OSU trip 2008 - Part 3

Part 1
Part 2

We left the horse stalls and followed Dr. Med to the triage area. Dr. Med introduced us to another doctor (who I think was an intern) that would be doing the surgery with Senior Student. Dr. Intern told me to lead Kaswyn into the stocks for the surgery. He'd never been in stocks before and he was a little hesitant but obediently followed me into the stocks. As soon as Dr. Intern started to close the gate behind him, Kaswyn got a little scared and calmly but deliberately backed out of the stocks. I reassured him that it was okay, and led him back into the stocks. This time he stayed put but still had a very worried look on his face.

"Uh, don't lock me in!"

"Okay, this is cool. I'll stand here."

"But I'm still worried!"

Dr. Med, Dr. Intern, and Senior Student all examined the area and formed a game plan. I told L that she'd have to take pictures because I wasn't going to look. I didn't need to almost (or completely) faint again. She said that she'd be able to watch, no problem. Senior Student scrubbed the area while Dr. Med and Dr. Intern prepared for the surgery. Then Dr. Intern numbed the area with the local anesthetic. Of course Kaswyn was a star and didn't fuss. Dr. Med even commented that Kaswyn was a good horse. Then he joked with me saying that he's so good because he's a spoiled boy. I said you bet he's spoiled, he's worth spoiling.

Surgery scrub

Senior Student scrubbed the area again. Then with Dr. Med watching the whole time, Dr. Intern made an incision and tried to pull the splinter out. He wasn't able to get any splinter pieces, but found instead the capsule that Kaswyn's body had formed around the splinter. I asked if it was necessary to remove the capsule and Dr. Med explained that it probably would have been okay to leave it alone, but that it could have possibly abcessed at some point down the road so it was better to have it removed.

**Warning! This video is of the actual surgery! It's kinda icky!**



Video of the splinter surgery

The video is hard to see because of my camera. But see what a good boy my horse is! He didn't move at all. Such a superstar.

When Dr. Med had examined the incision and found nothing else to remove, he directed Senior Student to put two stitches in. That's when another team of vets said that they had to turn the lights off for an eye exam on a horse in the triage bay next door. Dr. Med found a flashlight and held it for the stitching. The first stitch went fine, but he had Senior Student cut the second one and re-do it. Dr. Med told me that he was leaving the end of the incision open to drain, and that every day I could press gently on the area and try to express any fluid. He wasn't going to give him any antibiotics since Kaswyn had just finished a course of doxycycline from the last splinter, but if I got any pus out of the wound he would have to get some antibiotics.



Sewing the incision by flashlight

We took my fabulous horse back to the stall and gave him some hay that we had brought with us. Then L and I decided it was time to eat, so we left for about an hour. When we got back we had about 45 minutes to waste before the four hour reading of the allergy test, so we walked around and took some pictures. That's when we got into trouble.

To be continued...

Part 4