Here's a recent picture of LSF Fortunate Son (Ace) at one year, while he's at Cornell University's Large Animal Clinic getting his leg reconstructed. Ace is sired by Forevermore by Beamington, and out of She's Moonstruck by Equinox Benn Adam. I'm ambivalent about my choice in naming him at this point. (The picture is flipped; the cast is actually on his other hind leg.)
He injured his leg on high tensile wire one morning (took the wire down off 3 posts while playing with his half brother). Because we discovered the problem on a morning very soon after it happened and with our Veterinarian, Dr. LaPoint already on his way to the barn to work with one of our mares, we were able to get Ace to Cornell within the "golden hours" before he bled to death or went into irreversible shock or the contamination of the wound got too great a head start. The damage was severe, imagine that hind leg with all tissue filleted from the hock down to the fetlock, save for the back of the leg. When he was sewn back together, there was a 2 square inch area where there was no flesh over the cannon bone at all. The tendons, because of their longitudinal structure, could not be reattached or rejoined (the surgeon's description of this wound was succinct - horrendous). Because of the loss of both tendons, he will have to learn how to walk again, by flipping his foot forward. Dr. LaPoint said we were lucky he is a Morgan since their gait is high stepping anyway, and this will make it easy for him to do this.
As we understand it, about 50% of the reattached tissue died anyway (as expected), but being young his healing is progressing, and the flesh has covered the cannon bone, which itself was also scored by the wire. None of the bone tissue died thank goodness, nor appears to have become infected. He spent the first ten days of recovery at Cornell, and then the decision was made to cast the leg and send him home. He has returned three times for cast changes at two-week intervals. On the last cast change he had skin grafts taken from his belly (which now looks like a cribbage board); 50 small punches of skin, taken in neat little rows, to fill in the gaps on his back leg.
Vets are giving us a 50-50 chance that he'll be able to be ridden, but at least he'll have a good quality of life. He will not be sound enough to have a show career. The surgeon's at CU have taken digital photos at each stage of the injury and its healing, and have promised to send me them. It will be a while before we can view them.
The point of my posting isn't to elicit sympathy for Ace, or us: we learn and move on, and Ace would rather have carrots than sympathy! It is about dangers, preparedness, and wonderful people. Foremost, it is about high tensile wire, beware. We board these horses, and expressed our concern when it was installed; we should have found a way to do more. The other was the value of having first aid supplies at the barn: we were lucky to have enough proper supplies to be able to immediately wrap the wound to stop the blood spurting from the cut artery. Different sizes of PVC pipe and a saw also are handy for splints. We were also lucky to have Dr. LaPoint on his way with the necessary supplies and knowledge to properly disinfect and bandage and splint the leg for transport. An investment in a well supplied emergency first aid kit and a good manual on emergency procedures was the further lesson for us. Ask your Vet what you should have in supplies and medications in case he cannot arrive immediately to an emergency. Secondly it's about wonderful people. Dr. LaPoint's calmness and skills in evaluating and treating and expertly bandaging the wound helped us as much as Ace. Dr. Marcus Wilke and the entire staff at the Cornell University Large Animal Surgical Unit have been absolutely wonderful, not only in the skill and quality of care but also their compassion for both the patient and patience with his owners.
It's also about the heart these little Morgans have. Ace basically dragged this leg about 150 yards from where he injured it to the barn door, and allowed himself to be led in and initially bandaged by us, and then Dr. LaPoint removed our crude bandaging, washed it with disinfectant, and applied a multiple layer bandage and splints. Ace was then loaded on the trailer, transported 26 miles over hills and dales, unloaded at CU, unbandaged and x rayed and taken to surgery without any sedation, and he never pulled away or flinched or threatened anyone working on him. He walked into the surgery with his head high and his eyes bright, we were the ones that broke down crying over his heart and his bravery. He's a Morgan through and through, and though it has cost us dearly in emotions and cash, we would do the same thing again to save him.
A post note, since the above was written for the morganpics email list, Ace, who is starting to get very bored with his stall rest, managed to break his cast, so he got another visit to Cornell. Unfortunately, the 50 small skin grafts did not take, and the decision was made to not recast, but bandage him and send him home. It is going to be a real experience learning to change this bandage every three days on an "active" year old colt. He also had his second removal of proud flesh from the site, so this controlling this appears to be the next battle we will be facing.
