Check your feed buckets for
horse safety – I never thought
that a feed bucket could cause harm to
any horse, but I know now and I would
like to give you a heads up on the
danger a feed bucket can cause to your
horse.
I have been around and owned horses most
of my life and although I have seen some
pretty unusual things I have never seen
anything quite like this. Horses are
horses and they do get into some
unpredictable situations, some which are
funny at times and others that are
harmful and costly for your horse and
you. I have been using flatback feed
buckets for years and I have never had a
problem with any of them until now.
Our horse Brandy loves her feed as most
horses do. She comes into the
corral area 2 or 3 times a day to check
all the buckets for leftover feed, never
mind that she has 20 acres of lush grass
to graze upon. Every day she checks the
feed buckets and there is never any feed
in them, except at breakfast and dinner,
I guess she is just hopeful that one day
she will find extra feed in one of the
buckets.
The incident: I went out in the morning
to find our horse Brandy dripping with
blood from her muzzle with about 6-8
inches of the skin on her muzzle hanging
down below her muzzle. Of course I
rushed to her side and I could not for
the life of me figure out what had
happened to her.
Photo #1 in this illustration I tried to
show wear the rip began and ended.
The tear itself was wider, about 1
inch.This photo was taken on the 3rd or
4th day after the incident. Everyone
said I should have take a picture of the
injury and on hindsight, I wish I would
have done so that you would have been
able to see the extent of the injury, it
was pretty horrific.
The veterinarian was called and I knew
that there wasn't any way that the vet
would be able to stitch up this wound.
As I was waiting for the veterinarian
gravity was pulling the torn flesh
longer and longer and Brandy was
becoming very agitated. The flesh was
hanging about 6-7 inches below her
muzzle at this time.
With every toss of her head her skin was
tearing more and more. Well I made the
decision to cut the extra flesh off as
much as possible. I had a one snip
chance as I saw it and believe me when I
tell you, that she did not give me a
chance at a second snip...
Brandy took it better than I did, I felt
awful needless to say. By the time the
Veterinarian got there the flesh had
torn approximately4 more inches longer.
Our Veterinarian didn’t seem too
surprised at the wound but unfortunately
said, it could not be stitched and of
course there would be some deformity and
scarring. He cut the extra (3 to 4
inches) of flesh off, cleansed the wound
and put ointment on the injured area,
needless to say he had to tranquilize
her ‘twice’, because she wasn’t having
any of it.
The Veterinarian asked how it happened
and we explained that her nostril had
somehow got caught in the bucket handle,
as that is wear the blood trail started
and the bucket handle was now straight
instead of the usual rounded handle. He
said, “a horse is a horse, and they are
always getting into something, but he
had not heard of this particular type of
incident before.” There is always a
first time!
Photo #2 shows her injury after 7-10
days. We were all relieved to see her
healing so nicely after all she has been
through.
Photo #3 approximately one month later,
this photo shows you how well the
nostril healed although there is some
deformity but hardly any scarring. We
are truly thankful.
Photo #4 is a photo of our ‘Brandy’.
Brandy is an 8 year old Arabian mare. As
you can see the scarring is very
minimal, almost nonexistent. Considering
the extent of the injury, Brandy’s’
nostril still looks pretty good abet she
lost a little of the flair in the
injured nostril.
You can see in photo # 5 the gap between
the handle and where the handle curves
into the hook, that is where our horse
Brandy, got her nostril caught. I would
imagine that she panicked,what horse
wouldn’t. If the handle would not have
been as straight as a poker afterwards I
would never have believed it myself. How
she got her nostril caught in the gap we
will never know but I wanted to warn
everyone of the possible un-seen dangers
of the feed bucket. I will say this, I
will never look at a feed bucket in the
same way ever again.
All feed buckets vary in size and style and
some buckets have rubber tips on
the ends where it curves up into the
hook portion of the handle, but I don’t know if that
would have helped or not, maybe her
nostril would have slipped off more
easily but I just couldn’t say. After
the incident I took some duct tape and
wrapped it all around the portion where
the hook curves up and the gap is, (I am
not taking any chances of this happening
ever again). Duct tape is great stuff
and is an inexpensive fix.
Well I hope this helps to prevent any
injury to anyone’s horses via a
feed bucket. I am sure they will
eventually find something else to get
into but at least they are safe from the
feed bucket danger.
Happy Trails,
Michele D. Anderson
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