Saturday, July 2, 2011

if it's not one thing....

Nina whacked her head today in the round pen - hard. 
She did a little galloping in the round pen, but not out of control - I was actually thinking that she was going to get some energy burned and not hurt herself.  HA!
I took her over to the arena, got on, she walked a little ways and then started tossing her head, with one ear pinned back hard.  This went on for a minute or two and I decided that she had somehow gotten something stuck in her ear.  When I got off to look I realized that she had a big skinned place above her eye - ouch!  So I took her out of the ring to find something to take the sting out of the skinned spot - at this point I thought that's all it was.  But within a few minutes she had a lump above the skinned spot, then within a very short time the lump was the size of an apple and she was frantic with pain. 
I got her untacked and turned her out in a pen.  She paced around for a while, flipping her head over and over, finally calmed down enough to come over to me.  She has a huge lump on the left side of her forehead, which is, fortunately, where the skull is the thickest.
This is one of those times I saw how far Nina has come in relating to people.  When I walked into the pen with her halter she stared at it and walked away.  It took about 10 minutes for her to let me approach her with the halter (without it was fine).  She was sure it was going to hurt.  She finally stood and closed her eyes, hunched her shoulders and let me put it on her.  I may sure not to touch that side of her head and we were good.
I gave her some bute and then my massage therapy friend said she wanted to try an infrared light gadget that she had.  Nina would not let her get anywhere near her head, so she worked on her neck and along her spine. 
Now I have done lots of research and reading on light therapy and all of the 'studies' say that it doesn't work.  But I stood and watched a horse who was in pain, veins bulging, head tossing, gradually calm down, take a few deep breaths and start to relax.  We didn't put a halter or anything on her, just let her walk away if she wanted.  She didn't.  When my friend stopped working on her and moved away from her Nina followed. more, more, more
When I left she had calmed down, the bute seemed to have kicked in and she was eating dinner. 
We will see what it looks like tomorrow.   Poor thing. 
.... and I forgot to get pics - would have been exciting.

3 comments:

  1. Nina does seem to be one of those horses that need to be wrapped in bubble wrap! I had a TB mare once that had a permanent bump on her head, right in the middle of her forehead. The vet told me it was probably an old starting gate injury and that he saw a lot of them. It never bothered her but I did wonder sometimes if she'd rattled her brains around a bit before I got her.

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  2. Poor Nina! She sure has more than her share of bumps and bruises and cuts. Goodness! Sounds like she absolutely loved the light therapy! I hope she's doing lots better. :)

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  3. Bless her heart! Hope she feels better tomorrow :)

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