Graphic- Tesoro hurt himself yesterday

[MustangsInNC]

So, Wednesday night, a neighbor's horse from down the road got loose. The people I lease my barn from knew it was loose, and couldn't get in touch with the owner. So they just left it loose overnight and figured the owner would catch the horse in the morning.

So the horse wanders down to my pasture and starts fighting with Tesoro through the fence. They tear down a section of fence... now there are 3 horses loose.

I get a call at 6:30am yesterday morning saying my horses are loose, I need to come catch them and fix the fence. So I start driving. When I'm about 15 mins away, they call me back and say they caught my horses, and the neighbor came and got thier horse, but Tesoro has a cut on his neck I might want to come check out.

When I get there, I walked out in the field, and Tesoro was hanging out under the trees. I walked up and saw the cut. From a distance it didn't look that bad. Then I got closer...

It's a gash, probably 5 inches long, right along his throat. It's DEEP. I can see way down inside it. So of course I panic. I drove my car because I wasn't expecting anyone to need a ride to the vet. So I had to leave, drive home and get my truck, go get my trailer and someone to help me, and then back to the pasture to catch him and go to the vet.

The vet said he severed a muscle in his neck almost completely, and if it had been any deeper he would have hit the jugular and bled to death before I got there. She had her hand inside his neck up to the second knuckle to clean it before stitching.

My poor baby! She sedated him, used a local numbing agent, and tried to stitch the muscle back together on the inside. Then gave him 14 staples on the outside. The whole time He buried his head in my chest and leaned on me. His head is heavy! LOL.

So now my Frankenpony is in a stall. His feed and water have to be chest level because his neck is so swollen and sore he won't put his head down to eat. I have to take him back in 10 days to get the staples removed. Vet says he'll most likely end up with a big scar and either a bump or a dimple from the muscle growing back together. *sigh*

A few pics for anyone that can stomach it... It doesn't look quite so bad in the pics as it did in person. You can't tell how deep it was.

[lindad]

What an ordeal!!! Many years ago, I had a colt, about 2 yrs old, that ran into an old wooden fence and the board broke and skewered his neck. When I found him, he was standing there with a fence board hanging from his neck, with about 5 inches of the board in the muscle of his neck, and about 12 inches of the board had gone through the muscle come out through the exit wound about 5 inches from the entry. His injury was through the large muscle along side of his neck. His injury was just as you described, but with two holes. The vet had his whole hand in there and he just missed the artery by a miniscule amount. I had to administer him massive does of antibiotic twice a day, which got to be an ordeal because I had to give the injections in the rump, and eventually he had had enough of being poked at too and would start giving little bucks. Because his wound was so deep and through the belly of the muscle, the vet left a small drain hole at the bottom of the wound and I had to flush it daily, and keep the hole open for a while. The good news is that we anticipated a huge unsightly scar, and he had NONE! There was a barely noticable fine line in his summer coat where some hairs didn't lay quite smooth that only I knew was there, it was so slight.
Hope that Tessoro mends quickly and with as equally good a result.

[Michelle Clarke]

Yowser! Poor guy...he'll heal up fine, I'm sure!

I had a gelding hit a t-post:



The vet actually took a video of his jugular totally exposed between the muscle and pulsating - don't know how he missed it.

After the vet visit (he also had stitches inside to put the muscle back together.



As soon as the tissue was granulated, I took the staples out so there would not be any scarring.



He healed totally fine, no raised scar and only a small line of white hair. I thought that maybe it might affect the lateral flexion in his neck, but he was just dandy!

[grullagirl]

Yowch poor Tesoro!
Mrs.Michelle I remember when Mapache got hurt his wound looked absoulutely awful but now you can't even tell!Its amazing how well horses heal especially mustangs they seem to cope a lot better with injuries.
I hope Tesoro feels better soon!

[DianneC]

How scary was that! What ninnies to think that any horse running loose is OK! A person driving a car at night could have hit it and been killed. Bad enough that it got good Tesoro injured. They should have caught the horse and thrown it in a stall or pen overnight and kept on calling until they got the owners. Glad that you have some good examples to know that he will heal. In about 2001 I had a filly that got her flank laid open by a bolt that was too long and stuck out, took a week of irrigating it and antibiotics but you have to look hard to see the spot and she turned out totally sound.

[MustangsInNC]

Omg Michelle! That injury makes Tesoro look like he barely got a scratch! I've been so upset that he might have a huge scar, but seeing how yours healed up gives me hope. How did you doctor it? Did you use anything topical? He's on SMZ tablets twice a day. I've been putting Swat around the wound to keep the flies out of it and it seems to be helping. I had to nail wire up over his stall door because he kept hanging his head out the window and rubbing the staples. The swelling is definately going down, but it's still nasty looking. He is obviously sore, but definately feels better too, lol. Better enough that he's started talking to all the other horses and making it well known he is not fond of stall rest, lol.

[lilnagy]

I have used vitamin e cream, both on horses and myself, to minimize scaring. I used it at the edges of the new growth of skin, not IN the wound. I thought it worked great. I wish him speedy healing!

[equineimagined]

Poor T-man boogerboo. Here's hoping for super fast healing! He'll be getting big huggles from us when we come down this weekend.

[fantasykiger]

Poor guy and I agree with your care and attention, I do not think you will end up with and awful scar. I am so sorry you both have to go thru' this and I wish Tesoro a nice recovery.

[mustangdara]

yikes...so close to the jugular!!!
poor guy

[Jackie]

Hey, I've been waiting to see how Tesaro healed and you haven't posted!

[MustangsInNC]

Hi! Sorry so long for an update... life has been crazy! But then again, when isn't it. Tesoro healed up much better than I expected. There is a scar, but nowhere near as bad as I was thinking it would be. here's pics from a couple weeks ago!

[Michelle Clarke]

Yeah...looks great - you did a good job there!

[lindad]

Hooray Tesoro! You did a good job of caring for him. By next summer likely it will be barely visible.

[fantasykiger]

It looks great, you did a great job taking care of your boy horses are truely wonderful healers.
Welcome back it is good to hear from you and see Tesoro's handsome face.