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 feed, never mind that she has 20 acres 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. 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. As it was it was a chore just tending to her wound twice a day. She started going the other way every time she saw me, and I didn’t blame her one bit.
The veterinarian was called and I knew that there was not 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 skin longer and longer and Brandy was becoming very agitated.
With every toss of her head her skin was tearing more and more. Well I made the decision to cut the extra skin off as much as I could. 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 skin had torn approximately 3 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 skin 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. I am glad now that I got my 'snip' in while the snipping was good!
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 thehandle 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 style here and there. Some buckets have rubber tips on the ends where it curves up into the hook portion. 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 again). Duct tape is great stuff!
Well I hope this helps to prevent any injury to anyone else’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.
Written by,
Michele D. Anderson
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I am a horse enthusiast and online marketer. I specialize in horse related products and information. I own and operate two websites: http://www.Posterhorse.com and http://www.yourhorseinfo.com. For more articles on everything horse, please sign up for our 'FREE' weekly newsletter 'Healthy Horse' at Posterhorse.com.
