I awoke the morning of Saturday April 6th to find that Duce had managed to get his left fore leg hung in the pipe corral panels. He actually had his leg between the horizontal bars of the panels, so that, while he had stuck his leg through/between two of the bars, he then further had managed to bend his knee and had brought the lower part of his leg back through underneath the bar the leg had gone over! As I hurried to get dressed to go out and help him, I looked out the window again to see that he managed to get himself out without much trouble, and was walking around, lame, but really none the worse for wear. I finished dressing and made my way out, and the little devil then reared up and got hung over the top of the panel, catching his elbow so that it "locked" him up there. I ran the rest of the way to the barn, and climbed the bars, straddling the panel and managed to lift his leg and manipulate him enough to free him, cursing his "stupidity" all the while. My Vet & I later deduced that he had to have actually been caught BETWEEN where the panels join together, and had to have been stuck like that for a VERY LONG TIME at some point during the night/early morning. I of course feared the worse---fractured leg or shoulder surely, and at the least, extensive soft tissue damage...He was dead lame, but seemed pretty bright and happy, so that at least was a good sign. I came back to the house to call my Vet,who OF COURSE was out of town for the day, but we finally made contact and arrangements for him to stop by later in the afternoon on his way home.
Still fearing a possible fracture, I proceeded to make a splint to immobilize the leg. It was when I went to hose his leg down and closely inspect just what he had done, that I felt that from below his fetlock, it was as cold as ice! He had no cuts or scrapes, only some severe rubs on the sides and across the back of his pastern, rubbed such that it was tough and leathery feeling...as well as cold as ice. I wrapped his leg and splinted it, gave him some bute and put him in the stall to wait for my Vet. I kept check on him all day, and he was pretty much just his 'normal' self attitude-wise--- hurting and sore of course, but still bright and seemingly none the worse for what he had done.
My Vet arrived late that afternoon, and we proceeded to remove the handywork which was my splint I had made and put on him. He checked him over thoroughly, palpating the entire leg and shoulder to feel for anything possibly broken and watched him walk. We shot xrays just to be sure, and later that evening once developed they were good---no fractures to be seen. But what to do with this ice cold pastern and foot?? I work at the Vet School, and in the coming 4 years I've been there, I've never seen or heard of an injury like this---and neither had my Vet. Deciding the best thing to do was to try to warm it up, we would at a minimum re-wrap the leg, and we started him on Isoxsuprine for the vasodilator effect, and Bute. I found some Vitamin E Oil, and thinking, "well, Vitamin E is supposed to be good for circulation", I very liberally applied it to his leg from the knee down, and then wrapped it with a semi-Robert Jones bandage. At that, we called it a night, and would see what either one of us could come up with in the meantime for how to help him. Due to the compromised circulation, common sense told us both that the horse needed to keep moving to try to encourage circulation, so I only stalled him overnight, with periods of handwalking.
The next day (Sunday) when we spoke, we both were pretty much thinking the same things...Duce was being really good and smart about not hurting himself, so that I was actually able to turn him loose to move around on his own rather than the hand-walking, so we went with that. He recommended I put DMSO on the leg, and I suggested one better, in that as well as that, let's give him DMSO IV. Also, as my Vet also does accupuncture, we both we're thinking that might help as well. So, that afternoon, we get the DMSO IV jug in him and do the accupuncture treatment, needles all around the lower pastern, maybe an inch above the coronary band. He also had the needles hooked up to something like a tens-unit (?) which gave electrical stimulation. In all honesty, Duce had no feeling there whatsoever---the settings used were high and normally would have probably produced a "YIKES!!" reaction on a 'normal' horse. I do have to add here before I forget, that the "frost-line" as I referred to where the ice-coldness started, had seemed to have regressed just slightly, maybe 1/4 inch, if that much. It was not necessarily "warm", but I could feel a slight difference in the degree of coldness. After the accunpuncture treatment was completed, I once again used the Vitamin E Oil and this time applied DMSO over top of that, and wrapped the leg again. My Vet ordered an herbal salve for me to use on him which he thought would be beneficial, but it wouldn't arrive for a few days. Again, we called it a night.
