I didn’t completely manage to forget that Hap had injured himself during the convention, but I did manage not to worry about it too much. I suppose that is a tribute both to R, my horse sitter, and D, my trainer. Nevertheless, I was feeling a little tense this afternoon. Part of it was just typical Worldcon overload, but part of it was worry about Hap.
I left Denver about 2:00 pm. I was trying (unsuccessfully) to help Jack with some last minute convention chores. I had arranged with my trainer to be at home this afternoon so we could change his wrap, so I finally had to leave.
I drove home through lots of rain, and one cloud burst. (This was the type of cloud burst that made one hope the freeway designers paid attention to what they were doing when they crossed streams and washes.)
Once I got home, I called D to tell her that the weather was temporarily dry. She wasn’t keen on treating Hap in the middle of a thunderstorm if it could be avoided. Then I started looking for my horse first aid stuff and found that I had almost nothing on hand. I’ve had some injuries the past five years, but they haven’t been the type that require wrapping. I looked in all the places I should have put stuff, and then started looking in less likely places, but came up empty.
About ten minutes after D would have left home, my Storm Early Warning System (SEWS), also known as Lody, started pacing. It was too late to stop D from leaving, so I went out and shut the horses into their stalls and gave them their evening feed. While I was doing so, I admired the existing industrial-strength wrap that was on his front left leg. (I’ve paid lots of money to vets for less substantial looking wraps.) I also inspected over a dozen other abrasions on his left front leg and left hind leg. I was relieved to see that he was walking soundly, and didn’t seem to have any stocking up in any of his legs.
D arrived, and had not only brought only her wrapping supplies, but had made a run to the feed store Saturday to replenish her stock. We gathered everything together, and headed out to the barn. By then, the rumbling of thunder had been joined by rain.
It took D quite a while to cut the duct tape cover off Hap’s leg as I held him. (Duct tape has to be used with great caution as an outer layer, since it can cut off circulation. However, it is waterproof, and quite sturdy.) Hap stood quietly while D worked on him, even when it thundered. I
tried not to flinch: thunder might not bother Hap, but my
flinching certainly would. Fortunately, Hap has always been an easy horse to vet.
Then it took even longer to remove the layers of gauze and vet wrap. I saw the wound on outside of the leg first. “Oh, that’s not so bad.” “Yeah, the one on the inside is worse.”
The one on the inside was more severe. I’ve seen worse, but not in a while. However, there was minimal swelling, no signs of infection, and the wound is starting to heal at the edges. D put a fresh dressing on it, and did another few layers of wrapping before protecting. It took about the same time to re-wrap it as to remove the previous wrap.
Past experience suggests that if all goes well, it will be at least two or three weeks before I can stop wrapping it. Tomorrow evening, I will have to stock up on supplies.