Horses Are Not For The Weak-Stomached

Whisper's hock injury sure presented as a soft tissue injury from stall kicking, unfortunately, that's not what it turned out to be.

Monday morning : Whisper was found to have some swelling in her right hock and was lame by the morning shift. I felt the leg, no marks, no bumps, no lumps, just general swelling and warmth. Bute to reduce inflammation. Turn-out. Assumed soft tissue injury from kicking or something silly.

Monday evening : Moving well, swelling down.

Wednesday morning : Looks stiff, moving loose through pasture at all 3 gaits though. Re-shod the shoe she threw and had no issues bearing weight on that leg to support another held up.

Thursday morning : pronounced lameness back in the leg

Thursday evening : Little stiff, choosing to trot and canter in pasture at will.

Friday morning : hard time getting out of stall, took a few tries to try and get her leg to flex up 3 inches to get over the stall threshold to go out.

Saturday morning : had a friend warm/cold hose the leg, she also examined and saw/felt nothing except the warmth and puffiness we'd seen so far.

Saturday evening : a small amount of liquid was seen at her hock. I started poking around and more clear amber non-smelly fluid seeped. Moving around some hair on the leg to see where it was coming from, hair and skin sloughed off in my hand. Wound is pink and flat with rest of flesh, cleaned, and treated with nitrofurazone. Thoroughly confused as to what's going on, not even a pimple felt on Monday that would indicate a puncture that healed over and is now abscessing, but it's possible a small hole was missed before then.

Sunday morning : horses left up due to extreme weather so I didn't drive out to see her until later. She didn't eat all of her breakfast even though she was in all day.

Sunday evening : Quarter size wound is now brick red and half dollar size. Fluid, clear to amber, continues to seep. Swelling is still evident in the leg though not extreme or spreading. The wound is larger and another small hole is appearing near the large lump of a wound now protruding from the leg. She ate about half of her dinner and all of her hay.

Emergency Vet contacted, photos sent, case reviewed in detail.

Want to guess what they immediately tell me this is textbook for : 5 to 7 days mild to moderate swelling, followed by seeping clear to amber fluid, then sloughing? Poison. Brown Recluse to be exact. There is no anti-venom. There is no treatment. Antibiotics may be useful if she shows signs of cellulitus or infection. All you can do is treat what presents as it presents, most often necrotic tissue. Plan made for the farm's regular vet to examine Monday.

Monday morning : wound is larger and Whisper is over it. Her stall is trashed and it's obvious the pacing and spinning she's doing in front of us is what she has been doing for most of the night. She curled up her front more than once looking to jump out of the stall window. Good to see her with vigor and the swelling in the leg itself was slightly reduced.

Vet Report : he feels a spider bite would have ruptured sooner in the week so he's leaning strongly towards a bacteria versus poison. Hock joint itself is not involved. Agrees that fluid is not smelly or thick to signal deep infection.

Injection of bute and IV oxytetracycline given.

Monday evening : gave Whisper a stern lecture on how we must use the wash rack and how she must not crush me or bash my head in as I begin to work on a leg that hurts her. I used Dawn to wash dried drainage and debris off lower leg, coated in vaseline to keep from caking again. Cleaned wound, removing dried and frozen serum. Closed mouth, squinted eyes, and expressed wound to encourage draining (insert gagging noises here) then coated with nitrofurazone. Pic sent to vet who agrees it's looking good.

Wednesday: It began to look much more disgusting, but still showing great progress healing. Glad we were in the wash rack because I was seriously dry heaving. That gelatinous material in the middle didn't want to budge even with strong cleaning, removed a bunch of it, this didn't want to move so it stayed overnight.

Thursday : she'd really turned the corner and the crater that was there the night before was filling in with pretty pink tissue. She was also getting a lot more mobile and showed me a few times that she could kick me with that leg now if she decided to. Dinner and breakfast were cleaned up without even a crumb left behind.

Saturday : after a lot of running around the pasture, she will hold up the leg, but overall it's looking good and she's choosing to bear weight on it to rest often. Started hand walking/trotting her a few laps to keep things moving and to get training back on track. Firey Whisper is back in business and after a riding lesson on Scooter today, I'm getting impatient to ride her.

Good thing I stayed calm and rational Sunday night, especially when we thought it was spider venom (insert sarcasm here). Boy I'd be embarrassed if I had brimmed tears in front of multiple adults... and the barn manager/lead trainer.... and the teenagers who ride at the barn.... and another trainer...