We couldn't get ahold of any vets that would come. Hannah was a wreck-we all were really scared. I have never seen something like this before & it was really awful.
We got ahold of Hannah's riding instructor(JoAnn) who called her personal vet. She asked JoAnn to assess him for her first before she'd come. And then after she heard what was up, she told us the options were for her to either call the animal hospital to let them know we were coming or she would come and put him down.
Pat thought he saw brown stuff leaking around the stick & thought it was feces-in which case he was done for-4 days after we got him.
We were all praying very very hard-I mostly prayed that God would have mercy on Kasey & Hannah-putting him down would devestate her-she's finally started talking about Bumpa & crying about him being gone.
We couldn't get him to move, so we gave him banamine (pain killer) & backed the trailer up to him with the tractor so we could get it into the pasture so he wouldn't have to walk much.
If we couldn't get him on the trailer, we would have had to put him down.
JoAnn & Larry (that's her dh & we own beef cows w/ them also)
His color was good, he was alert & responsive, so JoAnn thought it might not be as serious as it looked.
They were able to get him on the trailer and to the Emergency Large Animal hospital. I feel so blessed that we're only 35 mins away from there.
He was so good-they weighed him, started an arterial line & sewed it onto him, stuck a needle into his belly to aspirate stomach fluids & they tested the brown stuff coming out around the stick. No one there could believe he was so young because he kept his head about him & never panicked. They went on and on about what a good boy he was. I'm so thankful he never fought us with all the stuff that had to be done to him-he could have injured himself more from panicking than from the actual injury.
Everything looked great. His blood levels & enzymes were good. The brown stuff was liqued from swelling-not feces & his stomach fluid was crystal clear.
They did the surgery with him in a standing surgery stall & heavily sedated him. They got the stick out-it was 14 inches long-with 10 inches of it inside him.
Let me tell you-the Lord answered our desperate prayers. That stick went b/w his peritoneal cavity & the thigh muscle-didn't damage or puncture anything (other than his body). It slighly scraped the inside of his thigh muscle.
They said 1 inch to the left or right and it would have been a very different prognosis. There was no blood when they took it out either.
He's still there & will be until Sunday. Since they didn't have to use a general, the cost is going to be much cheaper, but it's still going to be expensive.
I'm so proud of Hannah-all the phone calls, trailer situating & other stuff we had to do before leaving for Cornell took over 2 hours-Hannah stayed with him in the dark & in the rain-crying & praying & talking to Kasey. She said when she found him like that it felt like her heart stopped beating. I hate it that she had to experience this kind of horror-and Kasey, too. The poor boy-we think he must have been like this for a couple hours before we found him. It's really killing all of us to wonder how long he was suffering for-alone & not able to move.
JoAnn was such a stablizing person for all of us. Pat was so shaky (outwardly, he was a rock) & feeling like this was somehow his fault. JoAnn told him she had a horse impale himself in the chest when in a round pen that had nothing in it. Larry offered to drive the truck on the way to the hospital-and Pat let him.
I stayed home & my MIL came to stay with me in case of labor starting & because I was so frazzled.
I got to bed at 1:00 am because I couldn't sleep until I heard something. My MIL went to bed at 2:00am-and stayed here with us all day today. Pat & Hannah got home from Cornell at 2:30am. Pat had to go to work, so only got 3 hours of sleep.
This morning we heard that Kasey was doing well-he was perky, ears up, friendly & very hungry. He was in pain, though-and they're medicating him for it. He also has a fever, which is to be expected.
They made the wound bigger during surgery to scrub it out really good & left it open to drain. They are flushing it every day.
We're not sure yet if he is coming home with it open or closed-they haven't decided what is best yet.
If they missed any splinters or bark-which they don't think they did-then it could fester & he might need surgery again.
Would you please pray that he doesn't get an infection, will recover completely & quickly? And that this will not affect his hind leg muscle in any way or cause him emotional trauma & change the way he is when being handled.
Thank you so much!!
I hope there are no more scares or excitement here this week (see the earlier excitement in the post below). I am blown away by God's goodness, though-that stick was in the only place possible that wouldn't either kill him or make him permanently lame/damaged in some way.
This morning we are going to visit him. Yesterday Larry checked up on him for us.
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