Tinkerbell: a turn for the worse. Please pray for her tonight!
2/17-11
Tinkerbell needs our prayers.
For those of you who have been following Tink, I owe you the rest of the story to date.
One day everything’s fine, and the next day the world comes to an end. This is how I am. Maybe not so much for Tink…she’s probably still going to be okay, I think, but…
The wound is gapey. The little gash was not ONLY a little gash, after all. With the increased circulation and movement, the rest of the wound, which turned out to be deep all around the leg, as we had first feared, had come open. There was lots of drainage, and the swelling was all the way down, but the wound looked like mangled meat. Tendon was visible on one side and bone in the front. Over some of the bone, there was pale granulation tissue. A little skin had sloughed off, but beneath it was pink. We called the first vet, and told her everything we’d been doing for the wound.
In the frigid wind, the vet examined the wound and expressed wonder at the signs of healing and circulation, as well as the lack of evidence of proud flesh starting. She said she would have recommended a providone iodine ointment but the Vetericyn and triple-antibiotic ointment slathered bandaging routine was obviously working. Tink was walking almost normally, flexing the joint like she should. The vet also said that the new wisdom was not to change the bandage and clean the wound every day, which we had been doing. She said to leave the bandage on for 4 days and continue the penicillin treatment we’d been giving her for a couple more days. She again gave a positive prognosis.
2/19
We made it for two. The amount of drainage was just incredible, seeping from under the bandage, and the swelling in the hock and in the foot returned. We took the bandage off. The gunk was starting to stink, which the vet had said wouldn’t be a good sign. We gently hosed all the ick away. A little more skin was sloughing off, but beneath the sloughed patches the flesh was pink. I took pictures, but I’m not going to post them unless she recovers.
Tinkerbell has been feeling very energetic. Each day she’s become less willing to stand still, less willing to cooperate, and wanting to use the leg more. We treated it and wrapped it up again, a little tighter, hoping to support the leg, limit its movement, and stop the wound from gaping any more, without cutting off the circulation. We put her in an area we hoped she would be calm and limit her movements.
2/20
This morning we found she had managed to really mess herself up anyway. The bandage had somehow slipped down and was off the wound! The tendon had given way, too. Frayed ends above and below. The wound looked gnarly, and I was horrified. Everything was still pink and clean and healthy and odorless…except there was more swelling below the wound.
We continued with our routine. She was much more cooperative. We bandaged her securely and continued praying. As long as there was circulation and healthy tissue, and still no sign of necrosis or infection, there was hope.
This Morning
I don’t know what it was. It froze last night, but it wasn’t THAT deep of a freeze.
Tink’s foot was covered in bloody ice. When I first saw her she was standing with it cocked behind her and it looked broken! Daniel assured me that was just the way she was standing at the moment. He chipped the ice off, brought her over to the house, and we got her to actually come into the porch so we could blow-dry the foot.
When the bandage came off, it was full of black gunk and jelly and stank a little more. I thought maybe the black was some of the ichthamol having run down with drainage from above the wound, but I had the impression that Daniel and our trusted friends who were present thought it was just bad news.
The skin had sloughed off quite a bit more, and more bone was exposed. Raw areas that had been pink yesterday were turning black today. Daniel reached behind the fetlock to pull a crust of blood away and a handful of skin came with it. I could not look back there. I smelled rot.
Our friends said things that made me cry. That we had done everything we could. When I sobbed, but she was getting better! They said, it (the irrevocable damage) had already happened… before she showed the improvement. What was amazing to them was that it had taken this long to turn bad. It was testament to how well we had taken care of her.
That does not make sense to me. Not even to this moment.
I felt like God had given me hope and then taken it away. My friend said, God did not do that to you. The wire did it to the mare.
Tink has been standing tied in one place, eating and drinking and calling to her friends all day, standing on the leg, and dozing in the sun.
The vet is running late. He has been out in a field with a cow all afternoon. It will be dark when he gets here, but we are going to have him take a look. I don’t know if I’m supposed to give up or not. I don’t know what the vet will say. I don’t know if what the vet says will matter. This is killing me. I know it isn’t about me. It’s about what is best for Tink.
We need prayers. Bad. Please pray for Tink!!!
