Friday, July 29, 2022

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...???



33 comments:

  1. Oh Emma, you are far more understanding than I would be about coming home to that mess without anyone at the farm noticing :( Your description of your farm as a co-op masquerading as full-care (complete with decentralized staff) is so apt for the barn I am at. It's actually forcing me to go to a non-discipline specific barn that has erm.. more complete (cough, better) care. I have been at my barn for 4 years, so the move is angst inducing for me, but is necessary for the current state of my horse's health.

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    1. ugh i'm sorry, and yep, understand 1,000% and then some.... change is the worst-- going from one known, however imperfect it may be, to a new unknown is legit the hardest thing in the world for me. but sometimes that's what it takes to get peace of mind and more consistent care! my fingers are crossed for you! i've honestly spent a lot of time thinking about what we need from a boarding barn, and what else might be a better fit. so far tho, everything involves some sort of major tradeoff one way or another, so ya know... i try not to be absent very often!

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  2. I came back from vacation to a horse that seriously injured himself and now needs surgery with only a 30% chance of regaining soundness. Barn said I should've gotten a pet sitter. For a horse on full board...

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    1. WHAT??!?! oh my f*ing god, i am so sorry! and wtf, isn't barn mgmt supposed to be the dedicated full time set of "pet sitters"???? jesus.... good luck with the surgery, fingers are crossed for you :(

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  3. OOF! Yeah, I would have wanted a phone call or at minimum text. And while I don't expect it, both the GY's and JT/her peeps would have had those wounds hosed and medicated and likely a call in to the vet we all use. I don't expect to be contacted about something like a bite wound or face scrape with just some hair missing. But... things on the legs?? Especially from wire??

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    1. Forgot to add that I am sending all the good thoughts to poor itchy Chuck (and you!) that he heals up really quickly!!

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    2. thanks! and yep, my thoughts exactly. i'm such a huge fan of cold hosing anyway just to get a better sense of what's actually going on with a wound.... and like i understand that things get missed or whatever, esp on all-black lower limbs. you'd just think they'd connect the dots when a fence gets wrecked that maybe there's a matching wrecked horse????

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  4. OMG, Charlie, really?!?!

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    1. He can’t be held responsible for the actions of his butt when it’s that itchy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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  5. Oh yeah, that definitely warranted a call to you! One of mine is one an antihistamine part of the year for similar reasons.

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    1. to be perfectly honest, i'm aware that i can be a bit too reactionary esp when i think somebody fucked up.... but it's good to hear that others would maybe have had similar expectations to me in this type of circumstance!

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  6. That was gnarly I would be upset.

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    1. gnarly is indeed the word, isn't it. upset.... also a word. frustrated, too.

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  7. Yikes, he did a number on that! Hopefully it heals up quickly!! I haven't had one tear down the fence from itching, but the first winter I had Opie he tore through the fence because he wanted soul mates. Was he alone in his paddock at the time? No. Apparently just wanted *different* soul mates 🙄

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    1. lol Opie knows what he wants and will settle for nothing less! Apparently! ugh for real tho... idk charlie's wounds look basically fine but the leg is a god damn tree trunk right now, pitting edema and all the things. i'm not freaking out **too badly** just bc we've been pumping him so full of antibiotics since basically right away.... but... ugh. UGH.

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    2. OH. AND. he's still VERY itchy, ugh....

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  8. Ohh, ouch. Poor guy. Cessa has allergies, but hers are more the "seasonal alopecia and occasional freight train breathing" than itchies. (Now, ask me about our delicate flower of a dog and his daily claritin for the itchies... lol)

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    1. ugh breathing issues are the worst too.... guess i should feel lucky charlie doesn't seem to have those! but the itching, blehhhh

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  9. Oh no, poor guy! I'd have called the vet too, that leg looks scary. I'm glad the vet thinks he'll heal up just fine, but still, wire cuts are very scary for me, I've seen some doozies in my time.

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    1. wire cuts scare the ever loving shit out of me too.... we've had horses just get cut to absolute ribbons. i'm actually a little impressed that charlie didn't have more full-thickness lacerations bc the marks are literally everywhere ---- allllllll up and down both of his hind legs, all the way up to his gaskins. the other hind didn't even swell at all tho (despite being a bit scabbed up), so maybe somehow my clumsy lumbering giant managed to actually be careful for once in his life in extricating himself from the tangle?

