#TBT Baby Zoodles and Broken Legs

January was a pretty slow blogging month and I’ve been busy getting back to reality for 2018. Does anyone else feel like January was approximately three months long?

I love looking at my Timehop app and Facebook Memories and this week a few things popped up. First, let’s look at some adorable Baby Zu pics.

Zuzu was the cutest, sweetest nugget baby and I’m forever grateful that she was able to grow up with Maggie. Zuzu is over two years old now and it’s shocking how quickly these two years have flown by.

Another memory that popped up was a Facebook status I posted last year announcing to the world that I had quit my job at Weatherbeeta and was moving to Charlotte to start a new chapter of my life. What a year it’s been! Last weekend was one year since I flew down to CLT with my mom to find a place to live. It was my first visit to the city in general, even though I’d already committed to moving here. It was also an extremely challenging weekend for me mentally, considering I had just learned that Goose had done quite a number on himself…

To preface this story, Goose’s initial right hind leg injury happened November 2016 while I was away for Thanksgiving. Kendra went to the barn to pick up Goose and take him hunting, but unfortunately, he had a big skin flap on his back leg. It looked like someone had scooped out a chunk of flesh, but left the flap on. He was never unsound on it but it took forever to heal. That was literal months of keeping it wrapped with various remedies and medications and one visit from the vet for the flap to finally die. I ended up cutting the flap off myself, and we settled into a routine of slathering it with copious amounts Manuka honey (the medical kind) until it was finally filling in and looking normal.

Back to January 2017, the day I was set to fly down to Charlotte with my mom. I had scheduled a late morning lesson with Kendra. Goose’s leg was still wrapped from the healing wound so when I pulled him in from the field and threw my boots over the wrap, I thought nothing of the injury. After hopping on for my lesson and asking him to trot off, Goober was DEAD lame behind. This is a horse who barely took more than a few days of lame steps even after he bowed a tendon a few years ago. I immediately jumped off and Kendra and I noticed blood dripping down from his right hind where he was vet wrapped and booted. Hustling back to the barn, my brain was jumping to horrible conclusions like his leg was septic and this was blood poisoning from so many months of the wound not healing. We pulled his boots and wrap off and for the life of me I could not find the source of the blood, but it was clearly not the existing wound. Feeling around his leg, my finger suddenly sunk into the depths of his leg.

Long story short, Kendra and I made the unanimous decision the vet was needed. There was concern as to how he punctured himself THROUGH A FREAKING COTTON AND VET WRAP BANDAGE and if there damage to his tendon sheath. Dawn had arrived at this point, and my vet was on his way. Now watching the clock, panic was setting in as I had to rush home soon to make my flight. Because Dawn is possibly the greatest human I know, she graciously agreed to hang out with the vet while I went on my way and would call me with updates as soon as she had any. As I was leaving, my vet walked in so I stayed for a few minutes while he examined the leg. I had clipped the hair away in preparation, and my vet decided we needed x-rays to see what was going on. With that, I headed home trying to keep my head on straight.

Minutes before we got in the car to head to the airport, I got a call from the vet.

What my brain heard: “Goose broke his leg. You should probably start panicking, he’s definitely going to die.”

What was actually said: “Goose has a compound fracture of his right hind splint bone. I know this is upsetting, and there is concern for infection because of the compound, but this is a pretty common injury and there is no visible damage to the tendon sheath.”

As horse people will know, splint bones are pretty much useless so this was not a huge deal. I mean, it wasn’t nothing considering the compound fracture part, but the splint bone is vastly different than if he had fractured a “real” bone in his leg which would have been a death sentence. But still, I was in an emotionally fragile state so naturally I proceeded to have a mental breakdown on the phone with my vet. Now, Travis is a magical human who knew me and Goose well at this point and he moved forward cautiously and kindly. I’m sure he was wishing the whole time he could just deal with the very rational Dawn instead of crazy old me, but he was my hero of the day.

I was told that there was concern for infection because of the compound, however we were very lucky that Goose had been vet wrapped in that very same area so it kept out dirt and debris from his turnout pasture. We settled on the likelihood that he had either been kicked or had kicked out and made impact with a fencepost causing the bone to fracture and push through his skin, and when he stepped back down the bone settled back in. I was told he would likely need surgery to remove the bone but we would discuss again in a week when Travis came out to re-check once some swelling had gone down. By this time, I was a total disaster and was seeing stars from panic.

How the hell was I supposed to move 600 miles away in just a few days when my best boy needed surgery?

Anyway, we all know how this turned out. I moved to Charlotte, Goose stayed home with the absolute best care team imaginable, and we had the most epic roadtrip to bring him down to Rock Hill last May. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, and while I’m sure I could ramble on for hours about this, it seems I’ll cap this picture out at 918.  

Have some surgery pictures. I love that I have such wonderful documentation thanks to the aforementioned champion nursing crew.

The initial skin flap wound probably a few days after it happened. 

Finally healing and filling in the hole

More X-rays

That little slit is where the bone came through. Couldn't find it through all his fur!

Post-op: Probably day of surgery or when he came home the next day

One more post-op. Healing beautifully! 

While on the topic of “this time last year…” next week marks my one year anniversary with my new company. It’s been a great experience and a lot of fun to work in such a unique environment. My dog comes to work with me every day, I live in an awesome city, and have a much better work/life balance than I ever did in NJ. At the end of the day, I get to leave work at work and go see my horse, grab a beer, or hang at home with Zu without crushing, ulcer-inducing stress sucking the life out of me like a dementor.

Just starting her Bounces and Wiggles internship at Weatherbeeta

Running the damn show in the Charlotte office

A lot has changed in just a few years! Luckily we're no longer dealing with broken bones, just dealing with melanoma. Hopefully this month I’ll get back on a better blogging schedule. Goose is back to work and I’m working on scheduling his second surgery, so there’s not too many interesting things to report other than the Goon is doing well and I’m looking forward to getting back to a regular riding routine.