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Lucky I wasn't barefoot!

5K views 37 replies 15 participants last post by  SueC 
#1 ·
I fed and covered the horses last night, like I do every night, and everything seemed normal and fine... Just as I was giving Mitch his final pat before I walked out the gate, he looked up and spooked at something, and jumped up... All of his weight ended up on top of my left foot, he then spooked at my reaction to his fat behind being on top of me, and twisted to get off, which of course hurt even more... AND ripped my shoe off my foot! I was wearing hiking boots that were done up properly... How the??

I immediately sat down on the ground and started taking my sock off as I could feel my foot swelling inside it, and as I took it off I saw a rather swollen and black and red foot... Oh crap. And man it hurt, boy did I have some choice words to say about it!

Poor Mitch didn't know what to do so he responded by coming over and trying to lick my foot better, it was a nice gesture and all but no thank you! So he then stood beside me and had his nose in my lap.. Then when I pushed him away he proceeded to stand there with his lips on my head until I hauled myself up and limped out of the paddock and back to the house.

Mum tried to make me pt my foot in the bath... Hell no! The pain just about had me pass out and vomit... Which is saying something considering I have Crohns disease and haven't ever passed out or vomited from the pain of that!

We ended up in the hospital, and the nurse didn't believe me when I said I had hiking boots on and not jandals... Do you really think I would be so stupid as to wear JANDALS around my horses? Yes, of course, because obviously I know nothing about how drawn to exposed feet horse hooves seem to be. -_-

It isn't broken, much to everyone's surprise, but it is rather swollen and extremely sore! I'm on crutches and I'm not allowed to put any weight on my foot (not that I can anyway!) and I've been given Tramadol and Panacode.

I didn't think it was too sore over last night, but when I got up to go to the bathroom it started BURNING, as if somebody had lit my foot on fire with gasoline, BURNING, and it kept burning for almost an hour after I elevated it again... Not keen on doing that again but I have to put my foot down so I can get to the jetsprints today! I'm on video duty, so I can sit down with my foot up for that, but I still have to get there first!

Imagine if I had been barefoot though! And I still can't figure out how on earth he ripped my shoe off my foot when it was a hiking boot, laced right up past my ankle!!
 
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#3 ·
So sorry you had a bit of bad luck there. seriously, I mean , you can be careful all you want, but every once in a while, the horse will step on you.
Mac got my toe a couple of years ago, and it hurt like , well, like bad, and that was only a fraction of what you had happen.
take it easy, and hope you get to feeling better soon.
 
#4 ·
Ouch!

If the swelling is severe, it can cause a fracture to not show up on X RAY. So you may want to consider going back for another X RAY once the swelling subsides.

Keep taking your pain meds. Ice. Elevate your leg. And keep off your foot.
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#5 ·
ouch! and wow, it amazes me how hurt we puny humans can get even when we do take precautions and wear good footwear around horses.

not long after Loki came to my barn she spooked when i was holding her. i was wearing runners that day (stupid me!) and she did almost exactly the same as your horse did - jumped straight up and came down on my foot. my toe next to my big toe got mangled pretty bad, and for a while i wasn't sure if the toenail was going to come off or not. thankfully it healed up and i'm good as new. now i wear hiking boots around Loki at all times, but after reading your story i wonder if i should invest in some knee high steel toe boots!
 
#6 ·
Steel-capped farm boots are my standard wear around horses, but even they aren't a magic failsafe solution: I know someone who had a horse jump on their foot just at the edge of the cap, bending the steel into the foot. Not nice either and they had a hell of a job cutting the boot off.

Last time a horse stepped on my foot was, of course, when I was wearing riding boots, he was in horseshoes, and we were both on a bitumen road. Murphy again! He spooked and fled closer to me, catching the edge of my foot - full weight on the little toe. Ouch...

Get better soon.
 
#7 ·
It's pretty sore and is even more swollen now, engulfing my whole foot rather than just where it got stood on, but my hands hurt from using my crutches so I'm kind of stuck on the couch haha. (You know your riding correctly when using crutches kills your arms and horse riding doesn't!)

I did wonder about swelling possibly not showing a fracture, I'm going to the doctors some time this week anyway so I'll ask about another x-ray then, hopefully the swelling has gone down by then.

We aren't allowed to wear steel caps around the horses for that reason, there's been a person or two that have had toes amputated by the edge of a steel cap.. It seems we can't win with footwear and horses, every type of footwear seems to have a downside, I think the only footwear I haven't been injured while wearing is my gumboots, not even kidding.. I've been stood on while wearing them but hooves always tend to slide off rather than dig in.. Given though that my horses aren't wearing shoes (thank goodness)
 
