On Pause

I planned on giving Opie a longe in the sliding reins after he got his feet done Wednesday morning, but while Farrier was working on another horse I went in to pick Opie's feet and saw that his RF was super swollen. He seemed unconcerned about the whole thing, but since his leg was covered in dried mud I took him to the wash stall to scrub everything clean figuring I'd find a cut that had blown up. 

Yep.

Since it was so small but so swollen, I went and got a syringe to see if we were dealing with a puncture wound and therefore needed to call the vet. 

Yep. 

He was just finishing up getting new feet when the vet pulled in so from one bill to the next.

Between the swelling and the location, the vet was obviously concerned about it puncturing something important inside so we took x-rays. Fortunately everything looked good by the skin of his teeth. We opted to do....some fancy term for a direct line of antibiotics into the leg. Basically his leg got a tourniquet, the vet fed a giant syringe of meds directly into the vein, and then it marinated for half an hour while she cleaned and bandaged the wound. 

He got more meds IM, a stout dose of banamine, and tucked into his stall. 

Opie metabolizes sedatives like no other, and no matter how many times I tell the vet that they're always surprised when he goes from droopy lipped chill to wide fucking awake, bright and perky at the snap of your fingers. After his first sedation that he blew through in fifteen minutes while she did the initial exam and took images and he then proceeded to start shaking everyone down for candy, she put it to him and he was swaying on his feet while his leg was treated. As soon as he was in his stall though he was tucking into his hay and watching us like, "Hi, guys! If you have snacks, just let me know!" The vet stared at him for a minute and was like, "Yeah, he's definitely good to be eating now. He handles sedation really well, doesn't he?"

it took a lot of drugs to get to this point, and they lasted
thirty minutes on the dot lol

Daily bandage changes, lots of meds, yada yada. Obviously the major thing is not letting it get infected because that will go bad in a hurry with its location. The other worry is how he's going to handle stall rest as that has not been a good outcome in the past. She did leave me with a bottle of trazadone we're hoping will have some effect on him since sedation and Opie aren't a thing. 

He seemed pretty settled this morning at least, nickering to BM and I as he hung out with his head in the aisle and tucked into his hay net when I left. Fingers crossed that holds at least through the weekend. 

This morning the swelling had gone way down, but still some localized to the wound. 

The vet did a shitty job wrapping it as it was way too loose and had slid down overnight. I am a total wrapping snob though so it was snug and beautiful when I got done. He was a champ and let me flush it twice with great big doses of wound wash so hopefully we stay on the right track.