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Disappointing Vet Experience

H

highlonesome

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2010
Messages
65
Location
Western SD
I had my last foal last saturday and about four hours after it was born (assuming) we got a call from a friend saying that a lady in her church clothes and another man were putting the foal back thru the fence. So we go look and sure enough the foals hind leg was cut about four inches across and to the bone. She also had a bad cut on the underside of her belly right at the flank about the size of a half of a dollar. We ran her to the vet and they used 4 suture kits to sew her up and told us to leave the bandage on for at least 4 days, but 10 would be great!! got brave and took the bandage off tonight and it was full off puss and layed open because the stitches dissolved....her belly was the same story! I feel like I wasted my money at the vet, I'm sure she'll be fine....but I am disappointed with the outcome!! Guess Im just gonna do some cold water therapy and leave her be.... I was also told tonight that WD-40 will heal a horse faster than anything, it keeps the flies off and keeps the flesh soft and heals without any proud flesh or scarring?! Well I guess we will see? Sorry about the griping, but maybe someone can give me their two cents to make me feel like I didn't waste my time at the vet!
PS~ Foal is a dark bay with a blaze face and a hind white sock...she is pretty cute! Will get some pics sometime.
 
highlonesome said:
I had my last foal last saturday and about four hours after it was born (assuming) we got a call from a friend saying that a lady in her church clothes and another man were putting the foal back thru the fence. So we go look and sure enough the foals hind leg was cut about four inches across and to the bone. She also had a bad cut on the underside of her belly right at the flank about the size of a half of a dollar. We ran her to the vet and they used 4 suture kits to sew her up and told us to leave the bandage on for at least 4 days, but 10 would be great!! got brave and took the bandage off tonight and it was full off puss and layed open because the stitches dissolved....her belly was the same story! I feel like I wasted my money at the vet, I'm sure she'll be fine....but I am disappointed with the outcome!! Guess Im just gonna do some cold water therapy and leave her be.... I was also told tonight that WD-40 will heal a horse faster than anything, it keeps the flies off and keeps the flesh soft and heals without any proud flesh or scarring?! Well I guess we will see? Sorry about the griping, but maybe someone can give me their two cents to make me feel like I didn't waste my time at the vet!
PS~ Foal is a dark bay with a blaze face and a hind white sock...she is pretty cute! Will get some pics sometime.
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Instead of bitching and moaning about your vets maybe you should ask yourself why/how the foal got through the fence to begin with. :roll: :?
I am editing myself beyond belief here right now ... 8)
 
Hillsdown, I'm the one who tries to get people to not call names on here. That being said, what you wrote is one of the most idiotic things I've seen posted on here. I don't know a rancher anywhere that doesn't have some fence that needs mended or some type of work that needs done. The majority of ranchers put there animals welfare first but sh*t still happens. You can't be everywhere all the time. What you said and the tone you used is akin to calling someone a bad parent because their kid had a bicycle wreck and broke their arm. Jeesh. I want to meet the horse owner who has never had one get cut up. Highlonesome, I'm sorry for your trouble. Good horse vets are getting few and far between. If you need to go to the vet again I would recommend Dr. Ismay in Sturgis.
 
We get lots of help here living is a fairly populated area. Had a well intentioned guy carry a newborn that was just outside the fence where its mom parked it to the nearest cows more than a 1/4 mile away in the wrong direction in the wrong paddock. He took the baby right up to a shelter and made sure it was comfy. Good thing I ran into him on his way back so I knew what happened. I appreciated the effort and thanked him very much and never mentioned his mistake. Stuff does happen and the only one who never had an animal out never had an animal.
 
