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Post by beckybee on Aug 20, 2008 15:08:09 GMT -5
When Manny was dumped at the feedlot, he had 3 wounds on his left hind. By the time he was out of quarantine, the one on his gaskin was apparently healed, the one on his cannon was still open and it took about a year to get the proud flesh knocked back and healed closed, and the one on his pastern was closed with lots of scar tissue. About every 6 months, the one on his gaskin gets infected and swells with pus over a week or two then bursts. So this is the 3rd time it's done it - obviously something is in there rotting. I hauled him in to the vet this morning, and he will have surgery in about a half hour. They're going to have to knock him out and lay him down. Their preliminary xrays showed some mild irritation on the surface of the bone so there is either some dead bone material or some foreign matter/infection is irritating the bone. If they can't find something foreign, they're going to have to open it up down to the bone and possibly scrape the surface of the bone. I'm so worried about my little guy! Here's the feedlot pic 11/06  |
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Post by beckybee on Aug 20, 2008 15:09:08 GMT -5
Here's his cute face  |
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Post by caryn on Aug 20, 2008 15:15:21 GMT -5
Awwww, now that is one sweet face  He's beautiful. I'll be thinking about him today and sending lots of jingles for a quick and successful surgery. Big hugs to you Becky. It is so hard when our babies need procedures. Try and stay positive and calm. He'll be home feeling better before you know it |
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Post by swissgrl on Aug 20, 2008 15:22:49 GMT -5
Sending tons of Jingles for Manny and you!!!!
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Post by earlybp on Aug 20, 2008 15:29:47 GMT -5
Jingles for Manny! I love that sweet face!
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Post by beckybee on Aug 20, 2008 22:43:50 GMT -5
Surgery was a success!
He had this mass of scar tissue sort of encysting a bunch of necrotic tissue. They were able to excise the mass down to healthy tissue all the way around. The natural drain of the mass was oriented up, so it wasn't ever able to drain properly, thus the cyclic abscess. They also did some cleanup on the old wound on his cannon, too.
So the poor boy has 6" of stitches, has to be restricted for 2-3 weeks and somehow I have to get 15 SMZs into him 2x/day.
So how do you get them to eat SMZs? I ground it up into his grain - no go. So I dissolved them in water and syringed it into his mouth. I can't do that 13 more times!
He won't eat molasses or apple sauce. Any other ideas? Didn't someone else have the same issue (mustangappy?)
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Post by caryn on Aug 20, 2008 23:21:20 GMT -5
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Post by redhorse on Aug 21, 2008 0:27:42 GMT -5
BECKY!!! I raced through this thread to and was so glad to see Manny made it through surgery ok and there was actually something there. You must have been so worried. This means he won't keep going through the nasty cycles. What a huge relief.
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Post by pnp4kidz on Aug 21, 2008 1:48:34 GMT -5
we give a LOT of smz's here it seems..
that's a typical dose, and we just put water in there, let them dissolve... takes just half a minute, then dump it on sweet feed and they chow it down.
not had one refuse, but hey, never know!
hmmm...
other than sweet feed... I'm not sure besides syringing... that is our 'step two'.
I use equine senior by the way, the really yukky candy stuff... :=) if that helps...
they won't take meds on hay pellets... hehe
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Post by swissgrl on Aug 21, 2008 7:11:57 GMT -5
So glad to hear Manny is doing better!
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Post by beckybee on Aug 21, 2008 9:48:29 GMT -5
Thank you for your thoughts and jingles. My heart was racing and I was on the verge of crying all day. Worried they would find something horrible, worried he wouldn't wake up, worried he would colic.
I had to leave him at 8pm last night. Of course it has to actually rain last night and he has no shelter. I woke up at 3am, tossed and turned until 4, then said screw it - got up, showered and drove up to check on him. I had locked him in a little pen inside his regular pasture (with Raz for company), so he was out in the rain all night. I didn't want to move him to a different paddock with shelter because he would be too nervous away from his herd. I figured getting wet would be less bad than running around all night. So of course I thought I would show up and he would be shivering.
