The day before she was set to be saddled at SAFE for the first time, we went out to get Mabel at her usual turn-in time and found that she had gashed her leg open. Thoroughly searching the paddock revealed no cause. We guess she decided that stall rest sounded better than wearing a saddle.
Dr Lewis was fast on the scene. Mabel let us clip and wash and prep the area for stitching with little fuss. The fuss only began when the vet went to block the area to numb it. Touching all over the wound (that went down to the bone)? No problem. But involve a needle and, even sedated, touching was suddenly a STRONG no-go.
We gave it the ole college (even PhD level) try, but ultimately Mabel decided that she was not feeling up to stitches. So we wrapped her leg for the night and the vet planned to return the next day to potentially try again. But by day 2, the wound had begun to heal in such a way that Dr Lewis decided the best course of action would be to continue to wrap it versus try stitching it up.
Over the last 7 weeks, Mabel has received twice weekly re-wraps, and each time we peeled away the bandage her wound looked smaller and smaller, better and better. Obviously this is what we always hope to see, but there is risk of proud flesh and infection developing, neither of which were encountered here. Overall she did very well for her initial stall rest, and behaved herself in the small rehab paddock as we incrementally increased her space.
Today at her unwrap, we are delighted to announce that Mabel’s leg got the all clear. She has a small little scab still, but nothing that will prevent her from living the life she was before her injury.