Monday morning and back to work for me...I left Duce in his stall since I wouldn't be there to monitor him. I spoke to one of the Clinicians at work and recounted the injury and what we had done thus far, and what he would suggest...He thought Pentoxyfilline (sp?) might possibly have some benefit, as it is used in laminitis cases, so I got a prescription for that, and arranged to do a Thermography scan on him the next morning. I went out and bought more bandaging supplies, and picked up a tub of the SUPER BIOZIN Hoof Supplement as well, which he has gotten daily at a double-dose rate ever since. I met my Vet at another farm to pick up another herbal product, MOXA, which was a lot like a cigar-sized incense stick. It is used with accupuncture treatments to heat the needles for futher stimulation of the points. I came back home and proceeded with the daily bandage change, and burned about half of the MOXA stick, letting the smoke emanate all around the wounded area. This day too, I could feel further regression of the "frost-line", about an inch lower---still just slight temperature change, comparable to the difference between "cold" and "D@!n COLD!". Still grabbing at straws for something to help, and fairly convinced that he would probably not recover to live through the injury, I rather approached treatment with the attitude of "it certainly can't hurt!" and as such used/tried whatever came to mind...My Mom had a jar of SUPER BLUE STUFF (yes,one of those dreaded TV INFOMERCIAL products!) for pain relief...The main ingredients are Emu Oil, Aloe Vera, and MSM, along with a variety of other herbs, etc. I figured, "why not", and slathered the entire leg with it, and ---"oh well, it can't hurt"---put DMSO over top of it, and wrapped the leg again...another day come to an end...
Tuesday morning, and I am totally amazed at the drastic overnight improvement in Duce's lameness! All I know is that the SUPER BLUE STUFF sure did work GREAT---at least combined with the DMSO! Duce had gone from being DEAD LAME to being more like "off/slight lameness". This was a big relief, as I had really worried about how, as lame as he was, he would be able to step up into the trailer to go to work for the Thermography scan. The bad part was that no one at work got to witness just how lame he really was, and therefore could not appreciate exactly how much the Super Blue Stuff/DMSO had helped! The Thermography showed that, although very little, there was at least a little bit of "heat" in the foot, and therefore, circulation, so we did have at least a little bit to work with, and a glimmer of hope. Again, the "frost-line" had regressed further down as well, still not "warm" but certainly "thawing out". I brought him back home to met my Vet for another accupuncture treatment and DMSO IV jug. The herbal salve had still not arrived, so I wrapped him again in the Super Blue Stuff/DMSO combo. Unfortunately, it did not have the same incredible results this second time as it had with the first wrap.
The next day, Wednesday, we did a Venogram on him, hoping to see exactly what kind of circulation we had. The Venogram also has shown to have some therapeutic benefits as well, so that was an added plus to trying it. We didn't have much/any luck with this though, as due to the injury the veins were pretty well compressed/crushed/or otherwise compromised. We had to inject the Conray dye higher up at the fetlock instead of where it needed to go in the pastern area, due to not being able to find a useable vessel! Well, the Venogram pretty much went awry, and the films showed NOTHING whatsoever. The Conray had actually wound up going out of the vein and into the tissue (which we figured out 3 days later on the 14th when the injection site was oozing blood). The 4 HERB SALVE from JING TANG HERBAL in Florida had finally arrived, so we applied it to the leg from knee down and wrapped it. Another end to another long day...
At the bandage change the next day (Thursday), another miracle!!! The 4 Herb Salve had done it's magic and had heated up the pastern! It was warm down to the foot. The foot itself at this point was still cold, but incredible improvement! We continued with the 4 Herb Salve wraps with daily improvement and had normal heat/temperature restored to the pastern and hoof within a week of the injury! Amazing, and truly a Miracle!
