Lady's Progress June 30 - July 20 (Day 30 - 54)

Lady's leg has really started to heal nicely, especially on the outside of her leg.  The vet came and cut off that stub of the muscle that had tipped out.  Lady hasn't bother her bandage until the last week or so.  We got Chew Stop to keep her from chewing on her bandage.  We put a fine mist on a short piece of Vetwrap and wrap around the top of her bandage.  A small amount has done the job so far.

Whole Leg Bandage

Here is a sequence of photos showing how we changed Lady's bandages.  It starts with the large padded bandage already removed.

The non-adherent (3" x 8") Telfa bandages we ordered from J.R.S. Medical.  They had them for a reasonable price and their shipping was prompt.  We couldn't find any place locally to purchase pads that large.  Smaller ones would have been ok but you use them up so much faster.

We got the 6" wide brown non-steril gauze from our vet to start with and then my husband happened to be going through Minnesota on I-94 and stopped in Melrose, MN at the Stearns Vet Outlet and purchased a bunch from them.

At the vet's suggestion, I made up 4 large padded bandages.  I made them from padded leg bandages I purchased at Blain's Farm & Fleet.  It is like polyester quilt batting.  I put three layers together to get enough padding.  Then I made a cover for it (like a pillowcase) out of flannel.  I tried regular fabric but the flannel was softer and also kinda stuck to itself so it was easier to bandage.  After each bandage change, we would take the flannel cover off and wash the whole bandage.  I tried it in the washer, but it was too hard on them so I washed them in my grandma's old washtub outside instead.  I used a gentle laundry soap and then had a bleach rinse.  To help them dry faster, I would just put them in the washer for the spin cycle only and then hang them up to dry.  At first, we used two bandages at a time, but now we are only using one at a time on her upper leg.

Photos from Day 9 to Day 21 (June 5 -17, 2008)

Here are the photos from the first couple of weeks.  If you want to see an individual photo, you can click on the slide show and it will take you to Picasa Web Album.

The following slide show is Day 9 through Day 21. You can see how the stitches held the muscle and skin up. By Day 21, it had shed the dead tissue and stitches. The bottom of the severed muscle shrunk down and tipped out. The stub of muscle has since been removed and is healing nicely.

Photos coming soon!

I will try to add photos as time allows.  I wish I would have started taking them the first week.  (20-20 hind sight)  But I have tried to make up for that in the weeks since.  Almost without exception, I have taken pics at each bandage change.  It has been really encouraging to go back and look at the progress.  Sometimes, even in life, we can't see the progress because we have lost perspective.  Having the pictures to compare to each day and week has given me strength to go on and faith to hope for the best.

It has been a couple weeks since I added to this so I will have to do some back-tracking to bring everyone up to date to where we are with Lady now. 

Only the beginning.....

After everyone left that night, Mandy said to me, "Mom, I'm so glad it's over."  I said, "Honey, this is only the beginning."  I knew that we were at the beginning of a long, demanding, expensive, boring, gross, agonizing but hopefully rewarding road.  

I am so thankful for the people who came and helped me rebandage Lady that first week or two.  I would almost feel sick at just the thought of having to rebandage her again.  There were times I didn't think I could do it one more time, and now 36 days later, I can't even remember how many times I have done it. 

I will try to give as many helpful details as I can.

We had a hard time getting Lady to eat her grain with the antibiotic & pain powder, so we mixed 2 Tablespoons of corn oil and 1 Tablespoon of molasses together and poured that over her grain & stirred until all the powder was mixed in.   She liked it and we didn't have anymore trouble getting her to eat.

We just had a utility sink with a threaded faucet installed in our basement so we were able to have warm water to hose out her cut.

I have been able to get hay from a co-worker so we have had a reliable source of really nice grass/alfalfa hay.  I don't know what I would have done without that.  What a wonderful blessing!  We put the hay in nets to try to keep as much off the ground as possible, otherwise it makes a tangle around Lady's foot.

