I had to call the vet today. My gelding Joker got his leg tangled up in a barbed wire fence a couple of days ago. He has puncture wounds and a tear on the inside of his foreleg above the knee. I had flushed it with peroxide when it was fresh and wrapped it. Yesterday it was a little swollen, but not bad, so I did the same thing again. This morning it was oozing and swollen from the tear to his knee and he seemed to be limping a bit. I called the vet and we agreed to meet at my place at noon (my lunch hour). By the time I got back the leg was swollen from below the knee to near his elbow. My vet gave him banamine, penicillin, and bute immediately and some oral antibiotics to put on his food for the next 5 days.
Before you say, "Don't you know better than to keep a horse in barbed wire!!". Yes, I do. We moved into this house (a rental) and property this summer. Before we moved in there was barbed wire above the sheep fence - a wonderful combination, I know. The landlords very nicely took down the top strand of barbed wire and traded it with electric wire. I was sure that would keep Joker away from the sheep fence. (yeah, right)
Joker's history with fences starts long ago when he decided he wanted to be a jumping horse. When I got him he was boarded in a big pasture with 2 other horses including my mare, Spirit. The dividing fence between their pasture and the next was a post and rail about 4 feet tall. Joker was only a yearling at the time but somehow he got the notion that 4 feet wasn't all that tall and kept jumping into the other pasture. Luckily the boundary fence was taller!
So, then they moved to another pasture that had sheep fence on the bottom and a wooden rail on the top. It was about 5 1/2 feet tall so I figured we were safe from his jumping antics. And we were.
But! You know the grass is always greener on the other side. As he got bigger and stronger he repeatedly leaned on the wood rail until it snapped and then bent the sheep fence until he could reach the grass on the other side. I think I was fixing that stinking fence every other week! He even broke down the fence next to the stable owner's raspberry bushes and ate all the leaves off of one side. I was in the dog house for that one. I decided we should probably find a new home for my kids when after breaking the rail yet again, both Joker and Spirit pulled shoes in the fence!
When we moved into this house I thought I'd found the answer. Electricity! I just knew he wouldn't lean on an electric fence.....
I have seen him steal Spirit's hay from her side of the fence while leaning on the wire, bending it severely, while twitching!
Occasionally he steps away to "shake it off" then goes back for more. I swear this guy is a glutton for punishment.
Back to the present. When I saw the marks on his leg I knew right away it was from barbed wire. But, all the barbed wire was supposed to be gone. I thought maybe there was a strand in the grass I hadn't seen before that he had kicked up. I walked all over the 3 acre pasture trying to find the barbed wire. There was none on the ground anywhere.
Then I walked the fence line. There it was. A six foot section of strait barbed wire along the back section of fence. 4 strands of it. I'm guessing he stepped through it to get closer to the "greener" grass.
How did I not notice this before? I'd walked that fence at least 4 times to check the electric wire when I thought it had been grounded out. I guess I just wasn't looking down. I don't know why it was left there when all the other was taken down. There's even an extra roll of fencing in the shed. I guess I'll have to fix that.
I can't wait to buy a place so I can get a 6 foot metal pole fence with diamond mesh reinforcement!
Oh, and did I say he can untie knots and open stall doors?