Then came the oozing blood from the injection site on 4/13, mentioned earlier...this was when I really got even more freaky with worry. He had shown some very slight softening at the coronary band and one day that area was really white and I could see a a very fine line of blood tinge within it, not bleeding but it was tinged with blood. All I could see was "he's going to lose the foot, or founder, or we'll have to put him down!". I actually handled the whole injury from the start better than one would expect, but I was always fearing the worse, simply because of all the terrible things I see at work all of the time. TIME...PATIENCE and TIME...those were what I HAD to have, and had to give everything TIME. And, no, I did not think that as the song goes, "Time is on my side...". At any rate, the skin and tissue at the injection site at the fetlock and on the pastern where the severe rubs/burns from the injury were, began to die/necrose and slough off. At this point we started him antibiotics (TMS- Trimethoprim-Sulfa). What a mess, and not a good thing. My Vet reassured me that it would be fine and it would fill in/grow back. He decided to have me use SUGARDINE on it (mixture of sugar and Betadine). Daily (sometimes every-other-day) bandage changes, many, many pounds of sugar and bottles of betadine later, it did fill in and by mid-May (?) I was able to stop using the sugardine. Another point to mention was my diligent CLEANING and scrubbing of the wounds on every bandage change! I also used peroxide as well, which all too many Vets (not mine though!) cringe at the very thought of using! My Vet had wanted me to switch and start using Panalog ointment on it in an effort to inhibit proud flesh which we would have to cut off. As I've always had excellent rsults using CUT-HEAL Medication, and as there was no infection, I opted to use it instead. I was also able to FINALLY not have to do daily bandage changes and could get by with changing every few days...Also need to mention that before we got to this point, there had been seperation of the hoof at the heel bulbs, and as such, sloughing of the hoof was inevitable. Also in early-to-mid May I had gotten a free 10 lb bucket sample of MOORMAN's GROSTRONG MINERALS and started Duce on that too..
It was June 8th (2 months and 2 days post injury) when the hoof finally sloughed off...It was just barely hanging on, so I called my Vet to come out. He finished pulling it off with no effort at all. The entire outer hoof wall had seperated at the white line, leaving pretty much a "stump" containing the bones of the foot for him to walk on. The frog and sole were still there, and there was much new growth at the heel bulbs, new frog growing too. We shot more xrays to see what was going on in the hoof and lower leg. He has had no rotation at all! The only thing the x-ray showed was a slight loss of bone density from simply not using the leg full weight bearingly! Now I had more bandaging dilemmas to deal with, having to wrap his foot. We taped on a Lily Pad, and used the leg cottons as additional cushion for him to stand on, and "Duck Tape" galore! While the hoof had sloughed, he had about an inch of new hoof which had already grown from the coronary band down, so at the top was like a "normal" hoof, then it tapered down to where the "old hoof" had seperated and sloughed off to a "stump foot". The rate at which the "new hoof" is growing is truly unbelieveable! As of July 18th, we have ONLY an INCH yet to go and will be completely grown out to the toe---15 WEEKS post injury! Bear in mind that it "normally" takes 9 to 12 months for a hoof to grow out completely!
"Duce" is truly BLESSED, as am I! He never got "depressed" or went off feed, and has been an ideal patient. He has been bright and happy throughout the entire ordeal. Although still lame, he stays outside, free choice whether to go in the stall, or out and about all over the pasture (he has not been stalled any since about 3 weeks after the injury, and even then, he was only stalled 1/2 of the day). He even always happily trotted and even cantered some (yes lame, but happy and carefully) whenever he felt like it, even in the early days of his injury! Certainly not your typical treatment plan/lay-up/rehab instructions, but Duce is truly a testament to my belief that we should always "Let them be a HORSE!"
