Horses, Healing and Homeopathy

A few weeks ago Mac sustained an puncture wound injury to his right hind hoof sole. It happened overnight whilst turned out in a new paddock and when I found him in the morning he was standing watching me feed everyone else and not moving or coming over to see me like he usually would.

I took a quick glance around him, and then there it was. A full size fencing nail poking out the sole of his right hind hoof. A quick call to the vet and they are on their way, I just had to get him from the muddy field up to the wash down area to clean it up ready for their arrival. Mac cooperated and hobbled his way in from the field and let me hose it all down. It was important to leave the nail in situ so that the vet could x-ray and check if any joint structures had been penetrated. A worrying hour followed! Mac was kept happy with a haynet and a pony friend for company whilst we waited.

Once the vet arrived she set up the X-ray kit, and we set about finding out how bad the damage was. A huge sigh of relief from me when we could see that some how it had missed all the joints and tendon sheath and was mainly in the digital cushion. Kind of a lucky outcome from an unlucky situation.

Now we had this information the nail could be pulled out from his foot, and a full clean up and poulticing could begin. For the first 24 hours I was advised not to give him any bute (pain killer) as this is also an anti inflammatory and could mask any signs of possible infection in the tendon sheath. So another worrying 24hrs of keeping watch to see how his body reacted. And phew, there was no major swelling of his leg so he could finally have some pain relief.

At this point he was not weight bearing much at all on the injured foot, and of course it had to be kept clean and poulticed as essentially he still had a hole in the sole of his foot. So he was kept in a stable with loads of clean dry bedding and then once or twice a day I would lead him out for some grass to give him a change of scenery and a little leg stretch. Keeping him moving a bit would help with the circulation and healing, but also it was still quite painful so it was important not to ask him to move more than he was comfortable with.

At this point I realised that I had been worrying about outcomes quite a lot! Which is not the most helpful energetic state to be in, so I gave myself a talking to and set about realigning myself with the best possible outcomes, and offering Mac some healing. I did this in two different ways……..

Firstly I grounded myself and used one of my centering meditations to get me connected within myself and with source energy. From this grounded and centered place I then did a visualisation of Mac’s body healing in different stages- from the cellular level, to the actual physical appearance, to then seeing the best case scenario outcomes.

Then in a new and separate space I offered a full body healing session to help support the whole of him whilst he was going through all of this experience. He had recently moved, hadn’t yet integrated with the new herd and was now needing to be in yet another different environment. Luckily he is fairly relaxed about these kind of things, but it did really help to have a pony come and be with him so he wasn’t totally isolated from the herd.

By the third day his leg had started to swell, and the evening of the third day it was looking like it was filling up quite a bit. Que me starting to worry again! So once again, centred myself and this time contacted a friend for some homeopathy advice. She recommended a couple of remedies, and the one Mac said yes to was Silica. He started having this, and I also did some lymphatic drainage massage on his leg, along with some hands on healing.

The next morning the leg was still filled, but he was weight bearing on it. This was brilliant as it meant he could walk a bit more, and that in turn would help the body disapait all the swelling which is most likely a mixture of cells trying to get to the injury site to help heal it and clear any possible infections. He was also a lot perkier in him self which was lovely to see.

Over the next 24hrs the swelling continued to go down, and he continued walking on four legs. Big sigh of relief now. So I started turning him out in the arena in the day, and keeping him in at night. He was still polticed and it was still really important to keep it clean and mud free. After around 10 days of this he was looking well enough to let the poultice stay off. So I plugged the foot with hoof clay that contained some eucalyptus oil and let him be in the arena for the day, and then at the end of the eleventh day he was able to go back out in the field again. I continued with the healing sessions and visualising the wound healing from the top most point downwards and holding the intention that it would continue healing in the most optimal way.

I’ve written this blog to share some of the steps I took to manage myself and then help Mac in the process of this healing journey. If you’d like more information about the tools and techniques I used please drop me an email and as soon as I have created the ‘Healing for Animals Energetic First Aid Kit’ you can be the first to know. Anyone can learn all the techniques I used and it is possible to apply with any animal in any situation. It’s not for using instead of a vet, but is designed to work alongside whatever care programe the vet may have suggested to optimise recovery from injuries or illness and help you to stay centered throughout the process :0)