Update on Cat

Saturday before we left for out trail ride I took Cat out to hand walk her.  I could tell she wanted to roll so after our 15 min. walk I turned her loose in the dry lot.  The other horses were in the barn so I wasn’t too worried about her getting too stupid.  I watched her for a while.  She went right to the dirt pile and rolled.

As I was inside the barn cleaning her stall and preparing her feed for the weekend my dad commented “well she looks like she’s feeling pretty good. She’s bucking and farting anyways.”  WHAT!  NO!  She’s NOT supposed to be doing that.  I ran out to get her and noticed a HUGE flock of Canadian Geese in the pasture.  So that’s what got her moving!  We have NEVER in the 20 something years we’ve lived out there had Canadian’s in the pasture.  I quickly put a halter on her and put her back in her stall.

Our focus now had changed as we tried to coax Goosezilla and Peaches to join the flock and leave with them.  They did fly out to the flock and semi greeted them but then flew back to the barn.  Darn!

Yesterday I needed to change her bandage so after removing the old one I gave her an EzAll bath to remove the dirt from her roll the day before.  After she was clean I asked Shari to hand walk her for me.  As soon as she hit the arena down she went.  I ran out to get her up but it was too late so we headed back to get hosed off again.  After she was clean for a second time we headed down the road for our walk to help deter her from rolling again.

I had snapped a few pictures of her leg.  This was to be my last wrap but I’m not sure if I’m doing more harm then good w/my wrapping skills so I consulted a friend.

In this picture you can see the peeling skin and two of the sutures.  It almost looks like parchment paper that has lifted of the skin but is still stuck.

This is the actual wound site.  It isn’t swollen it is just the angle of the photo but you can see all of the “gunk” around the area.

Her leg actually looks pretty good.  Most of the swelling is in the hock area where they did all of the injections for the perfusions. 

I decided instead of wrapping her leg I would just cover the wound to keep the dirt/dust out of it.  She was still wet so I thought I’d pick some of the dead skin off the front of her leg.  BIG MISTAKE!  She’s apparently a lot tenderer there then I had anticipated and as soon as I touched this area she nailed me.  I’ve NEVER had her kick before so I’m sure it was just a reaction to the pain.  Never the less I wasn’t happy about it and I was very lucky.  She nicked my knee and the back of my hand but had I been in a different position it could have been much worse.

I worked with her to make sure I could touch the area w/o her kicking and then put my wrap on.  Tomorrow is her last day of bute so this could get interesting.