Why i hate barbed wire....

Here I go...

So, William was limping on Friday of last week. We went on Saturday to check on him, and while Mom was observing Willie's right front sore footsie, I was picking up Sam's feet and petting him. We didn't come back to check on William to see if he was better or not on Sunday or Monday, but we did come on Tuesday (yesterday), and William wasn't limping as bad, but Mom still wasn't planning on riding. I, of course, was hoping to try out some new Levi's I got.
I had also brought plastic bags to start desensitizing Sam. He, of course, didn't like them, and he backed out of his spot in the shade and into the sunlight (We just drape their leads over a half-wall - been doing it for a year and no problems). Something didn't look right with his left front leg.
It was swollen.:roll:
With further observation I found that there was a large, scabbed-over cut on his cannon, and a ton of little scratches on his shoulder, the side of his barrel, his left haunch and one on his hock. The leg wound looked the worst, and all of the little scratches, by their size, tell me that he ran up against the barbed wire fence. His leg had been swollen from the knee, all the same size, to the fetlock joint.
Anyways, the vet came out and gave him an antibiotic injection and seven days of antibiotics to mix into his grain. The swelling was down on the inside of the leg today when we went to feed him his stuff (it smells very strongly of artificial apple).
So, now you know why I hate that danged fence. It should get replaced this summer, though.
Any comments? I hope to possibly get pictures...it's not all that bad anymore.

Cold hose more cold hose!!!

I replaces all of our wire fence with elec rope and haven't had an injury from fencing YET and the deer can see it so they don't go threw it anymore!!!

Last summer at a friend's pasture:

Yea keep an eye out, it sounds like maybe he caught himself and then fought against the barbwire and scratched himself up pretty bad. What we did was replace the part that they are mostly around with wood, which they barely chewed on. Other then that all my horses were great with barbwire.

My one horse I had tied to a post and he put his foot on the other side of the wire and stood there, when I came over to him he like looked at me then his foot and lifted it a bit then set it back down. It was so cute he was like help me mommy I'm stuck! He didn't pull back or anything. So maybe a good idea to teach you're horse not too pull back when its feet get caught in something.

I hate barbed wire too... last year my maretried to jump the fence and failed and tore a chunk of muscle out of her leg... but we have crazy cows and the only thing that keeps them in is barbed wire...

My sisters horse Goldrush died about 20 yrs ago when he got caught up in barbed wire, three legs from hoof to knee were shredded. He survived the encounter and surgery but was put down a few weeks later because the bone inside had been too badly damaged and wasnt able to heal. Never again will I risk my horses life, or any horses life by allowing them to be in barbded wire. Plain and simple.... barbed wire kills horses.

Well, I didn't have anything to dress a wound with, so NO HOSE. That would have opened it up and let in bacteria...I didn't want to aid in getting the wound badly infected.
Another vet came by to float his teeth, and ended up clipping around his leg and peeling off the scab - he had opened it back up - then treating it and wrapping it. It was sort of funny, though...she sedated Sam and he almost had his head on the ground!
William actually had an abscess, so now we get to treat that every day - thankfully we don't have to pay for it.
When we re-wrap Sam's leg on Monday I'll take the camera and get some pics.

We had barbed wire at my parents home in Alabama. I had a gelding that used to paw at the gate really bad...sometimes he would try pawing at wherever he was at the fence, but like Flyinhigh's horse, he would stand still...then one morning I walked out and he was standing halfway inside and halfway outside of the paster with the wire wrapped around his back legs and barrel (how he manage the barrel I have no idea)...he was just standing there with a look on his face like, "It's about time you got out here! How about getting me out of this?!" He just stood there very still while I went to get wire clippers, a halter and lead, and my dad for help.

I had a mare that tried to jump some when she got spooked, couldn't and got caught in it. The creek had flooded so my dad didn't go check the horses and when he finally did he found her. She was lying tangled in the fence, next to a tree with hoof marks where she tried to get up, with one little scratch on her pastern. She was dead.

Here, I got a picture Monday...sorry it's taken me so long. With this injury and the show we plan to go to on April 11, we've got alot of training to do. Anyways....



There! Yeah, it was really swollen. We changed his bandage (obviously when the picture was taken), and the swelling was visibly gone. Today I rode a little, we practiced loading in the trailer that we borrowed, and tried clipping him. He was fine about it on his legs, his chin, the underside of his neck and his bridlepath...except the ears. That figures.