Tuesday 7 July 2015

Walking Wounded

I was going to make this a Wordless Wednesday post for tomorrow,  but then thinking about it I couldn't post these photos without offering some sort of explanation.

Older pic with a bit of a
"Don't read on if squeamish"
warning as wound pix to follow

Nancy & I are a bit like the walking wounded at the moment. First of all I skinned the front of my right shin ducking through wire on Sunday - don't worry the fence was off but that white rope stuff sire has a way of grazing exposed skin! Ouch is -  note to self wear trousers!!!

Apologies for the dirtinesd of me
- i had been traipsing around their dusty field
& filling haynets etc prior to this

Another bonus to wearing trousers when skipping through fencing, stuffing hay into haynets & hanging the suckers is not getting hay-rash or bitten by midges/creepy crawleys resulting in your legs itchy like a mofo - especially worth noting if like me you have a wedding the following weekend & it's summer and a nice flowy above-the-knee dress is on the agenda. Harumpf - my legs are going to be a state on top of being so white. Yay hobby requiring covered legs combining with pale skin ftw
And to top it all off i ripped apart my heels today wearing my old paddock boots (which coincidentally has reminded me why I stopped wearing them to begin with) - fingers crossed a combination of sudocreme on all my scratches & scrapes + plasters on my heels mean I might help the healing process along and/or still be able to wear the shoes that match perfectly with the wedding outfit!
My timing is honestly impeccable - even if i do say so myself *eye-roll*


On to the real reason people read this blog - the horses!
Nancy must have hit her head off the metal frame the haynets hang from and gave herself a nice gash between her ears. I discovered it last night, looking nice and gooey/goopy thanks to the nasty flies that love this heat & her and she cannot stand flies! She has a lower fly - tolerance threshold than Kika. Nancy cannot abide the beggars - but i digress. I hauled her butt in yesterday evening (Kika obvs came too for the stroll) cleaned the wound wih isobetadine soap, took a picture and sent it to the vet. In fact after i took the picture I had to examine the wound again as it looked so muh deeper on my screen then what i was perceiving with my own eyes - weird!

Quick capture post staples
including unimpressed ears!
Who needs side-eye when you can
 side-ear like a total BAMF

Vet said she could call out at lunchtime today, so I took the car to work and met her at the yard with an unimpressed Nancy & Kika being hauled in in the middle of the day. They walked so slowly in from the field,  I was literally dragging them - i think they thought I was there to ride! Silly sods i was in a skirt! Although to be fair my legs are so white they could be mistaken for breeches *sniggers*
Vet cleaned the wound, placed an antiseptic disolvable pill or something inside the wound and stapled that bad boy shut. Nancy was such a good girl and allowed us work without sedation - which thankfully made turning her straight back out no problem. However she got progressively less impressed (understandably) as each staple went in - luckily there were not more as boy can she give dirty looks & has she a temper! She didn't lash out or anything, but it was written clear across her face - don't do that again. Thankfully we did not need anymore staples.

Best I could manage capture-wise this evening
 as she ducked her head to eat loose hay

Even this evening i was not allowed close enough to look at it - well i could look but not touch. No mean feat when she stretches her head up as the wound was on the top of her head between the ears to the right of her forelock.
I turned the pair of them out on the shaded "winter" turnout for the afternoon which has lots of trees that N typically loves to use as a scratching post. I am trying to keep an eye on her for sweet itch *sob* as her younger sister had it and I wonder could it be presenting late in N or is it just paranoia on my side & she is just particularly bothered by the flies and unlike previous years she has ways of scratching an itch on this field that she hasn't had on either of the previous two fields she was on for summer turnout.
In saying all that, what i was getting it is she may have scratched her head off a tree and made herself more sensitive & cranky towards me this evening and that is prob why I couldn't get closer to see/touch as she has kind of forgiven me earlier in the immediate aftermath of the vet visit. Although I may have been bribing her with other ear scratches & treats *whistles*

Knock-on-wood this is our first injury requiring vet intervention in the 2 years I've owned her - unlike Kika who had already racked up a few vet visits within the first two weeks of my owning her as she and some others broke out of their field (if only I knew then what i know now of Horsey-Houdini) and Miss K had needed but & stitches to the inside of her hind haunch (i want to say right leg - will have to see if i can find pix as cannot remember off the top of my head). Almost immediately after she got a kick to the hock when returned to co-habitation on the field and required more but and cold hosing. Honestly - what we do go horses!
However I cannot complain and am knocking-on-every-wooden-surface (namely my head) as  on pared to the kind of vet dealings fellow bloggers & other equine friends have had i really have been beyond lucky with my two.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Staples will be removed in 10-14 days - i actually totally forgot to ask if i can ride her. But (a) I'm off to Ireland from Thursday to Monday & (b) as she can wear a headcollars without it causing issue/rubbing I'd imagine a bridle should be ok after my long weekend away. The bit of swelling will have hopefully gone down...but I'll examine more closely on my return and see how she's doing. Don't worry I will have my bf & my mama checking in on the two monsters in my absence. If this heat persists and our promised thunderstorms continue to elude us - someone is going to have to take over the haynet filling & hanging and swap them fields for the afternoons to get them out of the glare of the sun...phew! No wonder I don't often go on holidays - the guilt i feel at leaving them *gulp*

16 comments:

  1. Oh no! Hoping Nancy heals quickly!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too - hopefully she will. Vet didn't give me cause to be concerned vibes

      Delete
  2. Ouch! (for both of you!) I hope everyone is healed up soon.
    It's been a dangerous week... I walked into the top door of the horse trailer and am sporting a huge goose egg/bruise on my forehead hahaa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ouch that sounds darn painful alright, have you arnica cream stateside? It's magical for helping heal ups & bruises...not good for broken skin though - that stings like a mofo

      Delete
  3. Your poor legs! I'm glad that Nancy's cut wasn't worse, it looks like it will heal nicely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks hun, fingers crossed for sure!

      Delete
  4. wow that fencing really did a number on your legs!! hopefully it heals up quickly tho. and poor Nancy! fingers crossed it closes up just fine!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope N heals ok, care less about my pins...is that wrong?! :-/

      Delete
  5. Oh no! Hope she heals fast :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. oh dear glad she's doing well. Clean cut. Hope you enjoy your trip to ireland :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trip to Ireland was awesome, catching up with uni friends that I haven't seen in way too long makes for a fantabulous weekend ☺☺☺

      Delete
  7. These horses and there cuts! Hope she will have a speedy recover and she is rocking those staples like a queen :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She is doing well so far fingers crossed the healing continues and that her continued between the ears itching is a sign of healing & not that she's doing more damage to herself *sigh*

      Delete
  8. What a good girl! I can't imagine either of mine standing still for staples!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She did get progressively less accommodating after each staple. Her PO face is priceless, thankfully we don't see it often.

      Delete

I love to hear from readers, thank you for your comment :-)