Injecting Penicillin

WARNING this is a very graphic story. Do not read on if you do not want to hear about horse injuries, get the tissues. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I lay on the soft grass watching the sun shine out of my horse’s ass; quite literally! He was contented, munching away the lucious green sides of the agistment driveway, enjoying the fresh green shoots that were on the other side of the fence. 

We’d recently been through a pretty rough patch Floyd and I, he’d taken a tumble not too long before going A over T, flipping over a wire fence and smashing through the deep scarlet rose bushes that lined the path. I’d watched him do it, trying to get to his mates on the other side. If it wasn’t so serious it almost would have been comical, the 17.2 leggy thoroughbred tumbling like a newborn giraffe, standing up, shaking himself off and running down the hill and up the hillside to his mates who had barely noticed he was missing. 

I’d separated him to try and put some weight on his skinny body away from his piggy mates, but only achieved having him pace the fence and lose more. 

As Floyd munched his way along the tunnel of green heaven, he nosed up to a bush that was butting right up to the sheep mesh fence. As I approached him carefully he got anxious to get to his mates on the other side. Rather than looking where he was going, his focus was on the mare and gelding in the paddock who were leaving him. His body pushed through the fence and bushes and as he panicked his legs became entwined in the sheep wire. 

The scene before me unfolded almost in slow motion as Floyd began to panic. His slender legs tangled in the treacherous ring lock wire. As he became more and more entwined his adrenaline took over and he no was no longer able to be reassured or reasoned with. His entire body flipped upside down with a sickening thud, his graceful legs held at the most unnatural angles as the wire cruelly ripped into his legs. 

Ella was holding Pumpkin nearby, and was just as powerless as I was to stop this 600kg frenzied animal from doing more damage to his beautiful legs. Once he was down he lay still, his eyes pleaded with me for help, his white wall eye showing even more white than usual. 

Trying to gain a clear head I knew I needed wire cutters to cut him out of the fence that held him so strongly. I sprinted to the shed on the owners property and frantically rummaged through their tools trying to find something to cut the wire. I came back to Ella and Floyd and the fence with a hack saw and a pair of something. I don’t even know what I grabbed. 

Floyd was still down, entangled in the fence that wasn’t giving an inch as the skin was slowly being dragged from his  legs by the unforgiving wire. 

I cut and sawed at the wire with neither tool fit for the purpose I had intended, refusing me the satisfaction of freeing my horse. I ran back to the shed desperate to find the correct tool. I found a few other options and went back to my precious boy. 

Ella had been standing there the whole time, her only option at this stage was to hold her own horse and make sure Pumpkin didn’t panic and join Floyd in the fence. I’m so sorry that you had to see all this Ella, I’m sure you’re just as scarred as I am from these horrific memories. 

I worked frantically at the wire hoping against all hope that I could free my horse from this imprisonment of his own doing. For such large animals they can be so incredibly stupid at times. As Floyd felt the slightest freedom of the wire that gave, he lashed out giving me an almighty kick that sent me rolling down the embankment. At the time I didn’t even care that he’d kicked me I was just glad he was free. 

I dusted myself off, still in shock from the powerful force that had sent me flying, found a halter and went into the paddock to collect my horse. The injuries I saw that day have burned deeply into my mind forever. 

He’d degloved his leg from high above his knee to the fetlock. He’d severed his extensor tendon, his muscles and potentially bruised into the bone. It was the worst injury I had ever seen. 

Meg from Meadows Vet came out to assist immediately. She was cool and calm and kind. She did the most amazing job at stitching together the bloody remnants of Floyd’s leg, our dreams of jumping shattered in moments. Bandages from the top to the bottom of his leg Floyd and I made our way to Heidi’s at the bottom of the hill where he could be stables and cared for in an enclosed area.

Floyd was a great patient. Unlike Pringles before him who had broken his pelvis and required stabling for three months, Floyd was sweet and gentle to deal with. Pringles had spent much of his time trying to body slam me into walls and I’d hated having to deal with his attitude. 

Floyd’s stitches encircled his leg in a Frankenstein style pattern. His bandaging was so intense that the stitch line began to heal really well but the wounds beneath would take months. The swelling was unbelievable or maybe due to the severity of the injury, actually quite believable. I used a cream called Babes Gold. It’s made by a lady named Wendy and has the most remarkable healing power. I absolutely swear by his cream for healing. I couldn’t believe how well the stitches were rejoining his skin with the help of this cream. He was of course having daily penicillin shots to prevent infection but having caught the injury as it happened we hoped that very little dirt had entered into the wound. 

All was going well for around a month. Floyd was moving around considerably well for a horse that had tried to amputate his own leg. I noticed the swelling was starting to get warm and realised that an infection might be starting. We began on a  second course of antibiotics to make sure we had the infection under control.

