Staples out - or not

[carthorse]

Yesterday Jim was meant to have his staples out. It did not go well. In fact it went very badly. The only consolation is it could have been worse.

Jim still has all but four of his staples in. The vet has stitches in his face & a broken nose .

First of all he tried without dope but Jim wasn't having any of that, it's not often Jim says no but when he does he means it & bent under his belly isn't a good place to argue with him. It was well worth a try though because often he's good about things like that & he's been letting me rub cream on it for days.

We thought of a twitch but as soon as he saw it he put his head in the corner & swung his bum on us. Didn't seem like a good idea to go any further with that one!

I said lets dope him & have done with it. He's too big & strong to argue with, people can get hurt. Unfortunately he's also needle shy & has had a few jabs lately so this wasn't as easy as it sounds. However after quite a performance, & some near misses as he got stroppy, the vet finally got some dope into a muscle (no way he was getting a vein) & finally Jim looked quiet.

First staple fine. Second one, twitchy & lifting a front leg. Third one, stamped a hind. Fourth one, kicked the vet in the face . He never kicks! I think, in his doped up state, he thought the vet was an insect under his tummy & was kicking at that. Whatever his reason the effect was the same, the poor guy hit the deck clutching at his face, there was blood everywhere. I daren't let go of Jim in case he snapped out of the dope & did something even worse so all I could do was talk to him & pass him some swabs until he could move out of the stable & I could let go of Jim. At least he was conscious & could move. He wiped it up as best he could & very quickly decided he'd broken his nose, there was also a big cut just below one eyebrow which may have been a split from the force of the blow. To think he'd been saying that it wasn't as risky as it looked because they couldn't get much force in at that distance & type of movement. Seems Jim didn't know that .

The vet ended up in A&E & will have to get his nose sorted when the swelling goes down. I could have died, I felt so awful that my horse did that to him. What's scary is it could have been so much worse, I really do think he could have killed him if it had been in a slightly different place.

Originally two vets were going to come back today & I'd got some local anaesthetic cream to put on to see if that helped. The plan was I was going to have a go with just the cream, he's a mummy's boy so sometimes I get away with things no-one else can. Failing that a serious amount of a different dope & as much restraint as we could. But I still couldn't see it going well, he'd be wound up from the start & sometimes dope makes him worse as he seems to act on pure instinct rather than manners.

In a desperate brainwave I called the hospital & spoke to his surgeon. I explained what had happened & asked if she'd any ideas for coping with this. Her answer? Leave them in! Eventually they'll loosen & fall out, they won't rust & if I'm rubbing cream in every day they may well rub out. I was so relieved I could have cried, I just wish I'd known that when we were having trouble doping him. So if anyone else ever finds themselves in this position please check with your surgeon, ideally before someone gets hurt.

I do love Jim but occassionally I wish he was slightly less "special". Most of the time he's an absolute gent but when he isn't he makes up for it big time & he can be downright dangerous. My poor vet, he's a lovely guy & really didn't deserve that .

 

[devonlass]

Oh lord I do sympathise,I would have mortified if my horse had done that to my vet also,how awful for you (and vet of course!!).

Is a shame Jim was quite so unhappy about it,but fingers crossed leaving them in will work out ok.

Keep up updated with how it's all going.

Few pics of your gorgeous welshie boy when you have chance would be lovely too

 

[BIrish]

What a palaver! Naughty Jim!

It's impossible to NOT feel bad when your horse does something like this as well.. have a nice glass of vino and send your vet a card and a (very) nice bottle of Whiskey by way of an apology - they usually like a nice bottle of Balvenie IME

The staples will fall out (as demonstrated by a huge WB on a yard I was with once - he had a badly cut thigh and once staples were in he wouldn't let anyone take them out - they fell out eventually) or you could try doping him with ACP pills/paste initially, enough so the Vet can get a needle in for a deeper sedation ?

 

[carthorse]

That's nice to know about the WB BIrish. Any idea how long it ook for them to fall out? While I'm obviously not riding him for some time yet I'm not sure if one or two will be rather close to the girth if they're still in by then. Though that's assuming I'll have the guts to get back on him after such a long holiday, he was fairly fit before all this & I'm not sure if he'll lose enough for my liking in two months.

So far, apart from a couple of notable hiccups (loading to come home & now the vet) he's been better behaved than I expected. A few skitters & bounces in hand & very demanding for attention but nothing scary & so far the manners are holding. He looks as fit as a fiddle though, very bright, very alert & trying to stick his nose into everything .

He's so anti-needles that ACP or Sedalin isn't going to make any difference, it may even make him worse. I think some the trouble yesterday was that doped up he isn't so aware of his surroundings, his reactions are then more extreme & he forgets his manners. I've had problems with him before when he's been doped & I never trust him under it.

Devonlass I'll try to get you some Little Un pics soon. He's more or less put hiself on box rest too as he doesn't want to leave Jim, not that it'll hurt his waistline! I must try to ride him tomorrow if there's someone I can leave with Jim - obviously if he starts panicking without his pony I need to know so I can get back ASAP .

 

[Joyscarer]

There was me with my fingers crossed for you after your last thread. I don't think it worked!

Poor little man must be very worried to do something like that

Whilst I feel for the vet it is a risk they take. What I find weird is that health and safety at many riding schools dictates that hats must be worn when handling horses. It's funny that vets and other professionals doing jobs that can be stressy to the horse don't protect themselves more

I've rambled off topic a bt

Good for you in having the presence of mind to give the surgeon a ring. At least you don't have to flap so much now.

 

[carthorse]

To be fair Joyscarer a hat probably wouldn't have made any difference unless it also had a very sturdy face guard attached. But if Jim had caught him a fraction higher then one may have saved a very nasty accident. Having said that I didn't go & get mine when he started throwing himself arond the box - my reasoning for years has been that a hat is only relevent if they hit me in the head, Jim (undoped) doesn't get people by accident & if he ever went for me on purpose no hat made would save me .

At that point I don't even think he was worried, "all" he did was fly kick at his belly. Once, several years ago when he was no where near as mature & strong, he caught me on the thigh as he brought his foot down after one of those fly kicks - for a moment I thought he'd broken my leg & for ages after I had a huge swollen black bruise that was too big for my hand to cover. The thought of him connecting with someones face now that he's so much more powerful ..... well, the vet was actually lucky in a perverse way.

He was good as gold with the farrier today