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  10. What a sin! I’d have been furious to find that. Here’s to him healing quickly. I don’t suppose they could put a scratching post out in the field?

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    1. fortunately he's healing well. by the second day his leg was HUGE with hot squishy applesauce textured pitting edema, which definitely reaffirmed our choice to hit hard with antibiotics immediately... like, yes in the grand scheme of things he'll be fine... but part of why he'll be fine is bc... treatment was immediate, ya know? and that's 100% a function of me luckily showing up at the right time... bc otherwise idk if staff would have noticed until the leg was that big, or even then?

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  11. Poor Charlie - I hope he's healing up well. People never cease to amaze me - and usually not in a good way.
    Val would tear himself up scratching in the summer, so I had to get these scratching pads. He also takes 15 generic zytec daily. Kind of spendy but all allergy symptoms ceased once I got him on them.

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    1. we have some horses who have scratching pads in their stalls and i always thought that was such a clever idea! charlie gets turned out in enormous pastures tho (which obvi he loves) so there's really no way to stop him from itching himself on inappropriate things unless i can get him to literally not be so itchy... here's hoping the hydroxyzine makes a difference! here's also hoping that barn staff will be willing to measure out a scoop of that stuff daily (bc fun fact, they're straight up not willing to count out cetirizine pills and will only administer if i have them in pre-measured containers....)

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  12. I join other respondents to your post in hoping that Charlie has a speedy and complete recovery. That situation is no fun at all, for you or your horse. We don't have any cannon bone injuries (yet) in my herd, but I am familiar with trying to manage ongoing allergies. I also have a horse on generic Zyrtec and can commiserate on all the extra time/work it takes to try to keep an itchy horse comfortable.

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    1. thanks! sometimes i feel like by the time i realize my horse is crawling out of his skin itching, it's too late to do anything about it. apparently the best remedy is prevention, yet again lol.... tho i also wonder if some of his intense itchiness actually stems from that summer sore (the more i read about them, the more nefarious they seem --- they itchy like crazy so the horse bites at or rubs on them, which then keeps the wound open so the parasites etc can keep their cycle going....). cross your fingers that treating with the Quest works!

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  13. Oh man, you get all the fun!
    You can keep it to yourself - I don't want your kind of fun.
    I have a fellow boarder whose horse just keeps trying to kill himself. Since February, he got kicked in the face which has resulted in a very lumpy head, two puncture wounds on the inside of his back legs, one of which nicked a big blood vein and bled like crazy, done at at separate times but at the same height so he's obviously getting into something but the owner can't figure it out, and after the one where he nicked the vein and was supposed to be kept contained and quiet, he got cast in the fence an hour after the vet left and scraped himself up even more. So yeah, Charlie is not the only horse out there with a death wish... not that it will make you feel any better!
    I'm sending Charlie speedy healing vibes!

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    1. oh lord, some horses really are just like that! charlie's such a funny case, tho, he really is such a sensible creature and seems very (very) attached to life and living and being out with his buddies. so i call him the "king of the dings" bc he always seems to creep riiiiiiiiight up to the very literal edge of catastrophe, but manages to escape with fairly minimal (relatively speaking) damage. like even in this case --- sure, he's all cut up and on a reprieve from work and cost me a ton of money in drugs etc, but he's also still on his full normal turnout schedule lol. sneaky bro!

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    2. He's planned that carefully - got out of work, but still gets to hang with his buds!

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  14. "Uggggh" is what I have to say to that. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery but that is not a fun thing to come back to

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  15. Oh man! I'm so sorry! I'm glad it was mostly superficial and all should be just fine. But sheesh.
    I don't have wire where they can get into it, because well... You've read my blog. But I'm POSITIVE this would happen if I let any of them near it.

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  16. Ugh - that would have made me lose my fucking top. I am so sorry Charlie had to go through that and I am glad that he's going to be okay. Interesting to know regarding anti-histamines. I just started Dante on Benadryl for his fly allergy and it seems to work best some days over others. I guess the real trick is starting earlier in the year and not in the middle of his fly torture season.

    That book! I want to know all about it! Do a book review or text me what you think!

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