Izzy's Leg: One Year Later

On this day last year, I brought Izzy home from the trainer who was supposed to give him a green bean "refresher" course. Instead, he came home with a gigantic gash in his hind leg. That's an old story that you can read by clicking here (you'll have to go through a lot of previous posts to start from the beginning).

The day I bought him - November 29, 2015

When I unwrapped the wound that very first time, I was more horrified than I have ever been in my life. I had never actually seen a wound that deep on a horse before. For a brief moment, I wondered if he could even live through it. I seriously wondered if he would have to be put down. It truly looked as though half of his leg had been ripped away from his body, and this was four days after the initial injury.

In case you're relatively new to my blog, here's the photo from the day I first saw it (prepare yourself as it is quite graphic).

Believe it or not, he was never lame on it.

I have a wonderful vet. He's quite knowledgeable when it comes to sport horses, and he recognizes that in order to perform at the highest levels, they often require very specialized care. He is also an excellent field vet with decades of experience. He knows that cutting edge isn't always better, and that tried and true, get in up to your elbows treatments are often what is called for.

For Izzy, he laid out an initial ten-week treatment plan that called for old fashioned pressure bandages and frequent debridement of the wound to remove the over-granulated tissue, otherwise known as proud flesh. To hear it now, ten-weeks would have been a gift, but last January, ten weeks sounded like a death sentence. How was I ever going to make it through ten weeks? BWAHAHAHAHA - insert maniacal laugh here.

It took ten weeks all right, and then a few more. In all, I wrote at least twenty-five posts detailing Izzy's recovery process. And now, here we are - exactly 365 days later. To be honest I've kind of forgotten about the wound lately. The last time I blogged about it was right after Christmas. Over the past few weeks, I've just brushed it off and checked for any splitting or filling.

On Friday afternoon, we had a little bit of late afternoon sunlight, so I snapped a few pictures hoping to get one that shows that the wound has finally, finally knit all the way closed and is now hardened with scar tissue.

This picture is from January 8 - 367 days after the initial injury.

Most of my friends say that I did an incredible job helping this wound to heal. I don't know if that's true or not. I didn't do anything special or particularly time consuming other than wrap every other day for a very long time ... months and months. And even when it seemed as though it had healed, but then it burst open, I wrapped it again every other day. And when it finally looked like it had really healed for reals, but then it cracked open again, I wrapped it every other day for several more months. 

If that's an incredible job, well okay, then I did an incredible job. I don't look at it that way though. All I saw was a horse that needed his leg wrapped - a lot, and so I did.

Want to see it again? Here's the before and after with about 150 bandage jobs in between. Maybe more.

January 10, 2015

January 8, 2016

Pressure Bandage

Modified Bandage

Mini Bandage

Liquid Bandage

A Mexican friend of mine has the perfect Spanish idiom ... ésta arroz se coció. The English translation is "this rice is cooked." I think something gets a little lost in the translation. Let's try this one - stick a fork in it 'cause it's DONE!