No, he was fine. I let Raz out, gave Manny some hay and made his "special" breakfast.
I'm not good at the "I'm doing this for your own good" thing. Manny was so bewildered and hurt yesterday and squirting that gunk in his mouth was too much for both of us.
I took 2 cups of LMF, 2 oz of Equerry w/probiotics, then chopped up carrots, apples and turnips into pill-sized pieces, dumped in the whole pills, mixed it up - ta da! He ate 'em right down!
Little monster was trotting back and forth as I brought out his grain. So much for "hand walking only." I so hope he doesn't tear out his stitches. I want it to heal right this time.
It's weird, because after he shedded you can see the upper wound had been stitched at some point. Deb (who qt'ed Manny) felt he didn't need a vet to look at his wounds (they were "clean and healing well") so CBER didn't get him stitched. I guess he had been sutured by his old owner but it had busted open by the time he was dumped at the feedlot. (Why would the owner pay for vetting, then dump him?)
Before he got to me after quarantine he had 1-1/2 months of healing on his own in dirty conditions. The vets here saw him 5 times the first year I had him and all felt everything was healing fine. They were more concerned with possible intermittant patellar fixation (which I'm still not sure he ever had...). I should have been more aggressive sooner. Oh well, he's gonna heal right this time!
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Post by caryn on Aug 21, 2008 10:50:36 GMT -5
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Post by pnp4kidz on Aug 21, 2008 13:27:41 GMT -5
Great!
I 'hear' that the SMZs don't taste 'too' bad...
so he'll prolly keep eating them...
:-)
and as for now, I'd get some Derma Gel from Valley Vet, and put that on the incision, it will keep it moist and make it heal incredibly fast...
I use that and Equine Elite for rapid healing, no sting, and keeping the wound from getting infected... great stuff both of them.
Go Manny!
(I mean, slow down Manny, and heal!)
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Post by beckybee on Aug 21, 2008 14:24:23 GMT -5
the vet said not to put anything on it or even let it get wet (good luck in the rain  ). I'll go ahead and order the derma gel. It'll be a week before it gets here so I won't be breaking the rules too much! They sprayed what looks like silver spray paint on him. Forgot to ask them what the hell that was! |
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Post by cutiepiepmu on Aug 21, 2008 14:26:46 GMT -5
Hey there - yes, I can help on the SMZ's if he decides to turn his nose up. First- get yourself some maple syrup or regular corn syrup(as long as this kid is not IR or Cushings) Crush the pills up and mix with slighly warmed syrup till it forms a liquid you can pour. Then, pour it into a syringe with the extra wide tip or a large cath tip. The syrup makes it stickier than the water  And most like the sweet. THEN - get one of these do-hickies that looks like a V shaped bit that goes in the horses mouth - but you squirt the wormer in it and it goes where it is supposed to! I think every barn should have at least 1 of these. They are designed for wormer - but work for all kinds of things.... As far as keeping your guy quiet - Go ahead and get some AT-EASE Mega-Dose in the tube. Give 1/2 tube in the AM and 1/2 tube in the pm. do this for a week or so. It works great and won't interfere with healing and won't make him groggy - will just make him CHILL lol. This is one of the BEST calming products for quick calming on the market. It's main ingredient is Tryptophan -(like Turkey for us!) You can put the paste into his food if you want. It has a sweet kind of nutty taste(I always taste what I feed lol - ya, I am weird!) I agree on the derma gel - It is a bit thick, so put it in a cup of hot water before you apply - it makes it a little softer. Use a glove as well - ALSO - if the wound drains and gunkstart sto stick - try to take the gunk out without removing the scabs too much. The scabs seal the area so that the cells can start to re-build. LASTLY (sorry...always have SOMETHING to add!) Double the equerry's for the next 14 days. So, a full dose PER meal. I would also go ahead and add 5000mg of Vitamin C per meal for the next 14 days as well. The powdered equine Vitamin C is pretty cheap and alot easier than getting them to eat the sour human pills. Glad to hear it ended up being a fairly simple fix He should heal up pretty fast now that the area is opened back up to healthy tissue. Horses are remarkable the way that they can pull through things!! Sara |
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Post by Tockita on Aug 21, 2008 15:43:42 GMT -5
the vet said not to put anything on it or even let it get wet (good luck in the rain ). I'll go ahead and order the derma gel. It'll be a week before it gets here so I won't be breaking the rules too much! They sprayed what looks like silver spray paint on him. Forgot to ask them what the hell that was! It's an aluminum spray. I can't remember the brand name right now, but I have a can of it in my vet kit. |
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Post by toeps on Aug 22, 2008 2:06:37 GMT -5
The stuff I have is called Alu Spray. It's an aerosol bandage. It protects the owie from bacterial contamination, like the liquid bandaid for people
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Post by cybercat on Aug 22, 2008 8:49:58 GMT -5
I was so relieved after I read through this thread, beckybee! Manny (and you) have been through a lot and its nice to see a pretty good outcome to this situation...
