smaggi
21st Aug 2006, 12:20 PM
On Saturday my OH was on the ATV riding around the property and was putting it away when Snuffy came running up to the gate near him and whinnied. He is a grey horse and his hind leg was covered in blood. We got him to the barn saw that he had a 5" gash between his pastern and coronary band. The blood was spurting like water from a garden hose. We cut up towels and wrapped them tightly on his leg with vet wrap, but the blood just spurted out the top of the bandage. I ran in to call the vet and they said they sould be out as soon as possible. The only way to stop the blood from gushing was to push as hard as you could with the palm of your hand on the cut. The bandages were not enough. I called the vet several times during the next hour and they kept saying they were leaving soon.
I compared the color of his gums to one of our other horses and they looked OK yet, so since we are only 5 miles from the vet, we finally put him in the trailer and drove there. When we left there was about a gallon of blood on the barn floor. My OH also hit the bumper of the trailer on a guard rail on the way even though we made sure we drove slow enough that Snuffy would not have trouble standing.
The first thing the vet did was sedate him to reduce his blood pressure. It took 9 hemo stats to clamp the artery and blood vessels that he had severed. The main artery he severed was the pulmar digital artery. After they cleaned the blood from the wound, they said that it did not look like he cut any tendons or ligaments. They also said that he may have damaged the nerve, but it did not look like he did. The vet tried to stitch the internal part of the wound, but he kept kicking, so they sedated him again and poured some liquid on it to numb it. They also twitched his nose and my OH held his right front leg up so that he could not kick his hind left. I was holding the lead and rubbing his neck on his left side. He was leaning on me a lot and I thought he was going to fall over. He stiched the internal injuries, then put 12 staples on the outside. He is on stall rest for 2 weeks and the vet said if it goes well he can be ridden after that.
We need to change the dressing every other day and the vet suggested that we use Maxi-pad sanitary pads or baby diapers against the wound because they are sanitary and much cheaper than buying bandages.
It was all very scary, but thank god he will be OK. I have never seen that much blood in my life. One of our dogs, a German Shorthaired Pointer severed an artery once, but it was nothing compared to the amount of blood that a horse can pump out.
I compared the color of his gums to one of our other horses and they looked OK yet, so since we are only 5 miles from the vet, we finally put him in the trailer and drove there. When we left there was about a gallon of blood on the barn floor. My OH also hit the bumper of the trailer on a guard rail on the way even though we made sure we drove slow enough that Snuffy would not have trouble standing.
The first thing the vet did was sedate him to reduce his blood pressure. It took 9 hemo stats to clamp the artery and blood vessels that he had severed. The main artery he severed was the pulmar digital artery. After they cleaned the blood from the wound, they said that it did not look like he cut any tendons or ligaments. They also said that he may have damaged the nerve, but it did not look like he did. The vet tried to stitch the internal part of the wound, but he kept kicking, so they sedated him again and poured some liquid on it to numb it. They also twitched his nose and my OH held his right front leg up so that he could not kick his hind left. I was holding the lead and rubbing his neck on his left side. He was leaning on me a lot and I thought he was going to fall over. He stiched the internal injuries, then put 12 staples on the outside. He is on stall rest for 2 weeks and the vet said if it goes well he can be ridden after that.
We need to change the dressing every other day and the vet suggested that we use Maxi-pad sanitary pads or baby diapers against the wound because they are sanitary and much cheaper than buying bandages.
It was all very scary, but thank god he will be OK. I have never seen that much blood in my life. One of our dogs, a German Shorthaired Pointer severed an artery once, but it was nothing compared to the amount of blood that a horse can pump out.