#8 ·
Ooooh! I can almost feel your pain from the description! So sorry this happened, and glad you're going back to the Dr. soon-I agree in the possibility of a fracture not showing up just yet, so glad you're on that! I worked in a stable many years ago, and had my big toe stepped on (hard!) by a 4 yr old (a very large one!) who was prancing around a bit impatiently as I was opening the gate to his turn-out pasture. His buddy was already on the other side, and he wanted in yesterday! Of course when his hoof came down on my toe, he decided to stand still.... Nothing like a 1,000 lb compressor on your foot, right? I'm firmly saying, "Lift up!/Lift up!/Lift up!" then whew, finally! Made him walk in slowly and wait while I took off his halter. Then gimping to the stable, I thought of the 30 (yes, 30!) stalls waiting for me to clean! By the grace of God, I got through the day, and fortunately it was Fri. The black and blue toenail fell off eventually, but grew back perfectly! I was lucky :)

* The horse's name was Bailey-I'll never forget young Bailey.... :)
 
#10 ·
Ohhh Notherstar - OUCH!! Nothing like a toenail coming off from an injury.. Whew. I handled the split second where he was standing on my foot, it was when he twisted to get off that the pain really started.. It was pretty instant! I've broken both feet before, one horse related, one soccer related, and neither hurt or swelled up this badly.. Or bled and bruised come to think of it.

Yogiwick, he really is, even though I was in an incredible amount of pain I couldn't help but feel so sorry for him, he didn't do it on purpose and the look in his eyes was so sad. My mare tried to come over and see what was going on but Mitch shifted away and then attacked her and wouldn't let her near me.
I've got dads worker feeding them for me since there is no way in hell that I'm going out into that paddock with a foot too fat to put in a shoe! I'll stand outside the fence when I can manage to get myself over there, but I'm not going into the paddock.
 
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#12 ·
Thanks Wild Heart, I hope so too.
I've been stood on plenty of times before but never with the entire weight of my extremely fat horse.. don't judge me, he gets skinny in winter so I'm feeding him up before winter hits ;-) hopefully he won't look starved if I can get it right for him from the very start.

I went out there tonight to check on them (from the other side of the fence!) and make sure they had been fed. Mitch wandered up to the gate so I showed him my foot and he stood there and looked sad, poor boy. I know he didn't mean to do it but that didn't make it hurt any less.

I'm living with ice packs on it throughout the day at the moment, only having small breaks without one on there. I can't take anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) because of my crohns disease, so I can't use those to help.
 
#13 ·
Ugh I'm super paranoid about my toes and horses.

Just last spring as I was turning out I accidentally put my foot right in my geldings way. He came down hard and I almost got my foot out of the way but not far enough. I was wearing both rubber boots, he caught the edge my foot twisted and somehow I ended up on the ground with him standing on the side of my foot and ankle. Still not sure how I managed that.

My saving grace was the 8 inches of mud we were in, it had been super rainy and we all know how the gate area can be during a particularly wet spring.

Luckily he just pushed my foot deep into the mud and was weirded out enough by the squeeling human under him to quickly move away into the paddock before he caused much damage. I was a bit bruised but nothing broken like there surely would have been if we had been standing on solid ground.

The one and only time I've appreciated mud :p
 
#14 ·
Haha yes mud is brilliant for that! (And getting dirty and wet, but not injured during falls) but just my luck we're going through a drought right now.. I literally have NO grass and that never, ever happens.. So the ground is absolutely ROCK hard.

It's always the worst when they twist! If they just lift straight off it isn't so bad, but the twisting is just nasty.
 
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#15 ·
Oh my GOD!. I am really feeling your pain.

A few weeks ago I took a wrong step on stairs and damaged my ankle.. there was swelling, nothing on Xray, but hurt like crazy and at first I thought I broke it.. I mean it, I have fallen on my ankles a lot of times, but never this bad...

First aid - 3/4 vodka 1/4 water - soak a cloth, put it all over and wrap it up with elastic bandage.
Next aid - take a cabbage leaf - big juicy one, beat it up with a meat hammer or anything, so the juice gets out of the leaf, wrap again.. I put those on for the night - in 2 days no inflamation anymore. Vodka really helps, believe it or not.

Hope your leg heals well.. mine still hurts a bit even though it was at least 2 weeks ago when I fell..
 
#19 ·
Ooohhh shod.. Oh that would hurt so bad! 1400lb is about what Mitch weighs atm (he's extremely fat right now ready for winter, but always seems to keep his muscle so he's always rather heavy)

I've just made my way through an entire block of Black forest chocolate... Not directly helping the pain or swelling, but it's a good enough excuse to eat chocolate anyway!:lol:
 
#22 ·
And they put you on Tramadol?!

Be, super super cautious with that junk. Very very easy to get hooked.

I had the same thing in sneakers and a shod horse. Broke the foot and ripped off a toenail. Drove myself to the hospital (it was my driving foot) after my friends made me go, at hospital they were bandaging and I told them it would fit in a boot. Nurse said it might not and I told them that it wasn't a question. Two days later jogged my own horse and rode in a CDI.

Yes the pain sucks but to seriously be on Tramadol for it? Take an NSAID and you will be fine. Personally I would not have even accepted the Tramadol. There's nothing broken, ice it, elevate it and take an NSAID.
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#23 ·
Yes the pain sucks but to seriously be on Tramadol for it? Take an NSAID and you will be fine. Personally I would not have even accepted the Tramadol. There's nothing broken, ice it, elevate it and take an NSAID.
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Really! Everyone feels and experiences pain differently, how can you sit there and tell a person what painkillers they should take. I think I would trust my own judgement and that of the doctors who actually were looking at my injury rather than random intenet person.
 
