Malodor defined

Forgot to mention, the nasty smell inside the bandage is/was "opportunistic bacteria". Basically, bacteria that found a nice, warm, wet place to go wild. No big deal, just make sure it's dry before rewrapping if I hose it.

Catching up on pics and a trip to the vet

A few bandage changes ago Dani's wound started getting gooier and smelling REALLY bad. I gave it a few days see if we could go in the right direction, but, to no avail. Here are pics from several days ago. I decided to hose it off since it was SO gooey and icky. I thought I might as well give her a bath too.
I tried to shave some of the hair off that keeps getting stuck in the wound. She only let me get a small amount off. It seemed very tender and painful for her, so I quit messing with it and rewrapped it.

This is a SMB instead of a traditional wrap. I had to go quickly as she has having none of this standing still bit. I threw a Telfa pad at it, wrapped some brown gauze loosely around and got the boot on. You can see even here, she wouldn't let me get the Elastikon tight. Bad pony!





After I turned her back out, she walked back to her friends and proceeded to roll.

Of course she did.

This is Dani telling me she prefers the grunge look.

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After changing the bandage again last night and smelling the nasty odor for several minutes, I decided to make a vet appointment for today. I was able to get her in at noon and the vet cleaned it up, shaved around the wound area and debrided it to, hopefully, get it to heal a little better.

Veterinary assistant, Carol, and new Intern (Resident?) Vet.

Dr. Krebs hosing off the debris.A temporary wrap to staunch the blood flow after debriding.
In the stocks, Dani, is sedated and feeling a little loopy.

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In case this isn't enough pictures for our dear readers, here are a few more I took yesterday evening. Horses were munching grass and weeds we pulled from the garden.

Smacking the root ball against Belle, the pony, to get the dirt off.

Pictures

These pictures are from her last bandage change. Should have done this one for the 4th of July.

Ground driving

Since Dani can't be ridden for quite awhile yet, I really don't want to start back at zero when we finally do get the green light from the vet. So, since I've been ground driving Shelby, I thought Dani could learn that too. It won't put any extra weight on that leg and we're only talking about a few minutes here and there, so unless she panics and injures herself, there really isn't a worry, health-wise.

After working with Shelby, I left the equipment out and got Dani. She was her loving, happy self as I took her into the round pen.

First, I sent her in a couple of circles to see if she could free-lunge, and of course, she did great. A few little bucks and she wanted more speed, but it was purely joy, no maliciousness involved. I mean, we're talking about Dani here.

Then, I did the same with a line attached. She felt the weight and slowed right down. Both directions then on to the surcingle. She didn't mind it on her back, but tightening it AT ALL was not comfortable for her. Not sure if it's that she hasn't been ridden in months or that it was not a saddle and she just wasn't used to it. Eventually, after many times of just laying it on her and taking it off, then pulling the belly strap just touching her belly and taking it off, she let me put it through the buckles. She didn't take off, she didn't panic, but I could tell that she was wondering what in the heck I was doing with this microscopic little "saddle".

So I free-lunged again and, again, the happy little playfulness, but once the line was on her halter, it was all business. I put the long line through a ring in the surcingle and she didn't mind at all. In fact, she listened quite a bit better and was "hearing" the cue through the surcingle very well.

Then...a moment of silence...I attached the long line on the off-side. We were still in the round pen, so nowhere to go, but I thought she might get panicky with too many lines dangling around. Nope. No big deal. Soon, she was going at a calm walk in both directions and stopping with little effort on my part.

Out we went into the pasture. She got coiled up a couple of times, but figured out very quickly what I was asking and went right to it. We went away from the other horses very easily (something I still struggle with driving Shelby) and circled the round pen twice. I drove her back to the gate by her buddies and let the surcingle fall off her rump. She did great. Since it's a little hard to snap pictures of myself and Dani while driving her, no pictures today.

I changed her bandage too. She is so good for it. Just as calm as you please. Faith likes to help and I let her wrap the Elastikon at the end. I like to get it rewrapped as quickly as possible to avoid flies. I hate flies. Nasty, nasty creatures.

The leg looks the same as the last bandage change. One part doesn't seem to be healing much. It's like there's a pocket, or hole, of some kind that just isn't closing. I'll need to take another horse in soon, so will bring her then to have Dr. Krebs check it out. It doesn't smell so wonderful, but I think it's that she likes to play in the water and it's always damp and gets kind of musty.

We groomed her and fed her grain with her supplements after her less than strenuous workout. She loved to be pampered. Faith put sparkles in her mane and tail. I think she kind of liked it.

Blah!

I guess I got what I deserved. Dani sure didn't. After her bath a few days ago, I left her wrap off for a couple of hours and let her out by herself. Later, my daughter came running in saying "Dani's leg is bleeding!!!". I ran out and, sure enough, it was puffed back up like a beach ball and bleeding a little bit.

Note to self: Leave the wrap on!

I cold hosed it and wrapped it back up. It's back to "normal" now.

Sheesh...sometimes I can't believe my own stupidity.

On a happy note, Dani is a hit with any visitors we have. She is the first to the gate (I know, lots of people say that about their horses, but this is true) and wants to know everyone. She is not content until she knows the people who are visiting. Very cute.

Bath day!

Pictures to come of Dani wet from her bath. I forgot the camera at the beginning and didn't want to run out on her to get it while she was soapy and tied. Not a nice trick.

Her leg was unwrapped (still is!) and though she didn't like the spray heading in that direction, it didn't seem like a pain thing. More like a sensation she is unused to, which I totally get.

I used the sprayer (EZ-all) type thing and it worked well. I don't think those do a GREAT job, but it does distribute the soap better so I can scrub faster. She didn't mind any of her body being sprayed, except she was goofy with her head. I didn't spray soap in her face, but did dribble some there just so I could rub her face with a bit water.

I turned her out by herself and she immediately, seriously within about 5 seconds, rolled in a dry patch of dirt. I had the camera RIGHT THERE and she still was able to roll before I could snap a picture. I took a few anyway and will post them later.

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Updating with pictures.