Calling the doctors

I haven't updated about Kaswyns' leg lately because there is not much to tell. It is slowly getting better but still has inflammation, even with bute (one gram twice a day) and icing. I'm not working him at all, but he is getting turned out. They put round bales of hay in the pastures and he doesn't run at all, just walks around the round bale with his face stuck in it!

The wound is slowly healing from the bottom up and from the inside out, and every day I see slight changes in the positive direction. It's slow and the wound is looking better, but the inflammation was bothering me. I've been afraid that I might be missing something important. It has been six weeks since the surgery, so I called Doc G to find out what he thought.

Doc thought that I was doing everything right, but that I should touch base with the OSU surgeon. I called her to give her an update and we had a very interesting conversation.

First, she said she doesn't know why the wound busted open like it did, and didn't heal like the other side did. She said it could have been caused by an infection, but she can't really say for sure. She said she was sorry it happened, but couldn't explain it.

Next, after discussing the pictures I sent her (the same ones I posted here), we talked about the dark strip of necrotic tissue that the wound had (it's since fallen off or been healed over - hard to say really since it happened when I was out of town). She had a similar experience with one of the other horses she operated on. Basically she is wondering if the necrotic tissue wasn't the nerve itself, since it was rubbery. Alcohol is a fixative, and it makes tissues kind of rubbery. So she is wondering if the nerve didn't get fixed in that position when she injected it and was then exposed when the wound popped open. She can't say for sure though, and with it no longer visible or gone completely we'll never really know.

Lastly, overall she thinks that it is completely normal to have swelling if the wound is still open, which it is. It's good that bute and ice bring it down, and it's good that he can still feel the back of the pastern, which gets very sensitive and painful when it's inflamed.

So I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing, with one addition - I'm going to add some U-Guard to his diet so I can try and counteract the affects that bute might have on his tummy. I don't like keeping him on bute but I've got to keep the inflammation at bay. Once the wound closes I might have to keep him on the bute for a bit while the area sorts itself out under there, but my hope is to wean him off of the bute eventually.

I'm going to take another picture of the wound this weekend and send it to the surgeon, which means you'll all get to see it here too! Believe me it looks a lot better than it did. It looks less "meaty" and more pink, and less angry looking.

At least I'm still able to ride. There are three horses that I'm riding or working with, but I don't ride them all every day. I've got Lee (the buckskin - I still have to get those videos from the show posted!) Brandee (a neat paint half-arab mare who knows some first level stuff) and Ivy (purebred arab mare who is out of commission until the end of January for riding - she slipped on the ice outside and pulled her stifle!) so I'm busy at the barn. What I've been doing is putting ice on Kaswyn's leg while I ride the others, and then when I'm done I tend to his wound so the ice gets to stay on a good long time. He can see me riding and grooming the other horses and today he kept calling out to me. I feel really bad about it, but I just should not be riding him right now so he needs to be patient too.

Soon buddy, soon. You heal up and we'll be good to go.