As most horse owners are, I had been given the instructions on how to inject penicillin. It’s so common to be given out and many horse owners are comfortable giving it to their horses. I’d been doing it for quite sometime and never had an issue. I knew to insert the needle, check for blood by drawing back and then plunge the syringe of white penicillin into the muscle slow enough to be comfortable for the horse. 

I’d been doing this for quite some time but this injury was the first one that a vet had told me of the possible side effects should I somehow hit a vein with the penicillin. On the day it happened I didn’t have my son with me. Usually he would be in the stable giving carrots and pats and the gentleman  giant who was our horse Floydie. I’m so grateful he wasn’t in the stable that day. He could have been hurt or severely injured. 

I inserted the needle as per normal, drew back and found blood. I repositioned the needle and slowly plunged in with the white life saving fluid. It was just enough. Nicking the vein ever so slightly with a drop of penicillin is the scariest thing I’ve ever done or seen. It only took a few seconds for my gentle giant to turn into a frightened, thrashing animal who ran from side to side in his stable and yard. I thought he was going to jump out. He was so violently panicked that my only thought was to get out. He was literally climbing the walls. I scaled the fence and dropped to the other side to watch the horror unfold. 

It was so lucky I had been told what reaction to expect from a penicillin drop to the vein. I knew exactly what had happened and that I would be powerless to stop it. As he was thrashing around I was on the phone to the vet. “Please come now, this isn’t going to end well.”

By the time the vet arrived Floyd had stopped. He’d stopped running like a crazy beast. He’d stopped trying. He was deflated and sore and wondering what on earth had beaten him to a pulp. My parents had arrived and a few of my close friends. They stood by me and knew exactly what was going to happen next. 

“So this is what we are going to do,” I told the vet. “You’re going to give him some pain relief and I’m going to walk him up the driveway out of these stables where a tractor cannot get to him, and we are going to put him to sleep.” 

It was the hardest decision I’d ever had to make, but the only one possible with injuries like we had that night. Floyd had in his penicillin frenzy, smashed his beautiful face, broken his pelvis, de gloved his good knee, re opened his stitches, cracked some ribs and taken skin off his spine and hind leg. His eyes told me that enough was enough and pleaded with me to make it stop. 

Meg the vet agreed with me and helped me make Floyd more comfortable with pain relief before gently and slowly walking his broken body to a place where he could be laid down. With enough sedation in him to drop him to the ground, the green dream was administered amongst my free flowing tears. The light left his eyes and he left this world. 

When sadness like this hits your body and soul, not much can be done to make it better. My friends and I returned to my house just after midnight and sat around having a drink and talking about Floyd and the amazing horse he had been. 

To add salt to my wounds, I needed to go the following day to the property where Floyd’s broken body lay covered in a blanket. The property was for sale and had an open inspection coming very soon. With a heavy heart I cleaned the stable and yard, each time walking past the stiffened shape of my boy lying under his blanket on the driveway. 

Steve came with the tractor later that day to take Floyd to be buried at Vision Park. I watched as his lifeless body was held by the legs and carried up the road to the waiting truck. 

Vision Park is also where I met many of Ryan Balfour’s spelling horses for the first time, including Ocean ❤️ it is a special place but they no longer bury horses. 

I spent the next couple of days in bed crying. I don’t think non horsie people can understand the grief that comes with losing a horse. It’s incredible and heart wrenching all at the same time. 

Something made me get up and out of bed, to go to the agistment at Jupiter Creek where Pringles had been recovering post broken Pelvis. Pringles had been put to sleep just five days before Floyd. His injuries never healed from the broken pelvis and he wasn’t comfortable to continue. I think losing two horses in five days had completely numbed my soul. I went there to sort and fold rugs and try to realise that I was for the first time in a while, completely horseless. 

Renai had heard from a lady named Jacqui who was looking at re homing her racehorse Belfast Boy. Jacqui and Gordon dropped Ollie aka Belfast Boy off to me only a few days after losing Floyd. I decided that crying was getting me nowhere and I needed to focus my energies on another horse. As hard as it was to love an accept another horse it was also the best thing I ever did! Ollie showed me that I could love again and went on to be one of the best horses I could possibly ever ask for.

I’ll never forget my time I had with Floyd or the freedom I felt jumping with him as he soared over each and every jump with feet to spare. 

Some may be wondering why I tell this story? I tell it because it’s part of what makes me me. I tell it because if it helps one person understand the ramifications of hitting a vein with penicillin or the reaction that follows then I’ve helped you. If it saves one person or horse from being injured then it’s worthwhile. Life with horses is about learning, sometimes it’s the horrible experiences that teach us just as much as the pleasurable ones. 

❤️🐴🌈