Veterinary Adventures

OK, so this is one of those slightly gross things that non-horse people will probably not care to read. Yesterday I was checking out what I thought was a bite on Kasey's back that had healed over... and I pulled out some hair with a little 'plug' attached to the end of it. I got digging a little deeper and I realized it wasn't a bite at all, it's a line of little puncture wounds that had healed over the top but not underneath. Horseowners will be familiar with the fact that puncture wounds are more dangerous than other types of wound for just this reason.

These ones were fortunately not infected, but it looks like they maybe had been infected and had hardened into a little plug that prevented proper healing. I got a couple out myself (poor guy, they must have been irritating him because he put up with it pretty well!) but called Lisa, our vet, to see if she could stop by later today. She'll be out after a couple of pre-purchase exams later this afternoon.

One of the pitfalls of having part of your pasture used as a junk yard 50 years ago... you can pick stuff up every day and still have the horse find something you missed, I swear it just grows right up out of the ground. I figure he probably rolled on something; we picked up a short piece of ancient barbed wire a couple of days ago so maybe that was it.

UPDATE: We clipped the hair in the area, rinsed it out with some Betadine, and I've been putting a little Neosporin on the surface area. It's healing nicely, all is well :)