Ok, well, we're still alive. Day 19 More gory pics.

Mandy is as of last week on stall rest and not real happy about that but dealing. I took her off the Banamin for 36 hours to see how she was and was broken legged lame.





But the wound itself seems to be making progress.

She's on antibiotics and banamine for a while though.

The day before I went into full panic mode when we unwrapped her leg and saw this...

ACK! WTF is THAT?!?

 ZOMG OH NO!!!

Anyhow, the next morning it was waiting for us in her bandage.

A friend has named it the Baby Alien.

But the wound looks much better now that it came out.

Tendon,Tendon Sheath Injuries and Adhesions.

are really really scary stuff.

This much I have learned.

The cotton this morning was doing it's job of absorbing the seepage. The wound itself looked pretty good. No smell, (I even smelled some of what was dripping out and it seemed fine. Not cloudy, good color, no pus)

The cotton had a strange greenish tinge to it and a funny smell, not bad, but funny is the best I can describe it.

I called the vet of course, and he said it was likely oxidation. It didn't look like that yesterday though. He still said no antibiotics at this time. *frets* She had no fever. 98.9 this morning and yesterday was 99.4

Just to be on the safe side we're going to go to a twice daily bandage change.

I also got my ice boots in the mail today and they are in the freezer cooling down so I will need to remove the wrap to apply the ice wraps anyway. Pretty neat they are. *channels Yoda*

They look like this:

I am SO not happy that Mandy has to be stalled 24/7. That means Bree has to be stalled too. Mandy does NOT like to be alone and I don't blame her. If she'll accept it, I will try to switch out Fred and Bree on alternate days but she really prefers Bree.

I have a plethora of supplies coming in the mail but that takes WEEKS! I also have a VERY good friend sending me some stuff rush mail that will hopefully be here the end of this week.

I managed to get some standing wraps and some polos, but the ONE store that sells horse supplies here doesn't stock quilts, pillow wraps, no bows or anything else in that line of needs. I'm living in the stone age.(with internet)

The ice boots are courtesy of another very good friend. I am blessed. Thank you G. and L.

Really. I hugely appreciate all the time and effort you've expended on my behalf.

We WILL fix this and she WILL heal. She may not heal sound, but healing to a good quality of life without constant pain is my goal. Anything else is a plus.Anything less is...simply unacceptable and therefore not within my realm of reality.

I learned how to wrap yesterday...

which is a good thing as this is likely going to be a long looooong road to recovery.

Something popped inside when Mandy spooked yesterday on the lead and synovial fluid gushed out of her leg like it was on tap. This confirms that yes, there was a tendon sheath breach at the very least. Without a ultrasound there is no way to actually know what is going on inside, only guesses.

The GOOD thing is that the fluid that came out was crystal clear (to the eye anyway) which increases the chances that contamination of the sheath has not happened. So far anyway...

The wound continues to look good in itself and we are now wrapping the leg in the hopes of preventing contamination of the sheath and also to help support the leg and keep swelling to a minimum allowing it to heal with as close to a normal profile as possible.

Every morning we remove the entire bandage and allow her some air and movement then we wash the leg with a surgical soap and dry it well. I've decided to help the drying process along with a rub down with rubbing alcohol to increase the moisture evaporation rate.(not on the cut of course)

Then it gets a non stick sterile pad and a regular gauze pad under a maxi pad directly over the cut then cotton batting, and a polo wrap over all of that. Her leg is huge with all its accoutrements...



Said leg:

Poor little girl.

The actual cut this morning.

Plugging along... *gory pic warning*

Mandy is still visibly lame, but the wound itself seems to be staying uninfected.

Pics from today.

I have a vet coming out in a couple hours to help me figure out where to go from here.


ETA:
Ok, Dr. Burns just left and he said that it was healing well enough that he would be doing more damage by any treatment than just leaving it alone.

Just keep doing what we've been doing and call him out when it's closed up some more to cut off the proudflesh. He was surprised. I think he expected much worse.

He also ok'd some aspirin to help with the pain and inflammation. We talked about all the drug options and he felt that least was best for the moment. Aspirin it is.

I got lucky...kinda. Update on Mandy's leg.

I had just emailed some friends here asking for some help with Mandy's leg yesterday and not two minutes after I sent the email...one of them walked in with friends visiting from NY. Would you believe that one of them is an equine vet? Seriously? How lucky can you be?

 Abandoning all semblance of manners I did the old corner the doc at a party to ask him about your suppurating toe trick. >.<

They were extremely gracious and went down to look at her leg and give some opinions about followup care.

Basically, he feels that she may have nicked her tendon sheath and started an infection. Bad...that's very bad. But following his advice she's been put on Bactrim and icing the leg 3x's / day. The exterior continues to heal.(there's some proudflesh, but he told me to worry about that later) Once a day we scrub the leg with Hibiscrub then cover with Aluspray.

There was a definite difference between the swelling yesterday and this morning. The leg looked *almost* normal this morning. Tonight...she tried to run Juan over on her way in to get dinner and kicked out at Bree who was running up her bum to do the same thing.

Here  she is all wrapped up with ice packs on both sides of the tendon. 

(I'm not very good at wrapping or I would have her wrapped for more than just icing it.)

I was practicing on the other leg.

A closer look at my crap wrap.

This pic is from yesterday, but it looks pretty much the same.

 These have been on my reading table since Tuesday.

.

She's still lame. Still has that funny flick to the fetlock.

I sure wish I knew how to wrap properly.

The healing commences. *knock on wood*

I have been keeping Mandy's leg as clean as I possibly can. Depending on how her leg looks tonight I'm considering NOT bandaging it for the nightly stalling but using Alu Spray instead.

Yesterday morning it looked like this before turn out.

Last night I did a sooper dooper wrapping job to make sure the bandage did NOT fall off.

This morning she was demanding her breakfast! This picture shows you why her nickname is La Princessa.

NOTHING kills this girl's appetite!

This morning everything was till in place TG.

Sanitary Napkins...not just for periods. ;)

They do a GREAT job soaking up seepage.

Things I now know about Wonder Dust...it turns into CEMENT when mixed with Serum.

She's worn her toes completely off pawing while waiting for things to soak, to dry, to disinfect...etc etc etc.

Close up look at what's going on.

She doesn't hold grudges though.

Not much swelling and this is day 4.

Kinda overkill on the Alu-Spray.

She's still not walking 100% though. She does seem to get less lame as the day goes on so some of it is from night time inactivity.

Long time no post. Even private barns have drama it seems. *bloody pictures warning*

Most recently, Mandy cut her leg. In the worst spot ever. I was panicking a bit last night as she was completely  refusing to bear weight. The vet this morning said he doesn't think the tendon is involved however and the lameness is due to pain from the incredibly crappy location of the cut.

I have lots of vet books at home and ALL of them say to CALL THE VET in the event of a non-weight bearing injury. Which I did. Immediately.

While waiting for the vet I did a prelim cleaning and took pictures and video of course. 

right hind, top of the fetlock.

Her spirit is great.

Where's the food? I need food.

A short video of what was scaring me so much.

She's putting more weight on it this morning, and she's on regular turnout unbandaged and wrapped for night stalling.(the paddocks are now dry and well packed) She also had a tetanus antitoxin.

The drama is involving my little one, but I'm waiting till I'm sure it's resolved.