Wounded Horse

[Trish Grant <grantt@unbc.ca>]

Good Afternoon All,

I wish it was a good afternoon for my horse yesterday afternoon as he got
out of his pasture yesterday some time and some person (who had his heart
in the right place and only trying to help, but definitely a non horsey
person) caught my horse and tied him up around his neck with about a ten
foot long nylon rope. Should I say any more.

The actual rope burns are definitely not good but sure could have been a
whole lot worse thats for sure. He had no real cuts, nothing even close to
needing any stitches. So he was lucky there. But as I can see it the rope
got tangled on his right hind leg higher up on his leg, roughly from his
hock up, needless to say he is VERY swollen from just underneath his hock
and all the way up his leg. He is most tender on the inside of his upper
leg. I know it is hard for someone to help when they can not see the horse
and the extent of the damages, but any words of wisdom, suggestions and
encouragement would be greatly accepted. Here is what I am doing right
now. As of right now I do not know the extent of the damage, he is stiff
but is barely limping, I think at this point we are dealing with some
pretty serious bruising and again I do not know what kind of damage may
have been done as far as the circulation goes.


I put him on bute right away to try and control the inflamation and to
help with the pain a bit. As of right now I have done the hose/ice thing
for 20-25 minutes each time 3 times and plan to do so 2 more times
today. After I hose him down I take him for a bit of a walk as this seems
to stiffen him a bit. After work I am going to the health food store to
pick up some Arnica(sp), I have used this in the past, it is to help with
the inflamation. The swelling actually went down the first time I hosed
him when I first found him, and has got no worse or better since, we are
talking only the first 24 hours. Does anyone have any suggestions as to
should I or not be putting some sort of liniment on the swelling to try to
help and if so, what sort of liniment.

What are your thoughts, should he confined to a stall or should he be left
out where he can move around a bit and help get that circulation back on
track. As of now I decided to leave him outside so he could move around a
bit. I would appreciate some input, but more so my horse would.

Thanks in Advance
Trish & Rookie