A Whole Lot of Fuss

Hi, everybody!  I've been at my new home for about a day now, and I have to say, I love it!  There's green grass everywhere and people are always fussing over me.  I've been a very good boy about letting them fuss, too.  Some of it's nice, like getting groomed and fed.  Other parts aren't as nice, like when they poke at my boo boos, but my moms insist they're helping me, so I try to stand still and not make it too hard for them to help.  Actually, they say that for a three-year-old, I'm being pretty stoic about the whole thing.

For the sake of documenting my injuries, my moms said I should share some photos.  Beware, however: some of them are kind of graphic.  I'm doing much better already, but it's going to be a long (and kind of yucky) road to recovery. 

Withers (R)
8" x 3"

Chest (R)
2" diameter

Wire cut, right fore

Left hind

 

Left side

 


Most of my injuries are from being bitten or kicked by the other horses in my pasture.  The bite on my withers is the worst.  My moms say the reason it doesn't hurt too much right now is that the nerve endings are torn.  But it sure hurts around the wound!  My shoulder is pretty swollen and sensitive to touch.

I've got a pretty bad bite on my chest that was healing badly, so my moms' friend had to open it up again, which hurt!  It's been less than a day since she did it, though, and I already feel better.  There was a lot of puss in there, which means infection, so now that it's draining properly and disinfected, it feels a lot better.  I've got another bite mark on my neck on the right side, which looks pretty bad, but is actually one of my less worrisome injuries.  It's already healing nicely and just needs time and someone to keep the dirt out.

I have a wire cut on my right forefoot, but it doesn't bother me all that much.  It's deep but pretty clean and healing nicely without a lot of help. 

I got kicked in the right hind leg right before I got sold, and I don't like to put weight on it at all... if I'm standing.  Walking is OK.  I'm sound as long as I'm moving!  My moms think I have a muscle bruise.  My foot hurts, too, though.  The farrier is coming out on Monday to see me, so we're going to ask him if there's anything wrong with the foot itself.

When I came off the track, I had four shoes with partial rubber pads on them.  As of today, I've thrown three of them - that means they've fallen off because of the terrain of the pasture and the condition of my feet.  My moms are leaving the last one on until the farrier gets here, though, because they don't know why my feet were done up with rubber pads and we want the farrier to assess the situation and see how they shod me at the track.  I honestly can't remember why my old farrier put the pads on the way he did, so I can't help!

On to treatment!  My moms and their friends are scrubbing on me twice a day at this point.  They major focus is on my withers, but they're really fussing around me everywhere. I'm being very good, but it's hard to stand still for so long when you're only three!

First, they use a Betadine Scrub, which helps to clean and disinfect.  Then they rinse and repeat.  A lot.  I'm told it would help if I quit rolling, but I can't help it!  After living in a stall 23 hours a day most of my life, I can finally roll around all I want!  Plus, I'm itchy.

After the scrub, they use Fura Free, which helps to reduce the swelling around the chest and wither wounds.  My shoulder beneath the withers is really swollen, so they use a lot of the yellow stuff.  They also put some on my hind leg where I got kicked to help reduce the swelling there.

Next they apply Swat all around the outside of my open wounds.  They put it on the wounds that have already healed or where I have a lot of missing hair from being bitten, because otherwise I have nothing to protect my bare skin from the bugs!  Swat is a super fly repellent, which is good, because the green flies love me.  What can I say?  I'm loveable!

Finally, they cover the open wounds with something called Wonder Dust.  Wonder Dust is wonderful!  It helps heal by acting as both a protective covering and a drying agent.  It helps eliminate and prevent proud flesh (granulated tissue), too!  This is very important, because proud flesh can be very difficult to work around later.  The saddle and saddle pad will cover part of the wither wound, so it's very important that it heal up nicely with as little scar tissue as possible and no proud flesh.

When all that's done, I'm treated!  My moms put on my fly mask, shower me with fly spray and kisses, tell me what a good boy I am, and feed me dinner!  All in all, it's not so bad to have my treatment done.  There are plenty of new things to look at around the farm and most of my wounds don't actually hurt too bad when they fuss, so it's pretty easy to cooperate.

There's a field full of grass - and fireflies! and crickets! - with my name on it, so I'm going to have a good old fashioned wander and graze in the twilight.  Next time, I'll introduce you to my moms!

~ Polo