Bombay Update

Bombay is on stall rest for a while. When the vet cut off my wrappings and all the blood had been soaked up by the padding, we could see that these were not deep cuts, but were actually burns. There was so much skin missing that it was gruesome, but structurally he was sound. He was standing on three legs, because the burn on his hind leg was especially painful for him The vet said he probably burned them on the rubber padding in the trailer, which is supposed to offer protection, but can actually cause more problems.

I discussed the possibility of a neurological problem suddenly causing him to not be able to keep his balance in the trailer, and he dismissed the idea because Bombay doesn't show any signs of being off balance just walking around the paddock or when I ride him. He thinks it's more likely that Bombay slipped once, and now has a phobia that causes him to panic and hurt himself. He thought removing the center divider and not using the trailer tie to keep his head up was worth a try. If he doesn't feel restricted within the trailer, he may not panic so much.

The vet said Bombay is a very lucky boy, and then he proceeded to spend two hours cleaning and wrapping the legs and loading me up with medications to give him. He's got burn ointment, pain killers, antibiotics, and more dressings needed in the future. The good news is that he should be healed physically in about two weeks. Mentally is a different story. I'm going to have to start over with his trailer training to help him past his fears.

He actually managed to rub the top of his hoof wall off the hind hoof. The vet had to cut it away. There was a hole between the top of the hoof and the skin. There was nothing to stitch up since such large patches of skin were gone. He thinks the skin should grow back without proud flesh.

The vet was having a hard week. He's the hospital intern and has to work 7 days a week. He said he's had so many emergency calls this weekend that he's only had 2 hours of sleep and that wasn't even on purpose. He had gone home to take a shower, but fell asleep before he could, then was woken by another emergency and never got his shower.

While we were talking, a caravan of trucks and cars came racing up the street and Bombay popped his head up out of his sedated stupor. Lostine and Gabbrielle spooked and took off in one of their stampedes. Of course it had to be my annoying neighbors' visitors. My annoying neighbors weren't even home, and all these people just started running around the property loading junk into their trucks and jeeps. Kids started climbing my fence to watch the vet work on my horse. Crashing noises commenced as heavy objects were hurled onto the backs of vehicles. I wanted to scream, "WHY NOW? Couldn't you come back some other time to do this?"

I said to my husband, "Keep an eye on them. I don't want them doing anything asinine that will get this horse anymore revved up. He's already had three sedatives and I don't want to have to pay for more because of those jerks!"

The vet apologized and said he wouldn't charge me for one of the shots. Fortunately, the people left just as quickly as they came, so our peace was restored, Bombay went back to sleep, and the vet could finish wrapping his leg. The vet said, "Don't you just love neighbors?"

I said, "Yeah, my dream is to move onto about 50 acres with a house right in the middle of it so that I don't have to ever deal with neighbors again."

It turned out that he grew up in that kind of a situation. He lived in a house in the middle of 20 acres and suffered shell shock when he had to move into an apartment in the city to attend college. He guaranteed I would find some land and peace in Pennsylvania, but warned me that the economy is depressed, so we shouldn't expect to find jobs.

Excuse Bombay's fifth leg. He had a lot of sedatives, so he was hanging. You can see here how he favors that hing leg. I've just got to keep him comfortable for the next few weeks, and then start working on that phobia so that nothing like this can happen again.

Gabbrielle is really disturbed about Bombay being in pain. She stood at the fence and watched during the entire two hour procedure, save when the idiots raced up the street and started their racket. Then when I put Bombay in his stall, she picked a piece of hay up off the ground, carried it over to Bombay in her teeth, and passed it to him so he would have something to eat. How sweet is that? She did it several times like a mama bird feeding her baby bird. Then they started kissing.

I was suffering from heat exhaustion, passed out in a chair in the shade while the vet added up my bill (which equaled to the penny the exact same amount I paid yesterday for a stack of hay), and I was too tired to get up and grab a video camera while all the mouth-to-mouth-feeding and kissing was going on. Don't hate me for it. It was one of those things that was meant to enjoy, and you know that if I made the effort to get a video camera to share it with you, they would have stopped. I didn't even say anything to the vet out of fear that my voice would disturb the horses and pull their attention away from what they were doing. It was really cute until Gabbrielle turned around, spread her legs, lifted her tail, and let loose the Pacific Ocean in front of Bombay's stall window. Now the poor guy has got to smell that during his incarceration.