We have her under a 10 x 20 tarp canopy.  I tied 10 ft. rain gutter sections along the long sides of the canopy.  It has worked well to help the rain drain away from her shelter.  We have a 20 ft. side and 10 ft. end (with a door that you can unzip and roll up).  There are two box fans in the corners and one hanging from the top to help circulate the air.  We plug in the fans in the morning and unplug them in the evening, unless it is raining.

A second canopy just like the first is set up just outside the fence with a platform built out of scrap lumber and plywood.  We have a picnic table there and have been "camping out" with Lady.

The flys, gnats and bugs have not been too bad.  It probably helps that we have had a relatively cool summer so far.  I have used a insect repellent lotion for what is exposed of Lady's leg.  Otherwise regular flyspray has worked ok.  I did hang up some of those sticky ribbon fly traps which caught lots of gnats and some horse & biting flies.  I also hung up a fly trap that you fill with liquid.  That seems to get the bigger flies better.

Sweet barn lime has helped to keep the bugs away and also helps dry the ground up.

Shavings have been the best bedding.  Straw would have been too messy to haul in the car and is hard to find this time of year.  I have been using 1/2 to 1 bale of shavings per day depending on how often the bandage gets changed.

I got some leftover CAT 5 cable and borrowed a crimper so we could run a phone & computer line from the house to the shed.  It has been really nice to be able to watch the weather online.

Nightmare-only we can't wake up

On May 27, 2008, the day after Memorial Day, I heard my daughter scream.  Her 20-year-old Arabian mare had run into a steel "T" fence post.  She severed the large muscle in the front of her left leg between the knee and top of her leg.  When I found them, Lady had run to the end of the pasture and was standing with the severed muscle hanging down like a chunk of meat.  I ran to the house and got vetwrap and a roll of paper towels.  I ran back to Lady and sent Mandy and her friend Morgan to call for help.  I wrapped the vetwrap around her leg above the gash to help slow the bleeding and kept wrapping paper towels around the cut to catch the blood.  

Our friend, Martha, came over as soon as she got the call.  She helped get Ella, Lady's 2 year old filly out of the pasture.  She also got a blanket to put on Lady as she was getting weak and starting to go into shock.  When the vet came, Lady was weak to the point she wanted to lay down.  The vet gave her IV fluids with painkillers immediately and then bandage her temporarily until Lady was stable enough to suture the leg up.

We were able to get Lady to walk a short distance so she was under a tarp shelter.  The vet said to keep her as still as possible and only give her water to drink and she would come back in a couple hours to stitch what she could.  She said to get something made up to keep Lady in a small corral like pen.  Martha and sister Hannah had extra 10 ft. corral panels they said we could borrow for a while.  After the vet left, Hannah, Dekelen (another friend that happened to stop by) and I went and got the panels.  Lady would not drink water, so we started giving her small pieces of watermelon and then were able to get her to drink water.  We got the pen set up under the tarp shelter, then I went to town to get shavings, more fly spray, and a few other things.  Martha stayed with Lady, Mandy and Morgan.

 The vet came back in the evening to stitch and rebandage Lady's leg.  Just when the vet came, Morgan's family also came.  It turned out that Morgan's dad had worked in a vet clinic while going to college, and so had experience with this kind of situation.  Morgan's brother, Landon helped get water and supplies for the vet while Mandy, Morgan and Gracie, Morgan's sister took care of the rest of the animal chores.

The vet said she thought that Lady would heal up but it would be a long process.  She, by no means, gave us a sugar coated prognosis.  At the very best, she would be a light riding horse.  At the worst, she would be a "lawn ornament".  If she got infection in the bone, it would be all over.  She said that her age was a factor against her but her gentle temperment was helpful.  Lady was in too unstable to try to tansport to a large animal hospital.  The biggest thing was we had to keep the horse from trying to lay down.  If she got down, we would have a very hard time getting her back up.  The vet finished stitching up Lady's leg and left at dark.  

Mandy & I decided to sleep in the small shed we have for hay that is right next to where we had Lady corralled.  Little did I know that I would be spending a better part of the summer sleeping on bales of hay and shavings.  I really wish I would have taken pictures that first day, week for that matter.  Things were just so busy and stressful that I didn't.  I can see it all in my mind, but for those who weren't there, there is no way to imagine what it first looked like.