How Sweet P lost her tail

Is there any way to get  the breeders to pay for the vet bill? I know a lot of time you sign a release...but they should have checked her tail as a matter of course. It's criminal they didn't.

It is looking better, I had been worrying all day yesterday but the wound has dried up and now it has a layer of healthy, clean and dry exudate over the new tissue.  The new antibiotics are taking effect, there is less swelling and warmth in the healthy tissue.  Vet comes out this afternoon to examine her. Right now I am just gently soaking and irrigating it with a warm saline solution and putting antibiotic ointment over the whole thing, to keep the exudate soft so it does not constrict the tissue underneath.  Wounds are a funny business, you don't want them too wet or too dry. 

I have a 4-day clinical rotation out of town the first week of May, Sweet P should be more stable by then.  I am going to have one of my horsey friends come by and do her wound care while I am gone.  I'm going to ask my vet if she can go back to the once-daily Tocoprin antibiotic by then, I think we should be out of the woods at that point and only need a maintenance dose for prophylaxis.

I am not pursuing the breeder, there is no point.  They are not a high-end operation and I should have had better judgement.  At this point the only thing that matters to me is getting my mare healthy again, I allready anticipate losing the pregnancy and will be surprised if it takes. 

Glad she's doing better.
You should submit the story to one of the horse magazines, with the pics. I'll bet they'd snatch it up!

The vet gave Sweet P a good prognosis.  The tail looks like it will heal without surgical intervention.  She still has a moderate risk for a potential bone infection, but with the antibiotics and wound care this is not likely to develop and she is not exhibiting any symptoms that indicate a bone infection is present. 

We will keep her on the SMZ/TMP for another 10 days, which makes a total of 3 weeks of antibiotic coverage (first 10 days on the Tucoprim).  There is a very mild, unproven risk to the fetus from the SMZ, one study demonstrated that rats had a higher risk for cleft palate when the mother was given extrordanarily high doses of SMZ, no other studies were conclusive and this drug is given to pregnant women for certain types of uterine infections because it does cross the placenta, no human studies have shown any risk for birth defects.

My vet also recommended alternating scarlet oil with Granulex topical treatment on the wound. 

Here are some pics from yesterday, the pink tissue is healthy, much better than it was on the 19th when it had been inflamed and weepy.  The dark tissue is eschar (scab) that formed when I treated the weepy wound with BluKote.  As you can see, the worst part of the wound is under the tail.

Much improvement!  I removed all the eschar again today and am no longer putting BlueKote on.  Treating with Granulex spray and bag balm to keep the tissue moist.  Hope the scarlet oil I ordered gets here soon, the wound is at a point where it would benefit most from the moisturizing and antimicrobial porperties of the scarlet oil.

Bless your hearts.  Both of you.  Thank GOODNESS she has you!!! 

You're a good mom!!!  []

owwww...... poor girl   Glad you know what to do though so it will heal up OK.  It'll be interesting to see how much hair grows back again.  When will you know if she's pregnant?  Hopefully you get a nice baby out of all this mess!!