Facebook as a fun way of letting you see your memories of years past. Sometimes that’s fun and sometimes it bring up things you’d rather forget. Case in point, a 40 year old Paso Fino who got frostbite! Since this is not something that happens frequently in horses I thought I’d share our experience with this odd event.
Year: Feb 2015
Horse: Habanero
Age: 40yrs old
Breed: Paso Fino
Sex: Gelding
Temp: -36F with the wind
Like most folks who care for livestock I live and breathe weather reports. That night was no exception. I was very well aware how cold it was going to get and prepared the barn with extra deep bedding, brought in mares and foals and made sure very one had access to a wind free shelter, heated water and as much hay as they could possibly want to eat.
8pm I did night check before turning in for the evening. I remember having to walk the old man back into the shelter since he loved being outside. I left when he was happily munching on a hay net. The next morning I came out to find he had severe frost bite on his left ear.
My poor vet asked me a bazillion questions. The best answer I had was yes, I feel heat in the ear tip. Which was a good thing since that meant we still had blood flow! Irony, despite the -30F temps a swelled up ear meant we had to bring the inflammation down with a cold pack! Thanks to barn cameras you get a view of this process. Pony layered up in 4 blankets because he was hypothermic and me holding an icepack to his ear.
Once the swelling was under control the next step was to prevent the frostbite from getting worse. How do you do that? Petroleum jelly of course and lots of it. What a sweet boy he was putting up with all this attention on an ear that I’m sure hurt a lot.
As the days went by we kept the area clean and re-applied Petroleum Jelly as needed. After a few days the skin around the base of his ear sluffed off and pink regenerative tissue appeared. The ear itself was still very swelled and he was unable to move it at all.
This was our life for another 2 weeks. Daily care of the ear and keeping the boy inside and out of the elements while it had time to heal. After 2 weeks this is what his ear looked like.
Things ALWAYS look worse before they get better. A sight like this kind of freaked me out but it was a good thing. Tissue was pink, blood is good. At this point no more Petroleum was being used but antibiotic cream was being applied. Winter fuzzies and the fact this boy had a TON of hair was getting annoying. With the cold temps we didn’t have the option to wash so the choice was made to cut off his locks so we could keep his wound clean. What a goofy looking lad he became. He still couldn’t move his ear at all but it was looking better!
You’ll have to excuse me for the lack of healing photos. The month of March that year brought me 3 beautiful foals so while I was tending to this old boy we had a lot of other stuff going on!
What I can tell you is that by April this is what he looked like! The swelling came down and his ear started to move again. By April he had 80% function of his bad ear. By May he had full range of motion.
What caused this horse to get frostbite? With the help of barn cameras I was able to answer that question. Despite my best efforts that night, this old man ended up sticking his head outside of the run-in shed for the entire night! Why? I have no idea but he seemed to think it was a good idea. Horses, we’ll never know what goes through their heads. They’ll always find a way to challenge us and we love them for it.