hello, and welcome, to a long overdue episode of "On This Week's Episode..."
we are coming up on the 1-year anniversary of one of the worst (horse-related) days i have ever had, so i felt it was an appropriate time to share this story with all of you. as i do my best to keep this story brief, but accurate, please bear with my tangents and proclivity for over-sharing of details and try to enjoy... (TW: blood, animal bites)
it was wednesday february 8 - and i should have known that something crazy was going to happen. this was during a phase where we at the farm were convinced wednesdays were cursed as all the bad things were happening on wednesdays (snow storms, record low temps, flu bugs, etc)... but it was sunny for the first time in a while and our farrier was due out to give mani/pedis to our noble steeds. one such steed, whom i will refer to as "b" for the sake of not typing his entire government name, required some happy juice for the occasion. he was getting his winter shoes updated, meaning he required 4 shoes with pads to prevent bruising and abscessing on his delicate tootsies. as his mom was busy being an actual mom to her biological children, i was tasked to stand with him and be his emotional support human during his appointment.
things started off as well as you could hope. b stood politely for shoe removal and trimming, and then took his medicine without a lot of fuss and stood quietly in his stall while the good stuff kicked in. when he was sufficiently sleepy and his new shoes shaped & ready, i lead him back into the aisle to get them put on. while his head drooped, i snapped a quick selfie to put his mom's mind at ease that all was going well...
and that's almost exactly when things stopped going well.
i had my right hand on b's nose and was giving him soft scritchy-scratchies while i stood off to the side and chatted with our farrier as he banged nails into b's front right hoof. mid-sentence i felt a strong pressure on my nearly numb fingers. i looked over to see that in his drug-induced state, b had slipped my fingers into his mouth and chomped down, seemingly confusing them for frozen carrot sticks.
i popped him on the nose, pulled my hand back and looked down to see a wrinkled prune of a nail bed where my index fingernail had once been. as quickly as i processed that my nail was missing, my nail bed filled with bright red blood.
"he just bit my fingernail off!" i exclaimed - but without moving much as my farrier was still wielding his hammer with a hoof balanced precariously between his knees and i did NOT need b to spook and turn this into a true catastrophe.
"he what?" he responded, mid-hammer swing, waiting until he had finished fixing the shoe to the foot before releasing it back to the ground and turning around to check if he had heard me right. sure enough - he had. the nail was gone, the blood was pooling. luckily, my farrier is also a registered nurse, so when i handed him a paper towel and vet wrap, he immediately fashioned me a pressure wrap so we could finish getting b's other 3 shoes on.
while the other 3 shoes were going on, i held my right hand over my head to try and control the bleeding. a very normal, in my opinion, conversation ensued...
"does this count as an animal bite? like, will i have to report it?"
"do you have to get a tetanus shot for this?"
"is this an urgent care visit or an emergency room visit?"
"this is going to be SO inconvenient."
i ended up choosing the emergency room, because if there was going to be the chance of deep cleaning or pulling nail debris out, i wanted to be somewhere with good drugs. i called a friend to meet me at the hospital incase said drugs were administered so i would have a DD home, and off i went.
*** slideshow includes pictures of the injury - click through at your own risk ***
once in the emergency room, it was relatively uneventful. vitals were stable. xrays were negative for fracture. and the nail had in fact been cleanly ripped from the bed. a quick clean up and a nifty little finger splint and i was on my way. i got back into my truck to take myself home, already planning a delightful little nap.
unfortunately, the curse of the wednesdays hadn't finished yet....
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