Communication is key- as always. Just a slight error in communication and intentions aren’t always relayed that well over text.
Everything is solved and settled. Horse is getting turnout during day and in at night for another week before she rejoins general population.
I would say you have 3 options.
Ring the vet again and if he agrees with you, let the barn staff comply with him.
If he does not agree with you and you do not agree with the vet and BO, take over the care of your horse daily, signing their release that they are not responsible.
Move horse home or somewhere you have more control.
If home was an option it would have already happened. Unfortunately my life don’t be like that. Maybe once I win a million or two.
Move your horse. The barn is convinced you are wrong. You are convinced the barn is wrong. It’s not going to work out even if it works out.
Unless you can take on full care for your horse and politely mend the rift, move to whatever back up barn you have in mind. Now would be a good time.
That probably all sounds awful and mean. It’s not meant to be. It’s wisdom gleaned from years of observation. It’s why I take full responsibility for my horse’s care spending far too much time on the road every day, 7 days a week. It’s also why I have walked away from lovely client horses on more than one occasion over the years.
Popping back to add that a puncture is not a cut or scrape. They have to heal from the inside out and if there’s anything nefarious left in any part of the tractor you want it to work its way out, not get trapped by surface healing. Keeping a wrap on until it is done draining is not wrong. It may not be necessary but it’s not wrong. You may not like it but it’s not wrong.
There may be an upcharge but I’d bet you agreed to that in your boarding agreement. Boarding barns don’t get rich from upcharges for doing annoying little jobs that take staff time away from other things.
A compromise until you get moved - turn out fully wrapped. If the horse is still swelling at night bandage overnight too. Change wraps every 12 - 24 hours.
Bandages do not push swelling upwards. They may slow the gravitational pill of swelling that is coming from higher up but they do not push swelling up.
It sounds like the vet told her to wrap it and she is following the vet’s orders. And will continue to do so until the vet tells her otherwise.
Honestly, most people would kill for a BO so meticulous.
The vet definitely did not say wrap it and stall rest for 3 weeks. Yet that seems to be how it was taken. It was left up to our discretion.
The miscommunication here is who’s discretion that happens to be, stable or owner.
I am willing and ready to drop any rift - I don’t have a problem. Just want to find the quickest way to get my horse out of a stall before a second injury occurs from stalling a sound horse until it goes mental. In which case - a demon will come out of me and into play that ain’t NO ONE is prepared for.
Get the vet out to appease the BO or just send pics and text vet if ok for horse to go back out. You could email the practice as well.
If you like everything else, I wouldn’t die on this hill.
The quickest way is going to be to move the horse. Yesterday if possible. Sucks, but there you are.
In answer to this - yes.
Thank all for your opinions.
I wish the vet would get back to me - just get a clear cut solid answer and be done with it.
Really would like to just put this to rest and move forward without issue. Not happy with certain miscommunications but that’s part of life.
Wherever I boarded before, things were handled differently. Which wasn’t always better, but I’m certainly not used to not having a say! Combine that with a job that does NOT allow me to leave when needed and the business is leaning entirely on me. The combination has created a perfect storm of stress, perceived judgement (If I COULD be there I truly would), and maybe a snarky attitude from not understanding how things work and feeling backed into a corner.
Life’s a peach!
My answer is coming from someone who does not hate wrapping.
I think it is great that the barn owner is being careful. You were not there to give our input when everything happened, the barn owner went conservative with the care to make sure your horse had the best chance of a good recovery.
All that is very positive.
The fluid in the hock would have been fluid lower in the leg if the wrap had not been there. That fluid was going to happen.
I would guess from what you are saying, the barn owner does not want to put the horse back out while there is still a risk of an infection. They are seeing fluids coming out so that could be a pathway for infection to get in. In other words, still being very conservative about the care, and since they were put in charge of this care…
If the vet’s office is not returning your call (not sure what you called and asked for) I think the choice of sending an email to the office is a good one. Or, you can schedule a follow up appointment and be there for that appointment and discuss the care with the actual vet.
How do you know that the barn owner’s current care routine was not given to them by the vet and why do you think it was a miscommunication? Were you able to listen in on what was said at the appointment?
