Wow. I got a phone call on wednesday afternoon. Caller saw my phone number on my stalls available sign and called to “tell me that one of my horses is standing in the pasture with a terrible wound”. (Jump to bottom for full story on “terrible wound”).
I politely assure her that the horse is ok, it just looks bad because it is still draining. She goes on to say that she “has horses too, and thinks it is very odd that this horse is outside with other horses, and she drives by my barn every day because she is a teacher, blah blah blah.” I go into detail, getting irritated at this point, about the injury, since she asked me point blank “what happened to her?” in a horrified/disgusted tone. I told her who the vet treating it was, what had been done, and that she has another appt on monday. She actually said “Well, I have seen this horse for months, and it is not getting better, and I wanted to make sure someone actually KNEW about this injury.”
OK lady. This is clearly a boarding barn. Chances are pretty good that “someone knows about it.”
I get being a concerned citizen, and calling to check on it. But apparently that’s not all she did. I was not wholly surprised to see an AC truck in the barn driveway about 7 pm. I yelled for DH to go out and talk to her while I fished out vet records to show the officer. The officer was very nice, and of course I was very nice and fourthcoming with her. We explained, showed her the mare, pointed out that her weight was good, hooves trimmed, showed her the vet records, gave her the vet’s phone number, etc… I offered to show the officer her stall too, and she said"Oh, it’s fine, I’m sure it’s immaculate, I can see you have a very nice barn and take good care of these horses."
So she left, but before she did, she told me the caller told her, the officer, that she had come onto my property, through the barn and to the gate of the pasture the horses were in. And let’s be real, if she did all that, she probably went INTO the pasture to look up close at her, because she clearly has a nose problem, and I know where this mare likes to hang out, and to get a good look she probably went into the pasture. This woman called me from her cell phone, and I am SOOO tempted to do a reverse look up and press trespassing charges against her. Thank God nothing happened and I do have commercial liability ins, but still!! Who does that!?
For those interested in the injury, the mare (who is mine), ran through a 3 board wood fence and impaled herself on one of the boards as she broke it. It went into she shoulder, from the front, into the muscle behind the left scapula. I saw it right after it happened and immediately called the vet out. He stitched her up with a drain tube and gave me SMZ’s. It abscessed even on SMZ’s, and when I removed the drain tube a week later, wood shards started coming out. I got out 3 pieces of wood over the next week. It continued to drain, and she was in a good deal of pain even on bute. I kept my vets updated, and the advice was to wait and see. They did not xray or ultrasound because whatever may still be in there is behind the scapula so we would not be able to see anything anyway. I was also advised against Surgery again due to location, the vets feared causing additional nerve damage plus the risk of getting into an artery. I was advised to wait it out, and was told if there was a foreign body present, the body would either dissolve it or it would work its way out. She looks healed from the outside, she just has a very small (about the circumference of a plain ballpoint pen) spot of proud flesh that the drainage is coming from. I scrub it clean every day, and I finally told the vet that I can’t stand to see her like this anymore (it has been 3 months), and we need to try SOMETHING. So monday, we are doing exploratory surgery in hopes of finding and removing the remaining wood. There HAS to be something in there that is not allowing her to heal. :no: So hopefully all goes well, she is an adorable 8 year old arab mare that is well bred and fun to ride. It would be a real shame to have to put her down, however, I can’t let her live her life like this. At the same time, I had to give her the chance to heal. She is in some discomfort, but is happy and alert enough, eats and drinks well, etc…
Any prayers/jingles/success stories welcome.
