Part 2 Madi Martin. Lyle recovers from another injury
Written by Madi Martin
Woodside De Lagos journey has continued to be very eventful. I spoke about Lyles tendon injury and recovery so far in Part 1, if you haven't seen the article here it is. After I was told Lyle could come back into work I decided to give him some more time in the paddock as 2016 was turning out to be a not so great year. I needed a break just as much as Lyle did.
So in December 2016 Lyle was still sound as a bell, we moved him to a new home and I was keen to get him going again. After Christmas Lyle was settling into his new home and had begun rehab, we were all so pleased to see him so happy and sound, something we really didn't think was going to happen.
On the 28th of February Lyle was found in the paddock with a very serious cut to his foot. Once I arrived and spoke to the vet we realised how serious it was. Lyle was rushed to the clinic and was given pain relief while they took x-rays etc.
I was taken into a room and told our only option was surgery. I was in shock. He had managed to slice all the blood vessels on the left side of his foot, cut through all the layers of soft tissue and there was concern about damage to his joints.
There was no way I was going to let Lyle go, so thanks to my family for helping out in a very big way, we were able to go ahead with the surgery. The risks were very high, there was a chance they could get him on the table and see that there's nothing they can do, or still come out of surgery to just be a paddock horse and never be ridden again. I didn't care if he could be ridden again, I just wanted him to pull through this. So Lyle was monitored overnight to make sure he was stable for surgery mainly to make sure he hadn't lost too much blood.
On the 1st march 2017 Lyle went into surgery. It was a long wait but 5 hours later I got the news that he is so lucky and the only thing that gave Lyle a second chance was less then a mm of tissue, that's all it came down to. I was so happy Lyle was going to be ok!
That evening Lyle still was very off, they ran bloods and his blood count had dropped down to 20. This proved that he had lost a lot more blood then we initially thought, he was so lucky to have come out of surgery. Lyle started to recover and his blood count slowly went up day by day, he was discharged on the 8th of March.
Lyle was put in a cast for 6 weeks, taken home and put in a box where he was getting 2 scoops of Rose-Hip Vital Equine per day. There was no other treatment being given because of the cast.
When the 3 week point arrived I wanted to change the cast so the vets removed it and couldn't believe how well it was healing. We were weeks ahead of where we should have been, he could come out of a cast and just have a bandage on. I was so happy!
A week later the vets returned to check that his foot hadn't got any worse by not being in a cast. That's far from what happened, they removed the bandage and were so happy that they wanted to leave it off and put him in a yard during the day. It was just amazing we were 6 weeks ahead of what was expected, just unbelievable. The facts are in the photos, there was no treatment as it was wrapped up the only explanation is Rose-Hip Vital reduced all the inflammation and increased the healing time by miles!
Lyle has now been out during the day for 3 weeks and hasn't had anything on it. We are extremely happy with how he is going, in fact one last vet visit next week and are hoping to bring him back into work!
Lyle has been through a lot but he is the definition of a fighter, going against all odds on multiple occasions proving that there are ways around the worst prognosis. Just believe in the amazing new treatment options, I honestly don't know where Lyle would be without Rose-Hip Vital!
I cant wait to see what the future holds for Lyle!