Can you go and “do the bandage change” yourself today or tomorrow, so you can actually see what they’re seeing? This would allow you to say “I know exactly what you’re seeing, and I am fine with the risk of turning out with/without a bandage/wrap.” The BO is convinced you don’t know what they’re seeing, and is using that to argue.
I too tend to do wound care myself, just because I’ll be able to catch any negative changes faster. But I’m also fine turning my horses out with wraps to protect wounds - because I have confidence in my wrapping skills.
I have spoken to the vet’s office twice (yesterday morning and this morning) with the response “we will have him call you”. He still has not called me. Frustrating!
Barn owner is truly wonderful and has the best intentions at heart. My worry is that with years experience I have seen far more and far worse injuries caused by stall rested horses than I have by a scraped leg.
It’s not that I think the BO is wrong per se, it’s that I think the risk outweighs the reward at this point and that’s what has me worried.
I was not there for the first vet visit but I was for the second one (was already a pre-booked appt before the injury, horse was getting a float and vaccinations). Vet said we could continue to wrap for a few days *if we wanted. Said to monitor. That everything looked okay and the swelling seemed to be edema not joint damage.
If you can’t get the vet to weigh in, can you ask the BO to turn the mare out unwrapped while you stay for a few hours to monitor her (bring a book). If all seems well, you come back at the end of turnout to see how she’s doing and check on her first thing in the morning. If everything seems good, let her out. This will give the BO assurance that you are monitoring closely. Sounds like in the future you’ll need to set clear boundaries and maybe do wound care yourself. Good luck.
Also is there a middle ground between full stall rest and turnout 24x7? I might have misread, but it sounds like she’s been on stall rest with no hand-walking aside from the loungeline “blow off steam” session?
Quoted from luvmyhackney- didn’t copy correctly- "Get the vet out to appease the BO or just send pics and text vet if ok for horse to go back out. You could email the practice as well.
If you like everything else, I wouldn’t die on this hill."
Yes 100x. I would most definitely do a recheck to appease both of yourselves, your relationship and the horse.
This is the trade-off of full-care board. I also have a job that I can’t always leave and often can’t even be contacted while working. Having a barn staff I trust to handle my horse’s care if I can’t weigh in is extremely important to me. That means that sometimes I defer to them in situations where there are multiple “right” answers, it’s just the nature of the situation. I’m paying for their expertise so I can’t really turn around and be annoyed when they use it. I do expect them to keep me in the loop and I would be frustrated if my instructions weren’t followed with no explanation, but I am ok with them suggesting another path as long as they explain it. If I still disagreed I would expect my decision to be honored, but I would also expect that to sour my relationship with the barn which is not something I want.
Since you otherwise have only glowing things to say about your BO, and since her approach really isn’t a wrong one, I would let this one slide unless the vet says otherwise. You could also try working with the BO to come up with something that satisfies both of you. Make it a team effort instead of you vs her. And try to make sure you don’t let your frustration seep into your interactions and overshadow how much you appreciate her efforts.
Apologies if this has been suggested & I missed it.
Any way you can arrange to meet with vet & BO together to discuss plan of treatment going forward?
That way both you & BO have vet’s POV.
If BO can express her view to vet at least she should be heard.
Vet should have the final word, at least IMHO.
Spoke to vet. Vet said turn her out and leave it alone. UNLESS the discharge looks infected.
If discharge looks infected, then BO should tell you that because horse needs more antibiotics.
I would probably wrap it with a hydrophilic foam dressing over the punctures and secure with Elastikon and turn out at this point, if you don’t have mega mud in your turnouts. Change daily if a lot of oozing. Otherwise, could go a couple of days of the tape is in good condition.
I’ve got a horse who will blow up with an infected leg at the slightest scratch, and do some creative wrapping has been added to my arsenal. I have also used this technique, added a polo wrap on top and ridden the horse.
I do kind of agree that if this means more towards areas of puncture from the nails versus just a scrape, or if the scrape was all the way through the skin layers, then I would keep it covered until it’s pretty healed. But that doesn’t necessarily mean total stall rest. I’m not a let it scab up person (I don’t like scars if I can help it, and see above about horse prone to getting things infected).
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