Puncture-pocalypse (warning: is gross)

I mentioned in my post yesterday that Charlie added another notch to his Belt-o-Dings. This time, racking up an impressively gruesome puncture to his left hind cannon just above the fetlock. I say "just above" bc... yea, he was jussssst above.

Far enough above for the injury to not be totally terrifying. But. Ya know. Close enough to give me a good and proper scare upon first discovering his bloodied limb. Also. Yea, that's a hint -- graphic pictures are coming in hot. Consider yourself warned haha.

speaking of gruesome, check out this obscenely unflattering picture of my poor beautiful horse

My best guess is that this is a completely self-inflicted wound. Charlie's been an itchy SOB this season. Mostly for fly-bite related reasons. But also just.... Generally itchy.

I joked a little while back that his uncontrollable gyrations while getting scritches would likely eventually lead to my own demise... To which Austen quipped that my tombstone will read "Crushed by Love!"

charlie can't be held responsible for the actions of his butt
when he's got #datitch

Joke's on me, tho, I guess, since this injury looks for all the world like Charlie was probably scritching his own self on a fence and maybe stuck his leg through the boards - catching something sharp and pointy in the process.

So.... Yea. As of this moment I'm officially looking into prescription grade remedies bc clearly Charlie lacks self preservation where itching is concerned....

day 1 - appearances upon initial discovery, and again after cleaning + dressing it up. that's one lumpy bumpy limb

Anyway. Honestly the whole discovery thing was pretty... frustrating. I'd been at the barn for HOURS at that point, with Charlie sitting in his stall swelling up, mere yards from my locker stocked chock full of SMZs. But I was up at the arenas running a tack swap and watching the lesson kiddos enjoy the "farm fun day." My only plan was to run down to the barn after for a quick visit to say 'hi!' and give Charlie his ulcergard.

In other words, I was completely blissfully unaware that my horse had come in from the field that morning with a significant wound. I guess the AM feeder saw it, but thought it was just mud, since Charlie had rolled and coated that whole side of his body in mud too. Sigh.

Pro tip(s) to anybody responsible for working in a boarding barn or managing the care of other people's horses: 

- Dried blood is black, while dried mud is often a more muted brown
- Blood dries in vertical streaks, following the flow path, while mud tends to have more horizontal lines (at least on legs/feet) 
- Learn to recognize the differences, bc one day it will matter
- And if you're not sure or see literally anything that looks even remotely unusual, just fucking lay hands on it. This simple act will tell you if there's a problem. 

mmmmm graphic close up from when i was first trying to convince myself it wasn't actually a puncture

It happens tho. Obviously nobody who works at a farm ever wants to miss an injury on their shift. But it does happen. Luckily in this case, it probably didn't make much of a difference.

Getting antibiotics into the horse sooner would possibly have been a big advantage tho, since the leg was already starting to look cellulitis-y by the time I found him. Hard, hot, pitting edema all up and down the cannon, with all manner of lumps and bumps bleh.

day 2, slightly more uniform swelling and a respectable amount of drainage. left side after unwrapping, right side after cold hosing and cleaning and dressing

Just judging by the swelling and amount of blood, I was pretty sure it was going to be a puncture too. Tho... ugh, I fucking hate really getting all up and in a fresh wound. I'm not squeamish, per se, but.... It just looks like it hurts, ya know?

In any case, I've been taught to identify the differences between lacerations and punctures by gently pulling the edges of a wound apart. Do they separate? Does a gap open between them? If so, there may be a pocket in there.

In which case... I've got all these pretty handy little curved-tip syringes that are perfect for exploratory diving missions. I filled one up with hydrogen peroxide (after scrubbing the whole leg with chlorhex), and probed around until it found something to flush.

tbh i half expected bats to fly out of this cavernous disaster

And.... Uh... Yea. There's something to flush in there, for sure. Sweet baby jesus, Charlie.

It's hard to assess actual depth when the tissue is that swollen, but yea. There's depth. Again tho, even tho it went kinda sideways-down-ish (not optimal for drainage purposes, sigh), it didn't seem within the joint danger zone, thank the lort. And -- as a major and very telling bonus -- Charlie was extremely ho-hum about the whole thing.

Charlie is a horse who.... tells you where it hurts. He's an open book. He's a good boy. He's one of those special horses who expects people to fix his problems vs being more defensive and seeing people as 'part of the problem.' In fact, I've noticed dozens of times with this horse when he'll almost relax and settle whenever I finally uncover one of his latest dings.

In this case, tho, aside from disliking my poking and prodding, Charlie was unruffled. His stride was confident and his demeanor was not at all distracted by any sort of fuss or preoccupation that you sometimes see with a sore or feverish horse.

day 3 (yesterday), pitting edema remains localized to site of injury, the rest of the leg has returned mostly to normal size. wound is yucky, but happy? left side after unwrapping, right side after cleaning + dressing

So honestly I've mostly been following Charlie's example. Obviously we plugged him full of SMZs and bute immediately haha, until I could pick up a couple doses of Excede from the vet (who, btw, described the above 'bat cave' photo as "it's looking happier!" LOL #vetsarecrazy).

But... mostly we've kinda just been keeping an eye on Charlie and seeing how things progress day to day.

they say if you press your ear against it, you can hear the ocean

For all my bitching about the drought and hard ground, it's actually a bit of a godsend right now. Like, what better conditions could you ask for when your horse has a friggin hole in his leg?

It's meant that Charlie's still allowed to go out with his herd at night, with the wound dressed and guarded from the dust with antibiotic ointment (plus vaseline in the drainage path to prevent scalding). The freedom of movement has proved key in rapidly reducing the swelling in a very short amount of time.

The vet tells me I can expect the pitting edema around the site of the injury to last for a while yet while it heals itself from the inside out. But the rest of his leg - the hock, fetlock, and inside of his cannon, have all returned mostly to normal. (vs getting worse, which you'd expect if cellulitis really truly set in).

per charlie's way, this is yet another ding teetering riiiiiiight up on the edge of mother fucking disaster, but somehow still managing to be maybe not actually too terrible?

My barn manager has been checking on Charlie each morning and wrapping while he's stalled. Then I come out in the evenings to cold hose and scrub, etc.

Mostly, tho, the leg is moving in the right direction. There's still drainage, but not much. And still, obviously, a substantial amount of healing that needs to happen. Which means that things could change quickly with the wound if he were to aggravate it or whatever.

For now, tho, we're working with it. I'll probably start tack walking soon too, today or tomorrow maybe, to ensure he's getting enough circulation to promote healing. And I keep nervously texting the vet to make sure I'm not missing signs of something going undetected with the bone, or whatever. Tho, haha, we already know what a sequestrum looks like so... Again, I'm just kinda trying to follow Charlie's lead and see what the leg tells us.

ha, and let's close this post with another heinously unflattering pic of long-suffering charles. somehow this one is almost a complete inversion of the first picture in this post?!?

So.... I guess we'll see? The nature of this wound has me guessing that it might be a more slowly healing issue than some of Charlie's other dings. Which also means that there's more risk of healing being interrupted along the way. But... I'm hopeful.

At least for now the horse feels good and happy and unconcerned. Hopefully we can keep it that way! Bc let's be real, even tho Fall is here and Halloween approaches, I'd rather NOT expand my collection of gnarly injury media, thanksmuch haha.

Regardless, I probably won't stop worrying, fretting, and nervous-texting the vet until the thing closes up completely... Until then, tho, at least maybe now I'll have a chance to catch up on my backlog?? Sigh...