#24 ·
Tramadol has serious addiction potential and is heavy duty stuff. I personally wouldn't take it as I personally know folks who've gotten hooked on it. Addiction is a life long battle, and many Drs are very pill happy.

As someone who is currently struggling through the medical system for proper treatment and care - one has to be their own advocate and research, research, research and get second opinions before taking any Drs word as gospel. Personally unless I had completely wrecked myself would not take a narcotic, or narcotic like pain reliever. And I would never take home a prescription for the junk either.
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#26 ·
Tramadol isn't a problem such as other opoids. Vicoden and Oxycotin are much more addictive.

Tramadol here in the US isn't even considered heavy duty and does not require much more then a prescription. It's not considered a "narcotic" as of yet. But they are trying to place it into that category. There will be alot more paperwork once that is done.

I have Ovarian cysts and my Dr gave me 60 Tramadol and a refill. Meanwhile the ER Dr I went and seen gave me 15 Norco with no refills.

I am not addicted to Tramadol, and only take it when I severely need it.

And I just did a paper on Tramadol and all the evidence based practice journals and periodicals I read say that there have not been studies to PROVE it's addicting, but "could be"...

A lot of it would have to do with a person's own response to meds and their addictive qualities. Smoking...alcoholism...other drugs. Etc.
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#25 ·
Thanks for your concern anebel, I know that Tramadol has the potential to be rather addictive, I've taken it plenty of times before because of my Crohns and I actually hate the stuff, I took it for the first 2 days and I haven't taken it since. I tend not to take any pain killers unless I really need to, because I seem to develop resistance to them very quickly and then I have to find even stronger stuff.

And in regards to the NSAID, I can't take them because of my crohns, they make the internal ulcers bleed and in turn actually make the pain of the crohns worse (thats not fun) and have other lovely effects that nobody really wants to know about :lol:
 
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#27 ·
I think sometimes strong pain medications have their place. A friend of ours just had a shoulder reconstruction and was on a morphine drip immediately after the accident that busted his shoulder. When someone's in that much pain, I think it's fine to give them opioids, or anything else that works. I do agree with CLP's comments about addiction. While lots of people binge drink in our country, many others spend their lives just having the odd glass of wine or can of beer or cider or whatever when they think it's appropriate, and never become binge drinkers or alcoholics.
 
#29 ·
It really depends on the person. I have an addictive personality, but I also have self control. I have a bottle of Tramadol sitting on my dresser for months now lol I take it as needed as well as my Xanax even though I'm supposed to take it 3x a day. If it's taken when it is REALLY needed and for a short period of time I see no problem with it, but then again it is the responsibility of the individual taking it. DR's dole out meds like candy because it's all business. I went to the free clinic last year when I had the flu. THE FLU. and the DR sent me home with THREE big bottles of codeine. I was a bit confused and it's kinda sad that DR's are so quick to shove meds down your throat.
 
#31 ·
Ooooh man that picture looks very very familiar haha!

I'm still gimping around the place quite a bit, sometimes I can walk properly for a little while before it gets sore and sometimes I can't walk properly at all to start with. I have ridden twice (for like 5 minutes) since I got stood on, I rode a friends horses but that doesn't count cause I was only walking for the most part and they're easy horses to trot so there wasn't any weight on my foot haha
 
#33 ·
Im glad you are feeling better! That sounded like it hurt BAD!

I ended up with severe pain in my left foot a few years ago it came and went for several months. I would complain about it nightly to DH and he finally took me to the Dr. since I was refusing to go.

After some x-rays the Dr. said - what have you done to your foot it looks like it has been broken or crushed in the past... I honestly couldn't remember a specific injury but I am almost 100% sure it was from getting stepped on by a horse(s) some time or another.

I ended up getting surgery to put all the bones back and I have been pain free ever since.

Painkillers are all very individual. I am allergic to them and they make me very ill so I didn't take any for my foot surgery, getting my wisdom teeth out, or for my most recent sinus surgery (also caused by a horse injury). I did ibuprofen and meditation and I was fine.

Also SueC - I have always been told to never wear steel toe boot around horses because if they step on your foot the steel will guillotine your toes right off.

Not to gross any one out but I know someone who was barefoot when her mare stepped on her foot and her foot was "de- gloved" as in the skin slid entirely off her foot. She had to get surgery to reattach the skin and it was a long healing process kind of like a severe burn.
 
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#37 ·
Also SueC - I have always been told to never wear steel toe boot around horses because if they step on your foot the steel will guillotine your toes right off.
Depends on the type of construction. In some places they are compulsory wear around large animals. I wear them myself and they got me out of many potential injuries to my toes. We know one person whose toes got trapped when the cap got bent, and they had to cut the boot off, but wasn't guillotined. I'm sure some types have the potential for that. You kind of have to weigh up the risk of that kind of bad luck with the benefit of really preventing lots of injuries, broken toes etc.
 
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