Happy Birthday to me! Ugh....Cheyennes wound

MyBuddy

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So last night after a birthday day of fun, we bring the horses in for the night and I find Cheyenne like this!!! :eek:
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I was shocked and didn't know what to do first! I got some warm water and tried cleaning the wound but it looked so deep and the eye so swollen! I was scared! "VET" was all I could think! Saturday night, after hours, ugh. I debated if it was serious enough to disturb him. I always go with my gut and it didn't take me long to call him! She was in pain, needed antibiotics, I was sure, maybe stitches and I couldn't clean this without her being sedated!

We talked, I sent him pictures and then I said, Come Out!

And its a very good thing! He said this didn't 'just' happen. It probably happened a few hours ago. It was already scabbing up a little, trapping dirt inside. So that would have been a bad thing. He said, I would have been out here for sure at some point!!

So he sedated her, shaved the hair around it (I couldn't do that without sedation! Not right by her eye!) And then cleaned it out while I held her head up. She was so out of it I swore she was gonna fall! Vet said she won't but, geez. Scary to watch and :sick: to watch him clean it! :wideyed: It was damn deep and, again I was so glad he was there!!
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He said he couldn't stitch it because it was deep. Would have to heal from the inside out. He gave her a shot of Banamine and told me to blanket her for a couple of hours.


My poor girl, still sedated.
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Horses can't regulate their temperature when under sedation in cold weather. I was to take it off later unless she was sweating. If she was, he said to change to a dry one and leave it on all night. But by 10pm she was alert and not sweating so I removed it.

Shes on 6 days of antibiotic power that I mix with applesauce and give her through a syringe. I also have to gently wipe her eye and apply more ointment. He said head wounds usually heal fast because of the good blood flow in the head area. I hope so. Poor girl!! My last trip out to the barn last night, her eye was pretty much swollen shut. :( I'm getting ready to go out there and I'm really nervous as to what I'll find!! I wanna go....and I don't. :bag:

I'll keep you updated!
 
This was this morning.

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How it should look
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Still quite swollen, if not a teensy bit better. But still enough that she's having trouble seeing out of it. She took her medication like a champ. I gently wiped her eye and applied more salve. That yellow gunk wasn't as 'wet" as I thought it would be but at least it was fairly clean. The hole seems to have kind of filled in a little. After meds and salve, I brought her out. The Vet said she can go outside, especially since its going to be in the mid 50's today!!
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I checked the corral for anything she could have hurt herself on but came up empty. So this mystery may not get solved. :(
 
Damn, not knowing what caused this is a bit worrisome too. The eyelid does look better today, but I’d really want to know what happened. The other horses weren’t spooked? Initially it looked like a bird attack to me. Like a sharp beak. Then I thought, maybe the nails of a squirrel...? Has Kali been out there? Maybe she could sniff out the intruder?
 
Could it have been a tooth scuffle with one of the others? Poor thing. Hopefully shes looking and feeling lots better in a week!
 
Animals are no respecter of Birthdays or weekends. At least the eye itself wasn't affected which would have been my worry to begin with, especially not knowing what caused the injury. Hoping it heals quickly and with no further problems.
 
I am curious to know how this happened?

I am sure y’all are very diligent but can’t help but to think an exposed nail or wood splinter in the barn? That’s pretty damn deep.
 
The other horses weren’t spooked? Initially it looked like a bird attack to me. Like a sharp beak. Then I thought, maybe the nails of a squirrel...? Has Kali been out there? Maybe she could sniff out the intruder?
We weren't home part of day so we didn't notice any spooking. A bird or squirrel bothering or attacking is very unlikely. Most horse injuries come from other horses or their own actions by hitting something.
Could it have been a tooth scuffle with one of the others?
Anything is possible I guess. She is head mare so the others don't usually mess with her. But any kind of scuffle can happen. Even if its in trying to get away.
Happy birthday, anyway...
Thanks, Art! I was having a good time til this! :groan:

At least the eye itself wasn't affected which would have been my worry to begin with
Checking her eye was the first thing the Vet did and he said it was fine, thank God. I was very concerned about that.
I am curious to know how this happened?

I am sure y’all are very diligent but can’t help but to think an exposed nail or wood splinter in the barn? That’s pretty damn deep.
Me too! Its very frustrating not to know. They've had several injuries over the years that we never knew the cause. They can do a lot of damage to each other too. I walked the corral again, checking it out. We have a funeral tomorrow too. :( Hubbys cousin. But when we get back I'm gonna look again. I just can't believe this happened. It IS deep. And scares me. :down:
Wishing Cheyenne a speedy recovery.:nurse:
Thank you! We need the well wishes and prayers.
 
Recent pictures from last night and this morning. It looks halfway decent already. Closing up. My vet called me yesterday to see how she was doing and asked me if she was able to blink her eye. He was worried that if it was still too swollen to blink, she would need some eye drops. But I checked her and she is able to close it and blink. It's still swollen as you can see it on the front view comparing both eyes. I'm continuing with the medication and wiping it out everyday and applying the salve.

