These aren't Halloween Special Effects...

Pictures of my poor, poor horse, Lightning's back leg:

The Damage:


The story:
Justin got a phone call last Thurs. evening that Lightning had gotten run off by some horses and hurt his leg very badly. They wanted to know what we wanted to do (take him to the vet now, it can't wait or put him down). I of course wanted more details, so we spent the next 30 minutes finding out that he had gotten tangled in a fence when he ran from some other horses that were being mean to him, he didn't want to fight. His leg was bleeding, but that wasn't the worrisome part. His leg was flopping, he wouldn't put wait on it, it was REALLY dirty. All Jeff could tell was that there was an 8 inch cut, completely exposing the bone and that some tendons were cut, but he didn't know how many or which ones. He couldn't tell the condition of the bone, cuz the horse wouldn't let him that close, but he had been trying to clean it out with water. *The problem with a horse leg injury is that if the bone is broke, it's done or if the wrong tendons are cut, it's done and most likely to fix a fixable leg, it will cost too much money for people like us.* Jeff said that the good news was that when he untangled Lightning, he did run off, which means he was still using his leg somewhat. So, we decided that we wanted to take him to the vet, but we are in I.F. and he is in Inkom. Luckily, Justin's friend Brett in Pocatello, was able to go get him and take him to the vet.
Thanks Brett! (and the tranqulized horse also):
Getting Stitched:

As fixed as possible:

All wrapped up:

When we got there, the vet was already working on him, which I was confused about because I thought we were going to weigh everything and decide how fixable it was and how much it would be. She said that since he had walked on his leg to get out of the trailor, there would be no permanent damage. It was really dirty and a large portion of bone was exposed and a large front tendon was cut, luckily that is what made his hoof floppy, no broken bone! She cut the severed muscle and stitched what could be, then wrapped the leg and said that the muscle would turn into scar tissue and his leg would regain control of the hoof and he would be perfectly ridable next year! The problem was with that much bone exposed he could very easily get a bone infection and then die. So, needless to say, we ended up spending a LOT of money on fixing him (and the decision was made for us, cuz the vet was working on him before we even got there), I.V. antibiotics at $20 a day, on top of the after hours vet bill, wrapping, feed, more antibiotics and more wrapping. Now he is on oral antibiotics and we have to still make sure that he doesn't get an infection, but the skin has started to grow back, so he has moved to Brett's house, till he gets checked again on Thurs. Then if all is well, it's back to Jeff's, separate from the butthead horses of course!!