highlonesome said:
I had my last foal last saturday and about four hours after it was born (assuming) we got a call from a friend saying that a lady in her church clothes and another man were putting the foal back thru the fence. So we go look and sure enough the foals hind leg was cut about four inches across and to the bone. She also had a bad cut on the underside of her belly right at the flank about the size of a half of a dollar. We ran her to the vet and they used 4 suture kits to sew her up and told us to leave the bandage on for at least 4 days, but 10 would be great!! got brave and took the bandage off tonight and it was full off puss and layed open because the stitches dissolved....her belly was the same story! I feel like I wasted my money at the vet, I'm sure she'll be fine....but I am disappointed with the outcome!! Guess Im just gonna do some cold water therapy and leave her be.... I was also told tonight that WD-40 will heal a horse faster than anything, it keeps the flies off and keeps the flesh soft and heals without any proud flesh or scarring?! Well I guess we will see? Sorry about the griping, but maybe someone can give me their two cents to make me feel like I didn't waste my time at the vet!
PS~ Foal is a dark bay with a blaze face and a hind white sock...she is pretty cute! Will get some pics sometime.
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It's not to late!!!! Get the colt where you can get some water on it.. Use a hose and gently let the water run on the cuts....Don't spray it, just let it run on the cut...... The get some woundaid... It is fantastic and it will help it heal really fast with little or noe scaring.. Just spry it on and don't cover it... Accidents happen so don't feel bad...
 
Penicillin may be a good idea too. Especially if that cut on her belly went deep. If it was deep enough it's a good doorway for infection. I wouldn't put any WD40 on it either. I agree with the water suggestion. If you need to put anything on it, Dermagel is my favourite. It cuts down on scarring too.

One good thing out of this is that this baby will have a lot of handling very young, and that is a good thing.
 
Kato said:
Penicillin may be a good idea too. Especially if that cut on her belly went deep. If it was deep enough it's a good doorway for infection. I wouldn't put any WD40 on it either. I agree with the water suggestion. If you need to put anything on it, Dermagel is my favourite. It cuts down on scarring too.

One good thing out of this is that this baby will have a lot of handling very young, and that is a good thing.
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:agree:
 
I've heard about the lard trick too!

As far as why and how it happened...the fence was in no need of repair, that was the problem! It was a chunk of new 5 wire barbed wire and the whole pasture fence looks immaculate because we are renting it and the guy who owns it fixed it all before we moved into it.....it is all 5 wire barbed but the place she want through is new :( . I can't believe the kindness of the people who stopped to help out and who called, im sure they just shoved the colt back through the fence, but at least she got back through the fence to mama (im sure the damage was already done)

About the watching her closer...we just checked her the night before and we estimate that she was about 4 hours old when she went through, we would've had to camp out with her and it still may have happened anyway! Thats a horse I guess :roll:

I have been to Dr Ismay before, and I really like him but it is hard to catch him at the clinic so we just took her to the Belle Fourche Vet Clinic, we had always had good luck there....

She is on 2 antibiotics and 40cc of biosponge 2 x a day x 10 days, so hopefully that will work? I wanted to do injectable, but the vet said she would get tired of being poked? I don't know I guess?

HD I don't claim to know everything, and I am sure I do a lot wrong we're both only 28 yrs old and still learning. My family had raised good quarter horses for about 30 yrs I suppose,and I learned all I could from my dad while I lived at home, but there is still alot of learning to do. The horse getting cut may have been my fault but if I knew the outcome wouldn't be any better after an expensive vet visit I wouldn't have went. I will know next time, thats what learning is all about :)

I want to thank everyone for the advice though, a different outlook always helps and I'm sure a lot of you have seen this before, thats why I ask :) Go ahead and give me your two cents..... :wink:
 
Almost a yr ago, my best mare got sick. 3 vets later,I made a midnight trip to Kansas STATE Vet school where a total of 11 vets worked on her. $7000 and two weeks later she died. K State said, "Yeah, we thought she would but since we are a teaching school, we thought it would be good experience for out students".

Are there some good vets out there? You bet! And there also some real dummies out there also! Get those bandages off those cuts,don't wash out the cuts everyday (when you do, you're washing out whatever healing tissue there is). That colt needs antibiotics injected asap even if she does get a little jumpy.

If I could manage to post a photo on here, I'd show you a cut on a very expensive running bred that just missed cutting a hoof off. 6 weeks later,she was walking on it fine with not one bandage ever. Again, K State wanted to put her in a cast. Didn't think I needed more lessons.

I use a product from Wynewood, Okla., that is sprayed on 3 x daily with just dusting of baking power. Over, no infections,no flies,nada-just rapid healing. If I can help with the name,ect. e mail me.
 
