Oh FFS, Charles.....

Sooooooooo. Charlie. My dear sweet gelding, Charlie. You know the one.

this one. this swamp monster and his ne'er do well friend moose....

I don't call him the "King of the Dings" for nothing. Bc just when we thought things were looking up, he went ahead did it again. 

I'm guessing he and his herd of hooligans got a little frisky in a recent rainstorm --- note the mud speckles on his face, and forelock tucked behind his ears? Telltale signs of a Charles who has been running....

probably shoulda warned ya, but these pics are gross

And I dunno. Maybe one of his friends stepped on him? Or he stepped on his own self?? Or maybe just put the foot somewhere it didn't belong. Who knows, ya know? Regardless, he came in with a big ol' heel bulb wound.

"i didn't make that mess behind me, it was the other brown horse" - charles, probably

The combination of what must be an astonishingly painful wound (I imagine it's a bit like a fingernail bed injury), plus having been out in the rain all day, made him a bit of a handful. 

laceration incorporates the coronet band....

I got him into the outdoor wash stall first to rinse off the bulk of the mud from his legs and hoof... Then attempted to flush the wound with peroxide and iodine, all while trying not to get kicked in the face.  

looks painful

Shot a text off to the vet too... Tho, hahasob, as fate would have it -- we already had an appointment scheduled. Bc ya know. Charlie was supposed to get his hocks done. Bc he was supposed to be returning to soundness, legging up again. Remember? The whole "be my riding horse again" thing? 

taking me for a little walk while waiting for the vet

As it is, tho, we put off the hock injections. Joint injections have associated risks even in perfect conditions, right? Adding in a wound on the same leg, that may or may not be brewing infection, elevates the risk profile a bit. We've already waited this long, might as well wait a little longer -- and address the more pressing wound first. 

charles, maybe if you didn't try to graze like a mountain goat we wouldn't keep having these problems

Which, ya know, is fine. Charlie doesn't need hock injections to go about living his normal life. He needs them to be a riding horse who comfortably does stuff like walk-canter transitions and jumps. So it's not a big deal. 

see, isn't this much easier??

The vet spent a good long while scrubbing the wound, after sedating him and applying a numbing topical spray. Honestly I think she was trying to decide what to do. 

mmmmmm sedation

It's not necessarily a deep wound, or particularly catastrophic. But the flap is thick enough that it could potentially survive -- vs needing to just get cut off. The flap also incorporates coronet tissue and some hoof, details that make it maybe ideal to try to save it. 

debriding the edges of the flap and contaminated deep tissue

So she ultimately decided to administer a nerve block, debride the wound and staple it closed. The staples might be wishful thinking.... Like, it sure would be great if they worked. But it's not a big deal if they fail --- or at least, not a bigger deal than if she didn't try in the first place. 

please please please do your thing, staples!

Either way, vet expects it'll be a pain in the ass to get this heel to heal. Everything about it is kinda perfectly not ideal -- the location, the inclusion of coronet tissue, pressure on the wound from normal movement.... All the things, basically.

elastikon'd to high heaven

Plus conditions outside are basically exactly wrong too. We're officially into the wetness of early winter around here, especially in Charlie's field -- which is gigantic and grassy, except for where it bottoms out at the stream where the gate is. That area gets MUDDY and deep. 

plus a duck tape wrapper for good measure

So Charlie will be consigned to his stall for at least the foreseeable future. Bandage changes every 1-3 days depending on how soiled it looks, with photo updates to the vet re: the staples. It may be that they start falling out in a couple days, but ideally they'd last about ~2wks before being intentionally removed -- cross your fingers for a Christmas miracle haha.

He also started a course of regular SMZs, plus got some banamine during the visit, and will get a few days of bute too. 

Sigh. This horse, I swear. I really really love him. And he really really loves being fussed over. Sometimes it's just a lot tho!!