king of the dings + his antihistamines

Horse ownership really is wild, I swear. My company had our first in-person retreat since the before times this week, meaning I was away from Charlie for 3 whole days.

let's start a gross post with an absolutely adorable photo tho <3 <3 

In an ideal world, I avoid missing more than 2 days in a row.... For a few reasons if we're being honest. Mostly bc I adore my horse and his company, obviously. 

But also... Charlie's farm operates a bit like a co-op masquerading as full-care, with a large decentralized staff composed of both boarders (with varying degrees of experience) working off their board; and an aging weekday staff who have been there forever but don't actually have any personal horses on the farm. 

and more cute --- manager mikey keepin an eye on us! 

Obviously everyone who works there does it bc they love horses. But ya know, sometimes stuff gets missed. Unfortunately, Charlie drew the short straw this week. 

I got home from the work trip around 2am, then woke up early to sneak out to the barn asap the next morning and see my poor neglected creature, who would surely feel abandoned and forlorn! 

and #short video of charlie keepin an eye on michael too

And predictably.... Yea. Homeboy was crusted in days-old sweat and grime, depressed looking, and itchy as all hell. Which, ahem, was probably directly related to his mangled and raw RH leg, that had very clearly gone a few rounds with high tensile wire fencing.... :(

seriously tho, guys, last chance for cute before it gets... not cute

And ya know. Stuff like this bothers me. I hate seeing my horse in pain... He also obviously did not do this in his stall. And yet, there he was, in his stall, having already been brought in for breakfast that morning from his overnight turn out. 

ta da! welcome home, emma!

Did somebody see it but not think it merited attention? Maybe! Or maybe they didn't see it? I dunno. Some of the folks at this farm are pretty old school, they've seen literally everything. So maybe they figured this was a bit like a skinned knee -- ouchy and ugly, but ultimately inconsequential?

ugh poor charlie, fully lacerated the tissue over his cannon :( also peep that persistent non healing wound on his other limb bleh

Which... Idk. I tend to err on the side of overcommunication about the various dings and dents our horses collect -- serious or otherwise. Plus, for better or worse I often medicate liberally. Like, in this scenario with swelling and open wounds around a joint, it'd take heavy convincing for me to NOT start antibiotics. So, in my "ideal world," wounds like this should be observed and communicated. YMMV.

mmm lovely. vet evaluated by testing if the skin would pull apart or flap, which it did not, whew!

It was moot anyway, tho, since I showed up when I did. Plus none of the lacerations looked particularly nasty except the one on the cannon. Tho it also didn't necessarily look fresh enough for stitches? I pulled the horse out to cold hose and investigate, and shot off a photo to my (extremely practical) vet in case she wanted a looksie.

vet was most concerned about the depth of lacerations over the hock joint 

She agreed that it didn't look too serious, just ugly, but she did want to take a closer look specifically at the wound depth around Charlie's hock. Considering, ya know.... Joint infections can be life-altering injuries, why risk it? Plus she was already in the neighborhood anyway, nbd.

poor charlie, you're not supposed to have "fat rolls" on your hock :(

So I got to fuss and fawn over Charlie, chiseling him out of his grimy crust and stuffing him full of cookies etc, while we waited for the vet. Then it was a pleasantly brief visit -- he basked in his sedation while she scrubbed everything up and evaluated. And luckily the vet quickly confirmed that everything is superficial except for that cannon wound.

cleaned it out and wrapped it up to help control the expected swelling

Tho she expects that to heal up just fine, too, since the skin didn't seem particularly flappy or like it wanted to pull apart or separate. 

I personally am paranoid about it, having seen other folks in blogland really really struggle with healing big cannon lacerations.... So we'll wrap while he's stalled during the day, unwrap for normal overnight turnout, and see how it goes.

i swear this horse takes FOREVER to wake up from sedation

We'll see. The vet also shot him up with some systemic antibiotics -- Gent and Excede -- to be continued for a few days. It's probably overkill given I already had a full bottle of SMZs lol... 

But, eh, the dosage is simpler and shorter, and I can do it all myself vs relying on barn staff to correctly administer a 2wk course of SMZs twice daily... Plus, my vet is out of town the next couple of days, and figured it'd be safer to treat proactively vs risk having Charlie blow up when she's not around.

unrelated random wound on other leg that's done a shockingly poor job of healing --- vet advised that i begin treating as if it's a 'summer sore'

She also noticed another little wound on his other hind .... A funny little superficial wound that should have healed just fine, but instead swelled wildly then exploded a week later (pics above). Obvi I've been gone a few days so I wasn't surprised to see it looking... still kinda iffy. 

predictable that this hothouse flower couldn't endure 3 days of my absence without literally crawling out of his skin and imploding....

She said the wound's circular shape could suggest it's becoming a summer sore. In other words, it might be contaminated by fly or parasite eggs, which can cause persistent non-healing lesions that are susceptible to infection and drive their hosts mad. 

we need to teach mikey how to be a better groom lol

She recommended treating with Quest, even tho Charlie's up to date on his dewormer. One tube as a standard oral dose, and a second to be used topically on the wound itself. So yea... If you're wondering whether my locker looks like a pharmacy rn, the answer is yes lol.

in the meantime, new study material arrived omg!!! i know the text here is small but lmk if you are intensely curious about any of the specific rider exercises listed!

Oooh the vet left one last little goodie, too -- a tub of hydroxyzine powder. You might remember reading about Charlie being an itchy SOB before... And we always suspected that his apocalyptical bat-cave of a puncture wound back in 2019 was caused by sticking his leg through a fence while itching his you-know-what. 

 

one more of mikey as an apology for all the raw nasties before

So we're at TWO close call injuries from itching on fences... And I'm over it! Generic Zyrtec (cetirizine) pills have been my go to since the puncture, but results are mixed. 

My vet reminded me that allergy meds work better as prevention vs cure, so we'll switch a daily dose of hydroxyzine to see if that works better. Bc damn... it's way cheaper than these vet bills! 

back out with some of his buddies, relegated to a paddock bc, ahem, he wrecked the friggin pasture fence....

Wish me luck, lol. Anybody else out there ever have to deal with gruesome wire tangle injuries or cannon lacerations? Or summer sores? Or.... a miserably itchy horse bound and determined to literally rip the flesh from his own bones to free him from the madness...???