Almost 6 Months!

It has been a while since I have posted.  We have been very busy getting things ready for winter while it was still nice out.  Now that the weather is cooling, I (hopefully) will have more inside time.

Lady is doing wonderful!  I never dreamed that she would heal like she has.

The most difficulty we've had was keeping her from chewing on her leg.  It must have itched like wild because she would chew on it even with Chew Stop on.  I was hoping that we could stop wrapping it but after leaving it open for several hours, she broke it open and it had to be bandaged again.  We finally got down to only one non-stick pad covering the wound and then wrapping it with gauze.  This we did until the end of October.  I was changing her bandage one day and after I got it all cleaned up Lady slowly turned and started to walk away from me.  I said to her, "Lady, don't you want me to finish bandaging your leg?" She turned and stood looking at me with the "Lady look" and then slowly turned and walked away.  This was very unusual 'cause she had always stood for me to rebandage her, even without a halter.  I thought we should again try leaving it open and see if she left it alone.  That was the last day she was bandaged.  She has a scab on the front of her leg about the size of a half dollar and a small sliver of a scab on the outside of her leg.  I had told Mandy that when Lady was all healed up that we would have a party.  I never thought it would be in the winter!

I was happy that she left it alone because her winter fur had started to grow.  She needed it to grow around her wound which it wouldn't do all covered up!  We extended their original pasture and built a shelter for them (instead of the tarp shelter) in a little valley protected from the wind.  A special thanks to our friend Ben who helped us SO much building it.  It turned out much nicer than anything I would have cobbled together!  And a special thanks to my husband for being such a good sport about the horses having a shed instead of him having a garage. :)

Mandy rides Lady several times a week.  The only visible effects from her injury are her misshaped leg and she drags her hoof slightly when she is stepping out.  Lady was always a SLOW walker, and now after she is free to roam she walks so fast that I can hardly keep up with her unless I jog.  She loves to trot and will wait at the gate so Mandy can take her out for a ride.

Ella had a little adjusting to do after her mother was out of the small pen.  It was amusing to watch Lady re-establish her dominance over Ella.  She even still shews Ella away from Ella's pile of hay, so Ella will go and eat Lady's.  Then Lady will do it again and they will be back to the piles they started with.

Lady's Progress July 21 - August 26 (Days 55 - 90)

Today , Tuesday, August 26, marks three months since Lady was hurt.  I cannot believe it has been that long ago.  As I was just looking back at the pictures of what she first looked like and how far we have come and all I have learned, it seems like I lived in another lifetime before this happened.  

Why did we try to save Lady in the first place? I have had several people ask me what made us think it was worth trying.  First, she is a very gentle horse and is easy to handle.  Even when she was hurt and we were waiting for the vet, her only concern was where Ella was.  Lady was nuzzling and leaning on us as we waited with her.  When we had to walk her the short distance to the shelter she tried to walk the very best she could.  Her attitude and spirit were so strong and she became an encouragement to us.  Her wound was clean and free from debris.  She somehow managed to stay on her feet and not get it full of dirt when she cut it.  She was a strong and healthy horse even though she is around 20 years old.  My horse Cricket, I have had for 21 years and estimate her age around 30, is healthy and strong.  With that in mind, Lady has the chance to live at least 10 more years.  Finally, it is difficult to be the one to decide to end a life.  If there were a chance that Lady could heal, it was worth trying.  I would rather try and fail than not have tried at all and always wonder what would have happened.  Having said all this, I will continue with Lady's progress up till now. 

Since the last posting, Lady began to chew on her leg.  It was itching really bad, so we had to put Chew Stop on her bandage.  We sprayed it on Vetwrap over top of the other bandages.  It is slightly caustic, so didn't want to get it on her skin.  She still rubbed it but it kept her from gnawing on it too bad.  She did do some damage to the outside of her leg, so we also put hydrocortisone cream on it.  It seemed to do the trick and keep it from being so itchy.

We finished fencing a new pasture for Lady & Ella.  Because the gnats are out in full force during the day, we have them both by the fans during the day and move them to the pasture after the sun goes behind the trees.  The first time we put them in the new pasture, Ella had so much fun running and bucking around.  The other day, she kept pestering Lady until she got her mother to play with her.  It was such a wonderful sight to see them trotting around together.  

Lady doesn't seem to favor her bad leg at all.  She is able to walk, trot and canter ok and is able to lay down and get up on both sides.  Almost every day, she takes a roll in the dirt first thing after being turned out.  She just gets tired out quickly, but that is understandable after all she has been through.  

She has been such a wonderful girl during her recovery.  We are now in the final stretch of healing.  What a long summer it has been, but we have learned to love and appreciate Lady so much.  It has definitely worth the time and expense spent.  Our lives are better because of all we learned from a horse. 

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.