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This morning. Its maddening to try to get a clear picture when she keeps moving! LOL the white stuff is the leftover salve from last night.

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Poor girls....both of ya! The "fur kids" around your place are doing their best to keep you on your toes, eh?

The last pics look a bit better, hope the wound looked better when you got out to take care of it this evening.
 
I don't know how I missed all this, but wishing speedy recovery. It looks like it will heal just fine, especially with your diligence. And happy belated BD!
 
Eek! Good thing you got the vet out. I would have been worried too. The eye is a sensitive area, poor thing.

Definitely looks better now. Hopefully you guys can get the the bottom of how it happened.
 
Poor girls....both of ya! The "fur kids" around your place are doing their best to keep you on your toes, eh?
I'm telling ya! Between Buddy, Cheyenne and The death of my husband's cousin over the weekend, It's been one thing after another!
I don't know how I missed all this, but wishing speedy recovery. It looks like it will heal just fine, especially with your diligence. And happy belated BD!
Thank you! It looks pretty good for only a few days. And I pray that. Nothing gets infected. That's the scariest part.
Definitely looks better now. Hopefully you guys can get the the bottom of how it happened.
It does look better! But I still haven't found anything that would have done such damage. :mad:

Last night.. .
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This is looking pretty good considering how it started!

Did you check high up in her stall too? I wonder if she stood on her hind legs and maybe there is a nail or something sharper sticking out?
 
I'm sorry to read about the loss of your husband's cousin, goodness, it really has been a rough coupe of weeks.

Her eye is looking much better, like Kaiser said...considering how things started out.

You can make yourself crazy trying to figure out how it happened, we got up to a horse one morning that looked like his back left leg was in the middle of a switch blade fight with absolutely no idea what had happened over night. We walked the pasture area and fence line all day trying to figure out how he managed to get that one leg looking so bad....never did figure it out.....so yeah..it's all kinds of crazy making stuff.

I say you pick a day next month and call it your "Birthday mulligan"!! You have earned a do over!!
 
This is looking pretty good considering how it started!

Did you check high up in her stall too? I wonder if she stood on her hind legs and maybe there is a nail or something sharper sticking out?
It is looking pretty good for the short time that has passed. Here is a picture I just took a couple of hours ago.
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She happened to be out in the Corral when this happened. And even if it was in Her stall, there is nothing above them but a light and its not rigid.
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I'm sorry to read about the loss of your husband's cousin, goodness, it really has been a rough coupe of weeks.

Her eye is looking much better, like Kaiser said...considering how things started out.

You can make yourself crazy trying to figure out how it happened, we got up to a horse one morning that looked like his back left leg was in the middle of a switch blade fight with absolutely no idea what had happened over night. We walked the pasture area and fence line all day trying to figure out how he managed to get that one leg looking so bad....never did figure it out.....so yeah..it's all kinds of crazy making stuff.

I say you pick a day next month and call it your "Birthday mulligan"!! You have earned a do over!!
And it's very true that we will probably never find out what happened. I stopped over at my Vet's office to pay my bill and pick up more medication and we were exchanging horror stories! The tech there said that horses are their own worst enemy!! If there's something to go wrong, They'll find it. She told me a story about doing a wellness check on a horse for a sale. The woman purchased the horse. The very next day she went out to the barn and the horse had poked itself right in the eye with something! They never found out what! But the horse lost his eye. She showed me a picture and it was pretty horrific. It's amazing what these horses can get into.

I remember someone (non horse person) asking me these horses live a long time, don't they? I said yes, but they can die in an instant. And that's usually what happens. Colic, an accident, old age. Truly a shame how fragile they really are. The guy where I bought my Appaloosas had to put down his stallion due to testicular torsion. I mean really? Amazing what can happen. :( Another friend of mine was walking her two-year-old into her trailer up a ramp and the horse stepped off the side. And broke its leg. Over in an instant. :down:

Thank you for the condolences. His cousin went very quickly. He was playing wolleyball with his friends and son. Sat down, his head dropped and died. No warning, no feeling pain. Just sat down because his turn was over. They said it was like he fainted. Heart attack. Very sad. He was a really great guy!
 
Poor girl but she already looks way better so I'm glad she's healing so well.
 
Thanks, Jan. She has improved immensely but yesterday I was still agast at the hole. :eek: I took a bunch of photos when I went out to check her and when I went through them I was a bit horrified to zoom in on them! :bag: It just seemed like it was closing up so fast but still such a deep hole. :green:

I texted my Vet with pictures for his opinion and he said,

"Looks great! All the nasty tissue is gone. Going to start filling in now."

:scratch: I was like, Okaaay, if you say so. LOL I said I thought it still looked pretty icky, but I will continue what I'm doing and try to be patient, but :sick: :spit: The inside of the hole is freaking me the hell out!!
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