Best thing we've found yet for wounds is Underwood's Horse Medicine. It also helps keep infection away, as well as proud flesh.

It's easy to apply...along with the baking powder after you spray it with the Underwoods.

www.Underwoodhorsemedicine.com
 
I thought I would post a few pics. This is before we washed her up.
DSC00506.JPG


DSC00504.JPG


Filly and Mama
DSC00500.JPG


Belly Cut
DSC00507.JPG


Hind Leg Cut
DSC00509.JPG
 
high lonesome my response was to yours bashing your vets. I read it as your little foal was extensively injured ,,correct ?? Also it needed sutures and you could not do them yourself. I do know shytt happens, but the blaming of LA vets really has gotten to me. They are not God, it is up to you to do the nursing and tending once you get them home etc.

Good luck with your foal , it sure is a beauty..

You cannot blame a vet for 'crap' happening and that is exactly what this post was about.. :roll:

AND yes there are shytty vets and some that charge whatever they want to pay for their expensive life styles,, and I went through that last year when they charged us 10 thou for Steff just to do an ultra sound and biopsy and a couple of other tests .. So believe me I have been there but did anyone of you read a post by me bashing them ummmm NOOOOOOOO..

This did not sound like the same thing, these vets actually took the time and sutured the animal up. If you are not happy talk to your vets or find a new one..
 
I highly recommend this product for horse fence
http://www.gallagherusa.com/electric-fencing/permanent.component.aspx?mktprodid=786

Starting at about picture 13 in this album is the newest fence I installed with this product. http://s111.photobucket.com/albums/n143/RamboC4/Fence/

You get the low maintenance of high tensile, but the large diameter with the coating gives you safety for horses. Uncoated HT will go through them like a cheese slicer, plus they can't see it. I do NOT recommend Gallagher's EquiBraid. The equibraid we installed less then five years ago is getting shorts. If you really want a braid, ElectroBraid (a competing product) is much better.
 
What a sweetie! That is one nice baby.

I'm not surprised about the leg stitches. That's a pretty big area to stitch. Once the swelling started, they'd just pull out.

I know a girl who had a horse run through a barb wire fence, and it's entire chest from one side to the other looked like your baby's leg. It was a mess. She got some Dermagel, hosed it off twice a day with water, put on the Dermagel, and that was all she did. Three weeks later, the difference was nothing short of amazing. She brought pictures to show us at the vet clinic, and we could hardly believe it. The hair even grew back the same colour. Sometimes it grows in white if it's a big wound. No proud flesh, and very little scar left over.

If anything, it's the other wound that I'd worry over. It looks pretty deep. Be very careful to keep it clean, and let it heal from the inside out. I'd cut out those leftover stitches too. They're only going to get in the way anyway. Even if you're mad at the vets, maybe call them, or even another vet, let them know what happened, and get some advice on injectable antibiotics, and maybe whether or not a tetanus shot is in order. Horses and infections do not go well together.

I'd say a fine looking foal like that is worth the effort. :D
 
BAR BAR 2 said:
Hillsdown, I'm the one who tries to get people to not call names on here. That being said, what you wrote is one of the most idiotic things I've seen posted on here. I don't know a rancher anywhere that doesn't have some fence that needs mended or some type of work that needs done. The majority of ranchers put there animals welfare first but sh*t still happens. You can't be everywhere all the time. What you said and the tone you used is akin to calling someone a bad parent because their kid had a bicycle wreck and broke their arm. Jeesh. I want to meet the horse owner who has never had one get cut up. Highlonesome, I'm sorry for your trouble. Good horse vets are getting few and far between. If you need to go to the vet again I would recommend Dr. Ismay in Sturgis.
Click to expand...

Re read the post , and btw you can not throw a rock anywhere in North America without hitting a horse vet thanks to your BS celebrities trying to save all the" little horsies".

I am out now...I hope the gal recoups well and lives a long pampered life.
This post was about blaming the vets and not taking any responsibility.. Shytt happens and stop blaming your vet as was previously stated as it sounds like the vets did all that they could and judging by the new pics the filly looks like she is doing well. If this is to be about the accident the foal suffered then I suggest the original poster edit and change it as such.. :roll:
 

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