It's The Little Things...

This week had me thinking about the small and not so obvious struggles and victories of veterinary medicine...   

Going out on a farm call to pull a Coggins is pretty routine for an equine veterinarian.  But what should be a quick and easy blood draw turns into a sweat inducing, dangerous event when horse owners don't discipline their horses.   Just like you discipline your children because you love them, it is necessary to correct your pets when they aren't behaving properly.  I watched Dr. Jones almost get fallen on top of by a horse that reared up when she was trying to draw blood because the owner let her horse walk all over her everyday and never disciplined her.  

Young horses are notorious for getting themselves into trouble.  For some reason this seemed to be the week of foals impaling themselves on T-posts.  T-posts are metal posts that have sharp edges.  Our first case was a quarter horse/thoroughbred yearling who had a T-post go through the outside of his shoulder.  Thankful the wound only went through the muscle belly and didn't hit any major nerves or tendons.  However, the owners initially treated the injury with Underwood horse medicine which is actually caustic.  When the yearling got to us, his wounds were full of lumpy protrusions of granulation tissue.  With a few days of cold hosing and applying medihoney ointment the injury has made vast improvements!  The second foal that cut himself on a T-post was only a few months old and thankful the wound was superficial enough that all we had to do was clean it up and send him on his way.  His owner brought him to us as soon as it happened.  Another thing to think about...it's always best to seek medical attention immediately instead of waiting. 

I've had a few small accomplishments this week.  A month old foal came into the clinic with an umbilical infection.  Shouldn't have been a problem giving this baby chloramphenicol orally...however, the owner hadn't handled the foal at all so he was extremely skittish and fearful of humans.  By the end of his week at the clinic I had the foal relaxed enough to where I could easily catch him and give him his medicine.  May seem like a small feat but honestly it's the little victories in life that get you excited as much as the big ones.