Following are some pictures of the "ordeal"! I'm missing some pictures (haven't gotten them developed yet!) from the time the flesh sloughed off the pastern, as well as the pictures when the hoof sloughed off. When I finally get those developed, I will add them, but for now, here's what we have!
11/25/04: Forgive my neglect and lack of updates! Duce is FINE! He has extensive scar tissue on his pastern, and has strangely deformed hoof growth, but he is alive, happy, and well, and 99.99% SOUND, as he has been since about 6+/- months after his injury! I have ridden him maybe 6-10 times since he "recovered/healed", but only brief, bareback jaunts in the pasture.
We just put front shoes on him back in July, 2004, and what a difference it made! He has been "mostly sound" since his intial recovery, but slightly "short-strided" on the injured hoof/leg, and intermittently "gimpy" as well, but only at a walk. He would trot and canter mostly "sound". When we shod him, I was WOWED! I had my old boy back! The shoes made that much of a difference! He went through a spell of pulling the "bum hoof" shoe, but that has been resolved at last!
After the first shoeing, I had intended to put him back to work, but it seems everytime I'm ready to get him back to work, he does something to prevent it...whether it was pulling a shoe, or getting some type of new "boo boo". He cut his GOOD hoof in September on some wire when a deer knocked down a section of my pasture, but he is fine from that; it did however, take a big chunk of hoof out though. It was cut directly on the coronary band (would we expect anything less from him??). He was luckily never lame one bit from that though, and the cut healed, but the chunk broke out anyhow. So, that in itself has delayed any work until probably next Spring, as I want to let that grow out first. About a month after that 'boo boo" his sister "whacked him one" in the shoulder; that one hurt, he was lame for several days, but was still his happy, mischeivious self...he was better in about a week's time.
He is now in his 2nd set of shoes, and we're making some headway in getting his hooves better matched up. His "bum hoof" grows really excessive heel, and his "good" hoof had gotten in bad shape, not growing heel...The "good hoof" was the reason we finally shod him, to try to get it corrected...slowly but surely we're getting there getting that hoof's angle up. They'll never "match", as the "bum hoof" grows so strangely...
The "bum foot" is really quite interesting...I HAVE GOT TO get some pictures of one of these days, but I'm "cameraless" at present. Where the main damage was inflicted, on the sides (go back to pictures above, and you can see where on the sides of the hoof there are the "whitish placques", and also see how the coronary band "juts up into pastern...that area is where the coronary band suffered so much damage. The coronary band in that area, on both sides of the hoof "juts up" into the pastern, and it grows rahter a "extra flap" down OVER the rest of the hoof. We keep that trimmed off and rasped down flush to the "real hoof". We are seeing some changes with that since we shod him---I guess the shoes have taken some pressure off and that is causing the change/improvement?
At any rate, he is doing great, in spite of himself! I think he may have a "masochistic streak" and just likes being hurt, lol! When he cut the good front hoof, I was sickened...after all we'd been through with the other one, I was terrified it would get infected, and honestly, I just sat there and cried, also cursed him, as I did not think I had it in me to go through again what we'd already been through...I don't think I could andle it again...Looking back, I don't know how I got through it to begin with...
If I ever get a new camera, I'll update with pics. Meanwhile, check for updates next Spring---hopefully we'll be back to work and getting him back undersaddle then and start all over again...He had only been undersaddle maybe a month before his injury, so he's got alot to re-learn!
So, here on Thanksgiving Day, 2+ years after one of the worst days of my life, I'm reflecting on all he's overcome, and yes, I am THANKFUL...I've been thankful all along that he simply lived through it, and I'm even more thankful for the true, miraculous BLESSING that he is "sound" (sound enough) and can be ridden! While he may never (won't?) be "what he could have been", he is a living testament to the power of love, faith, and dedication...
It is nice that nowadays I can actually "joke" about him, and I've told him often that I SHOULD call him "Timex", as he proves over andover again that he can "take a licking and keep on ticking"!
