Pate meets the vet

Patriot had a bad day on Friday. Somehow, between breakfast and dinner, he managed to open up his wound. This time, I called the vet. It was time for stitches! You would have been proud of me. Vet's have had to pick me up off of the ground during these type of procedures. Not this time. I watched every minute, assisted the vet and held my poor boy upright!

My vet is a patient and trusting man. I told him that Pate was handleable and that he would be able to give him a sedative. The vet had Pate literally eat out of his hands by feeding him yummy grain. After a "get to know you" session, he was given a sedative and promptly fell asleep. After many nights of sleep deprivation, my little mustang was snoring like a baby! It was a crack up to hear the snoring sound coming out of a horse!

It took about 1 hour to clean, flush, and stitch the wound. It was worse than you would have thought as first glance and fairly old. He had developed scar tissue and the skin was tough to get a needle through.

Pate "woke up" once during the procedure and needed even more drugs. That's one thing about Mustangs. They can be heavily sedated, yet literally run away. They have a high fight or flight response built into their genetics.

He got 17 stitches in two passes and his first exposure to the clippers. Hopefully, he will heal up nicely without much scarring. He's wearing his fly mask 24 hours now to prevent flies, dirt and further rubbing.

He is having some drainage and swelling, but he is no worse for wear. So I loaded him into the trailer and headed out for a four day clinic with Steve Rother. More on that later as I am still at the clinic and he is doing great!

But I did want to tell you that he loaded into the trailer for the first time in 38 minutes! We took it one hoof at a time.

I will try to get as many pictures and video of his progress as I can while I am here and post them when I return on Tuesday.