Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I have had much better results healing wounds when the horse has remained
active. Inactivity has always caused more edema on my horses. Great
story, I always like watching my horses when they are intent on some
project or new toy. One day I took an empty 2.5 gal plastic water bottle
and jammed 5-6 rocks inside, threw it in with my 3 horses and watched the
action. Spooking, running, sniffing, the grey bit it and the
crinkle-sound caused panic, more spooking, sniffing, the bay picked it up
and a rock rattled, he dropped it and all the rocks rattled, he
jumped,spun and split just like the Roadrunner cartoon. Great fun.
Don Huston

At 10:58 AM 10/12/2007 Friday, you wrote:

I was thinking maybe I should try to have his stifle wound stitched after reading some posts--and after I made a 50 X50 electric Ramm 3 strand fence.
  Ha,-Well he has the  Apx.Qh height and build mostly, and the arab half brains-- I put #1 old horse in with him as I have to feed him 2x a day anyway.
  First night I had 3 strands of fence and 2  handles---He with help from the donkey I suspect, lifted the bottom handle and  left breaking the  cheap corner connecter .
     So I added 3 strands and made better  electric connections.I got him up to the barn at mealtime---BTW ---I did  melt the pills in water, added some molasses and mixed with a small amount of beetpulp and handful of alfalfa pellets. He ate it very greedily. It's worked twice so  no fight with the meds. We did more dancing and soaking, he was better about it  as no cleaners were involved. And I let him nose it and drink from it. So last night I  left them in the stalls , and fed him this morning.  How did he poop in his water bucket so neatly? I put hay in the  enclosure. We played with the hose and  did some more hosing . Made sure I gently  hosed above the wound. The other two arabs and donkey were up there. I left, and watched from the house, 2 arabs and donkey left, HE started running the fence line-- Looked like he was looking for a weak spot. I  turned around and came back a minute later,  he was gone and old horse was looking the way he went.Great. Sure enough he broke the cheap connector and popped  thru the  bottom strand.
     Now as a baby I had a creep feeder made out of electric  tape. Someone said, "better not do that, it will teach them to go under fence for the rest of their life". Sure 'nuff, that is what he has done when  it's only a strand or two or weak connectors. He just lifts it up. He'd never be a candidate for an electric one strand fence. Maybe if he was dumber it would work.Sort of  like a  bold  tb with an arab smarts.
    So I guess I am glad I  it wasn't stitched , they'd been popped twice.-- My daughter said if I had to keep him in a stall to get some ACE. But the stall is sort of small for him  and I don't like drugs.
      We are going to  dig thru the boxes and try and find the  better egg connectors, recheck the  electric connections, and I will try and  keep him up again.Maybe this time I will bring my mare up. He  thinks she is his  foster mom anyway. She is lower on herd order. I was thinking #1 horse would keep him calmer. But I will try her instead. Unless it is the donkey, who he plays with.....Or heck , maybe he doesn't want anyone to  leave without him.
     The vet did say , it would heal faster if his movement was limited , but if left out, it would just take longer....
     His swelling had gone done alot yesterday, but after being stalled it was more swollen  this morning. So I wonder if the movement of being out helped the edema , and the stalling made it  return? This is speculation .  

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Don Huston at cox dot net
SanDiego, Calif