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Post by beckybee on Aug 22, 2008 11:28:16 GMT -5
I'm kinda liking that I have to go see the horses twice a day! With gas prices I feel guilty driving up every day, but since I have to go to give Manny meds it's all good.
You can tell he hurts, but overall he seems in pretty good spirits. It looks like he slept laying down last night. The stitches are still holding even though I see him trot more than he walks. We don't have the At-Ease product at any of our feed stores. I really need to stock up on a bunch of stuff to have on hand when needed.
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Post by redhorse on Aug 23, 2008 0:46:06 GMT -5
Becky - who did Manny's surgery? I'm taking Red in for a lameness evaluation tomorrow. He came up seriously lame in his left hind leg yesterday. Dr. Mott came out this am - nerve blocks in heel and pastern - zilch.
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Post by caryn on Aug 25, 2008 15:45:31 GMT -5
Hey BB,
How's your sweet boy doing?
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Post by beckybee on Aug 26, 2008 18:56:29 GMT -5
Crap, Cherie, just saw your post! How's Red doing? Carlisle apparently has the lameness diagnosis experience. Mott did Manny's surgery, but needed Bob's (forgot last name...) assistance. Need any help?
Manny is doing great. He's eating his SMZs like a good boy (2 servings left). The stitches have held so far. He's going stir crazy. I forgot how manic he gets when he can't self-exercise!
Had to take one of my kitties in for emergency oral surgery yesterday. Husband is getting peeved - have to dredge negligees out of bottom drawer...
Oh, and I got a root canal today. What a great week!
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Post by jenm on Aug 27, 2008 18:58:56 GMT -5
I'm so happy to hear Manny is doing well. You are having one heck of a week, BB... I hope the negligee worked it's magic.  |
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Post by pnp4kidz on Aug 27, 2008 19:29:46 GMT -5
dang, all I get when I drag out a negligee is a wet kiss from a dog...
and maybe a snuggle with a wet nose...
glad Manny is better,
try to have a better weekend Becky!!!
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Post by beckybee on Sept 7, 2008 1:33:23 GMT -5
Manny got his stiches out today and the wound is all healed up. Just hoping whatever was in there rotting is gone.
I was finally able to let him back out in pasture today. He had been in a smaller turnout for about 3 hours this morning with Web, everyone was napping, I hoped he would take it easy - not Manny! He has to take off in a full gallop, throw a few bucks, run circles around everyone. Fortunately his leg didn't split open!
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Post by cutiepiepmu on Sept 7, 2008 2:33:32 GMT -5
I am thrilled to hear he is doing better. Sounds like cleaning things out was just what was needed!
Sara
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He's beautiful. I'll be thinking about him today and sending lots of jingles for a quick and successful surgery. Big hugs to you Becky. It is so hard when our babies need procedures. Try and stay positive and calm. He'll be home feeling better before you know it 
). 
And most like the sweet. THEN - get one of these do-hickies that looks like a V shaped bit that goes in the horses mouth - but you squirt the wormer in it and it goes where it is supposed to! I think every barn should have at least 1 of these. They are designed for wormer - but work for all kinds of things.... 
