Biteyface Crankypants

Ashke has been getting better, although he is still getting Banamine once a day to help control the pain. The vet wanted me to limit the banamine so Ashke would stay calm, but he is on stall rest and unable to move much and I really would rather he not be in pain. I don't think he would have needed it today, except that it was our first bandage change and that caused him a bunch of pain.

I didn't have any bandage materials, so I went to Murdocks bucket sale yesterday and picked up pads, gauze, vet wrap and elastikon, as well as, a year of wormer, new half chaps, a pair of Carhartt pants for J, and horse shampoo. Anything that fits in the bucket is 25% off. I looked for a new pair of barn boots, but it was not meant to be. I also got the purple bucket for free.

J and I arranged to meet K at the barn, since I wanted an additional person to help in case Ashke was being a pill. The vet had offered to come out and do the bandage change, if we couldn't do it ourselves, but I put on my big girl panties and called in K for reinforcement. When we got to the barn we found my tub of feed/supplements smashed to bits with the feed bags inside ripped open. My bale of shavings outside of Ashke's stall had big bites in it and his tail was a freaking disaster. It looked like he shoved it into something and rubbed all night long. At least half his tail is rubbed off half way down his tail bone. It's a mess. I couldn't figure out what had happened, but after talking to the BO, we were told a horse had gotten out and tore around the barn last night, having a party.  We cleaned up the mess in front of Ashke's stall, cleaned his stall, put the busted up bale of shavings in the stall, then locked the feed and antibiotics in my tack box.

K showed up and I got Ashke out of the stall. He was walking like normal, completely sound, and seemed really frustrated that I wouldn't let him out to run in the indoor. We set him up against the wall of the wash stall, with K to hold him and J to distract him with horse crack. The one thing I didn't have was a pair of sharp scissors, which I had to borrow from one of the other boarders, and with shaking hands I carefully cut off the bandage. I don't know if it was the release of pressure or just messing with that leg, but Ashke was not happy.

Once the bandage was off, I cold hosed for about 30 minutes. Ashke would tolerate the water for a bit and then lift his leg out of it. I would wait until he set it down again to let the water run over the wound. There was minimal swelling, no signs of infection and it looked better than I expected.

Even though you can see the edges at the top of the wound pulling away, the majority of the wound has sealed. There might be some proud flesh, but it should be minimal.

 Most of the damage is on the outside of the leg.

The BO said it looked so much better than it did on Thursday. Ashke was walking on it fairly soundly, although he didn't really like it when I started to bandage it. We gave him a dose of banamine between the cold hosing and when I started bandaging. Ashke saw the banamine paste and both ears came forward. I swear that he knows now what that tube means and although he doesn't like the taste, he was pretty happy to have the comfort juice. He didn't even try to spit it out. I walked him a little bit, waiting for the banamine to kick in and his leg to dry off a bit, then we repositioned him against the wall him to start the bandaging process.

I covered the pad with a thick layer of antibiotic gel and placed it over the wound, then wrapped it in place with a roll of gauze. It was kind of hard, even though Ashke was very sweet and trying very hard to hold still. By that point he was nipping at everything he could reach: J's hands, K's coat, the ribbons on the stall we were standing next to, the crosstie hanging next to his head. He was very cranky. I had warned both J and K to watch out for him biting, since that is his go to when he is in pain. Once the gauze was on, I wrapped the leg with the vet wrap. It looked okay when I got done.

My first wrap job.

I sent pics to Saiph to make sure I did okay. She said it looks like a nasty cut, but much better than she would have expected, and that my wrap job looked good. So far, it seems as though he is healing as well as could be expected. We shall see what we have when we unwrap him on Thursday night. In the meantime, I crafted a charm to go in his mane to help him heal and to protect him.

 I'm going to order bubble wrap from Amazon on Monday.