Everything has been going just fine after the surgery. Chaco’s using his leg all the time, no soreness or lameness except for a bit on Saturday the day after he came home. He is a happy boy, and we go hand grazing throughout the day to keep him using that leg in a controlled, safe, and slow way.
Then yesterday happened…..
I was hand grazing Chaco when this developed:
I called the surgeon and sent an email with this picture. He told me to heat pack it and call my vet. My vet though is drowning in calls because the other vet is out of town for a week. My vet was out on vet calls, so I heat packed it, and it kept getting worse and worse and worse. I began to think there was an abscess, and my anxiety climbed to new heights.
After Shandoka died, I stopped trusting myself, trusting any gut instinct I have, and I started wondering if this was going to go bad on me quick. I kept thinking about my grandpa, because he knew how to do everything. He had the best instincts even though he could barely see. He was almost blind in both eyes by the time I hit my teens, but he could see problems in a horse better than anyone with perfect vision. I kept thinking about what he would do, and I went and made up some of his liniment. That stuff is so simple, and it is amazing at how well it works. I put his blanket on with his neck cover, and I rubbed his neck down with the liniment.
I went out two hours later, and the abscess went down to half the size of the picture above. By 4am in the morning it was a quarter of the size. I rubbed his neck down with more liniment, and by 8am it was gone.
However, there is this ridge and a golf ball sized sac of fluid at the base of his neck on the right.
I thought I was in the clear when Chaco developed really bad diarreah and a lot of it, which he never has. He is as regular as can be, so this to me meant something was going on.
My former vet, who I so love and adore, called me and told me it was a sterile abscess that seems to have resolved itself, and it was caused by an injection of something. I called my surgeon’s office, and after reviewing all of the pictures, my surgeon decided it was from the shot of antibiotics he gave him before I brought him home. He said he has only had one other horse in all of his years have a bad reaction, and I told him of course Chaco did since he is my horse….lol.
I put Chaco on Bio Sponge, and it seems like it has already slowed down the diarreah. I will continue to rub my sweet Grandpa’s liniment on his neck until this antibiotic is out of his system. I don’t have to worry about an infection, and all I have to say is thank goodness. I was so worried this was going to go bad on me, but my grandpa helped me through it even though he left me many years ago. I have great and wonderful vets, and I couldn’t be more grateful for all of them.
Reenchanted Thoroughbreds 