This morning I was e-mailing Katie that does our web-site & lamented the fact that I had not updated the blog since Wednesday & really didn't have anything to write about. The gang are behaving themselves.........well except for destroying the trees by girdling the bark, but how interesting is that?
Having opened my mouth about nothing to write about, John came in & said Tula had something hanging from her belly. Oh! great, if there is one equine out there, that is a challenge to work with, it's Tula my wild child. I went out & tried to look, from a distance of course. Her comfort zone is about 15-20 feet max. If you try to get closer, she takes off.
After she finished eating, we got her in the squeeze we made using corral panels. What gets me is she will go in the squeeze, & doesn't really seem scared. She never offers to kick or bite or do anything dangerous. The muscles on her hips don't get tight, but her skin quivers the whole time you work with her. I felt under the midline of her belly & felt a blob of dirt hanging with sharp protrusions. Couldn't see it, everytime I tried to get down low she would start to get jumpy. I went in to get the camera, figured a close up picture might give me a clue as to what I was dealing with. John was handing out treats, & she was willing to take them. So was Chester, he has been in the squeeze so much he thinks it is his private property, & was trying to either help or get in the squeeze with her. Either way, he wasn't much help.
This is what I found. The dirt scab is hanging to the left with an open wound underneath. I still didn't know what I had, but could tell the scab was held on by hair. Got my scissors & really had to be careful, because it was right up to her stomach. Finally got i
t off & it took a little time to figure out what it was.
At sometime recently she has laid down on a Fishhook barrel cactus hook & embedded it pretty deep into her belly. It stayed there long enough to start breaking down the hook, until it was soft enough to straighten & work itself out. Unfortunately the accompanying infection collected dirt & made a big heavy dirt scab, caught in the hair & she couldn't get rid of it. There is fresh blood on the side where one of the hooks was continuing to poke her as she moved.
I cleaned her up & put some thunja zinc oxide on it. It seems to be healing OK, but we'll have to check it every day to make sure. So she'll be going back in the squeeze daily for a few days.
There were 3 hooks, the one in the middle is the one that made the large hole in her belly & had straightened out. The one on the left, was a non-player it was pointing away from her belly. But there is another one on the other side of the scab that was causing the fresh sore, as she walked.
This is a good reason to check equine over every day to make sure they haven't found something to hurt themselves with. I have my hands on everyone else every day, but she is a special case, I only check her visually. But until this came loose from her belly, I didn't even notice it.
Having opened my mouth about nothing to write about, John came in & said Tula had something hanging from her belly. Oh! great, if there is one equine out there, that is a challenge to work with, it's Tula my wild child. I went out & tried to look, from a distance of course. Her comfort zone is about 15-20 feet max. If you try to get closer, she takes off.
After she finished eating, we got her in the squeeze we made using corral panels. What gets me is she will go in the squeeze, & doesn't really seem scared. She never offers to kick or bite or do anything dangerous. The muscles on her hips don't get tight, but her skin quivers the whole time you work with her. I felt under the midline of her belly & felt a blob of dirt hanging with sharp protrusions. Couldn't see it, everytime I tried to get down low she would start to get jumpy. I went in to get the camera, figured a close up picture might give me a clue as to what I was dealing with. John was handing out treats, & she was willing to take them. So was Chester, he has been in the squeeze so much he thinks it is his private property, & was trying to either help or get in the squeeze with her. Either way, he wasn't much help.
This is what I found. The dirt scab is hanging to the left with an open wound underneath. I still didn't know what I had, but could tell the scab was held on by hair. Got my scissors & really had to be careful, because it was right up to her stomach. Finally got i
t off & it took a little time to figure out what it was.At sometime recently she has laid down on a Fishhook barrel cactus hook & embedded it pretty deep into her belly. It stayed there long enough to start breaking down the hook, until it was soft enough to straighten & work itself out. Unfortunately the accompanying infection collected dirt & made a big heavy dirt scab, caught in the hair & she couldn't get rid of it. There is fresh blood on the side where one of the hooks was continuing to poke her as she moved.
I cleaned her up & put some thunja zinc oxide on it. It seems to be healing OK, but we'll have to check it every day to make sure. So she'll be going back in the squeeze daily for a few days.
There were 3 hooks, the one in the middle is the one that made the large hole in her belly & had straightened out. The one on the left, was a non-player it was pointing away from her belly. But there is another one on the other side of the scab that was causing the fresh sore, as she walked.
This is a good reason to check equine over every day to make sure they haven't found something to hurt themselves with. I have my hands on everyone else every day, but she is a special case, I only check her visually. But until this came loose from her belly, I didn't even notice it.
6 comments:
Poor Tula!!! No wonder she was grumpy.ha. Hope she gets better and I'm happy that she is trying to get closer with you all even though it was in the garage. Maybe next time your house,huh? ha
Oops, read it wrong. Lucy not Tula. Oops!
That's OK, you should see me trying to match donkeys & names. Sometimes I go thru 3 or 4 names before I get the right one.
Congratulations to the "surgeon." Ouch, that was a tough one.
It's probably a good thing we didn't find it sooner, or we would have gotten involved & probably made it worse. She kept up with the herd, like she would have to in the wild, & it's healing real quick.
we got a weird thing like that on Fred our former rescue, now boarder, donkey. those yucky hair mats can hide some stuff huh? his wound looks almost the same as hers only bigger, but there are NO CACTUS AT ALL in our yard... so not sure how he hurt himself!
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