Update on Storyteller

[Susan Young Silberman <corista@atlantic.net>]

Thank you, everyone, for your kind advice and prayers and
responses.  Y'all have helped enormously.

I spoke with the vet, Dr. Pete Hambleton (excellent vet, by the
way - stays very calm & soft-voiced, highly knowledgeable in a
nice way, and is very capable of expert field surgery when
needed), yesterday about Storyteller, now that we've had a chance
to see a little better what happened.  He says we were extremely
lucky.  The puncture wound on her side could easily have torn
into her lungs, but deflected off a rib and so is just a deep
(3-4 inch) flesh wound.  And the very deep puncture wound on her
hip (it went in and then down for a total of about 8-10 inches of
puncture wound) doesn't involve any muscles or ligaments or
joints.

The flushing of the wounds has removed most of the wood debris,
she isn't showing any signs of infection (although we're still
watching closely), and upping the Bute dosage (and giving it 2-3
times a day) has caused her to be far more willing to move around
so she's draining a lot better now.  The Granulex is keeping the
bugs out of her wounds and helping to irritate the wounds into
healing.  Storyteller's now spending her days out in the sunshine
grazing in a small paddock with Corista, and her stall in the
morning shows that she's finally moving around more at night,
like a normal healthy horse would do (previously she merely stood
in one spot and would barely eat or drink).  She is also eating
well again, and shows no signs of dehydration, and her eyes are
clear and she's again paying attention to everything going on
around her.

We are giving her Strategy feed, with Opt-E vitamin supplement
containing probiotics to assist her digestion, and MSM to help
with the inflammation, and a soybean-based supplement containing
Ester-C, antioxidants, yucca, and glucosamine sulfates.  She is
responding very well to the increased nutritional supplements and
the vet feels that by this time next week she'll be in good shape
for the farrier to trim her hooves and for her to be feeling far
more normal.  He says he doesn't expect her injuries to cause her
any problems with soundness or anything else -- that she must
have had a guardian angel watching over her to have kept her so
comparitively uninjured considering the depth of the punctures
and accompanying scratches.

So thank you all for your prayers, and please keep her in your
prayers.  I am deeply grateful to my neighbor, Susan Berger, for
being so generously kind in boarding my horses in her barn and
taking care of all the doctoring and handling, so that I now can
concentrate on my own healing, and can walk over there every day
to give my girls a lot of loving, and carrots, and rubbing of
their sweet spots.  I go in tomorrow for x-rays on my shoulder to
see what, if any, damage was done by Storyteller's tossing head.
My arm has gone from not hurting much before last week, to again
hurting all the time, but God-willing maybe I had a guardian
angel watching over me, too, to keep my healing bones intact and
unaffected by last week's traumas.

Again, thank you all, and please continue to keep us in your
prayers for at least another week or so... it is truly amazing
how much God helps us when we ask, both directly and through the
kindness of others around us ...

With deep gratitude and appreciation,
Susan
Hawk's Haven Farm



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