And you wonder

And you wonder why in 2 years I only have 30 rides on Cat?

Last night turned into a horrible night! I went out to ride Cat to find her back leg cut & bleeding. It looked pretty superficial. No big deal. I'll just cold hose it and see what if that helps.

I cold hosed it but noticed she didn't want to bare weight on it so I decided to call a vet. Vet finally calls back and says "no big deal, call tomorrow to schedule an appointment & we'll stitch it then".

I had a pretty uneasy feeling in about things so I consulted a friend who suggested taking her to another vet. I called another vet & decided to haul her over to the clinic vs. having her out for a farm call. I could barely get her in the trailer.

Disclaimer: I may not have all the facts right - I was a bit overwhelmed.

The vet looked at her and finally decided to tap her. The fluid immediately came out of the cut and I knew by the look the vet gave me it wasn't a good thing. Cat has a cut tendon sheath so she referred me to ISU.

When we finally got up to ISU I learned the quote was twice as much as what my vet thought it would be (of course, why wouldn't it be). It wasn't an easy decision but we (DH & I) decided to move ahead. I sure hope that was a good idea.

They did a bunch of stuff last night to stabilize her. She was in so much pain I think they could have done all of the work without a sedative.

They put a tourniquet on her leg and then injected her leg/veins with antibiotics and cleaned the wound. The game plan for today is to put her on the table, scope the leg to find out the extent of the damage and debride the wound. Possibly a few x-rays to make sure she didn’t do any damage to her splint bone.

I have absolutely NO clue how she did this. We have gone through the pasture and picked up everything except for the tree limbs that are in a pile and I’m 99.9999% sure she didn’t do it on the tree limbs. She has other cuts/scrapes that make it look like she got caught up in something but again – I’m not sure what.

I told DH I honestly think it would have been easier on me to find her dead in the pasture vs. putting a price limit on her life. Anyone need a kidney?