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What happened
to April |
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| My life is totally and utterly
revolving around my 18 year old horse, April, at the moment..... and thus
haven't been spending much time on the UJFS site. Late February this year (2000) I received that dreaded phone call that horse owners' hate....... "your horse is lame, what do you want us to do?" My horse had fractured her intermediate carpal bone in several places in her off fore leg (right front leg). That bone is located in the carpal joint where in layman terms you would call a knee. Her future was deemed to be tragic without surgery. The following day she was floated to the Randwick Equine Centre in Sydney for a second opinion.
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| Surgery was ruled out in her case as waking up from anaesthesia
would more than likely "pop" the pins and screws which would ultimately shatter
the rest of the bones in the joint. So they recommended heavy leg bandaging and
extended confinement and she would recover fine. After one week and several major dramas she was allowed to go to her new home of being confined in a stable for four months !!!! (aaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!)
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| Read April's Vet
report
here. It took her several weeks to settle in and get used to her new life of being locked up (I feel so sorry for her) and the bandaging ended after 6 weeks. The picture to the right shows her bandaging. Although it looks like a cast, it is a layer of cotton wool wrap, then bandages, then a second layer of cotton wool wrap with a second layer of bandages and an outer layer of elastoplast.
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| At the 2 month mark, I received clearance to take her for very small walks which basically just involves leading her out into the yard adjoining the stable so she can graze on some grass. She is utterly enjoying these little ventures into the "outside" world. | |
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April would get visits from other four
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| At the end of 3 months she could start to be introduced to the outside world again in small doses! She had a mini dose of some freedom as I let her off the lead rope to graze by herself in her yard - under a very watchful eye - she behaved herself rather nicely, although at one stage she didn't want me to catch her! (She tried to walk away very quickly from me). |
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| At the 4 month mark I had the leg X-rayed again to see how it had
healed and the results were very good. The Vet was very pleased with the outcome;
one of the smaller fractures had all bonded together nicely and a new growth of bone
covered the main fracture at the front.
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| She is now on "day release" wandering around her yard
grazing - which she is loving! She is unable to trot at speed or even slow
canter..... but with a little more exercise she should be okay. It is now 6 months
since the injury occurred. On 1st August 2000, April turned 19 years old.
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Here's a very recent picture (September 2000) of April enjoying the afternoon sun, watching the horses next door run around.
| On the weekend around 5 October I took April out into a big paddock
for a graze and exercise. She went for a nice canter. Good solid even ground
under hoof made a great difference. She didn't pull up lame and there was no
excessive heat in the joint, although she may have been a little sore the following day as
it's been a while since she has done so much. During November April started under going rehabilitation for release into a paddock but the weather made things difficult - it started raining and didn't stop for a week! Release was put off for a further two weeks. In early December April was put out in the paddock with three other horses. It did not go well as she ended up being chased - she is still faster than other horses. I ended up putting her in another paddock with a very aged horse that wouldn't even bother a fly. This horse helped her settle in for a couple of days, and now she has the paddock to herself. April loves being able to constantly graze (and it shows with her size!!) and she has settled down nicely. The great joy is that I have started riding her again - even though most times it is just walking for half an hour as sometimes she is a little lame. On a good day I have attempted to trot her - I am the hesitant one in that respect as she is quite willing to trot and shows no sign of a limp - and to think that just around this time last year we were holding out hope for just being able to get her to walk around a paddock!
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| - 24/2/2001 - WE DID A COUPLE OF LAPS OF TROTTING!!!!!! |
Here's some recent photos of April enjoying her new found freedom in the paddock.
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Older versions of Netscape Users can check out the bigger pictures from this page here!
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© Ollie Click on links below for my other pages! |
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