looked her over and stated that he wasn’t sure he had seen that many injuries on a horse, but had seen each injury on different horses. Did I mention she looked like she had been in a bar brawl? I do not have any pictures from before the vet was here. She was in too critical condition to leave. Pictures are below THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!!!!

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Ok the above pictures are from Wednesday late afternoon. About 5 hours after she was stitched up. Below were taken today (8/16/2010). They are even more graphic, as I am debrieding the wounds to help keep all the fluid from the extreme swelling to drain. Otherwise we could end up with horrible infections. It is NOT pus at this time. The vet was here today to take a look at how her progress was going. I had been VERY concerned about all the drainage, but he said she is looking WONDERFUL considering.

Neck injury

Close up of Neck injury

Right front leg, and shoulder.

Close up of Right leg.

Close up of Right shoulder.

This wound is on the middle to back of her lower stomach or “barrel. There was a gaping wide hole that I could have placed my fist into. You could see her muscles and spots of fat and ligaments. It was a good lesson and anatomy and physiology for our oldest Philip. The vet was great about explaining everything that we were able to see, how and why he was doing what he was doing. There is a latex drain tube in place to allow all the fluid from her swelling to drain. Some of the skin is dead and will be sloughing off over the next several weeks as it heals.

A full body picture, showing both the severe neck injury and the belly injury. Each injury is larger then my hand laid out.

As you can see, she will be healing for a very long time. Her therapy includes, 2 hrs of hydro-therapy a day, walking around 2 miles a day, stretching and grazing on grass, lots of scrubbing to remove all the dead skin, allowing new skin to grow, lots of small feedings, keeping a close watch on flies, and other damaging insects, we are down to two shots a day now. She was on three. Her recovery could take as long as an entire year. This is the mare that we bred, and it is suspected that the stallion did this to her. We do not know why he turned on her. We also do not know, if she is bred, if the baby made it. We do not know if she will be ride-able again either. In other words, we don’t know.

I am using all this as part of our homeschool science and Physical Education needs. Even our two year old was able to lead her with lots of help. He is thinking he is big stuff. We are learning severe wound care, how to care for an injured animal, what not to do, along with lots of patience with mom when things run late, as there is just many things I won’t let them do, but allow them to observe. They are learning proper horsemanship too, as their mommy knows all about that.