I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I went out to get Tweed to go to the park, and I found him cut up, but not lame. I didn't waste any time looking for how it happened. I just called my vet, loaded him, and went straight in. I was very lucky it happened today, because they are closed July 4th and 5th. They got me right in, even though their clinic is completely full and every stall was taken.
The good news is that all of his cuts were superficial, and they were able to clean them up, wrap his legs, and administer Bute. He will be on antibiotics for awhile, too.
When we got home, my husband drove along the pasture to see if there was any fence down, and sure enough, our neighbors had clipped their fence line, probably mowing yesterday, and sent a strand of barbed wire into our field. We put up a wire/mesh fence along that line to keep the horses away from their barbed wire, but the broken strand found its way over. That's the hazard of being surrounded by cow pastures, but we've lived here 16 years and that has never happened.
They want me to wrap the one on the right one more time, and the one on the left two more times. They prefer he has stall rest for a week, but he's already going nuts, running, bucking, and kicking out in anger because he sees the other horses in the pasture. Foxy is in a stall next to him, and that is settling him down a little. He was so mellow at the vet clinic, they probably thought, stall rest, easy peasy. pfft.
I had really been looking forward to getting out on the trail today to work on the principles from my last lesson. Shirley mentioned Warwick Schiller's video about the "50 Foot Trail Ride," and I joined his site to watch the entire video and go through his other courses. They are very well organized and extremely interesting.
There will be no 50 Foot Trail rides for us this week, but I'm so happy it wasn't worse.
Oh Tweed.... they always find a way to get in a wreck don't they....
ReplyDeleteSo glad it wasn't worse; barb wire is such nasty stuff. Your darn neighbours should have either pulled the wire back on their property or let you know about it.
If the cuts aren't affecting the tendons he should be ok on modified turn out- better than having a melt down being confined.
I think they want the skin to heal over. One cut was near a joint, so the constant flexing would keep reopening it. They examined that cut the closest, just to make sure it was superficial. He feels good though, and he is full of himself. 😳 I’m going to try to follow doctor’s orders as long as I can.
DeleteI doubt our neighbor realized what he had done. We didn’t see any of it happen, so we are making our best guesses. My husband is the one who found it, and he said it looked like a clean cut to the wire. He first thought someone clipped it on purpose, but then remembered seeing him mowing. It didn’t come out very far onto our side. Very strange.
It’s amazing how horses can find the one hazard in a big field. I’m glad it wasn’t worse. Stall rest is the worst
ReplyDeleteYeah, me too. I can’t even imagine what happened, how it happened, or why it happened. We’re not even sure that was the culprit. My husband said it only came in about 5 feet. But that’s enough, I guess.
DeleteHow scary! Sorry this happened to your sweet boy. Glad it was not worse. Considering the horror stories I've heard from tangled barb wire. I would think your neighbor was unaware. Hope Tweed heals up quickly and stall rest goes by uneventfully.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think our neighbor was probably oblivious. I’m not even sure why he was mowing. He usually leaves that field alone. Tweed has settled down now. It was just that first day he couldn’t go out. I have to change the leg bandages this afternoon, so I hope he can stand still and be a good boy.
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