Today I was preparing to bake a cheese cake, and my phone rang. As I was answering it, someone knocked on the front door. It was the neighbor's daughter at the door, and her mom on the phone. Birdie had run into the fence, bounced off, fell down, and stuck his leg through the fence as he stood up. He was caught by his left hind leg. The mom thought he had broken his leg... I ran out with the daughter, and she drove me to the front of the property, where Birdie was standing quietly with a barbed wire tourniquet wrapped around his leg. I didn't have anything with me, but the neighbor loaned me a wire cutter, and a rope. I cut the wire on both sides of his leg, cause it was dug into his flesh so far I was afraid to just pull it out. I threw the ends of the cut wire over the fence, so no one else would get tangled in it, wrapped the rope around Birdie's neck, and led him towards the barn. When I got to the gate, I put his halter on him, and called the vet. I loaded him up and drove him the 10 miles to the clinic, where his leg was cleaned, shaved, salved, and wrapped. He was given a tetanus booster, a shot for pain/inflammation and an antibiotic shot, and sent home. He will be fine, but will need some special care to get him healed up. 30cc penicillin once a day, change his bandage every other day, and 2 gm Bute twice a day. it is a good thing he is so laid back, and didn't struggle, or thrash around. He could have cut right through his tendons, and been a cripple for the rest of his life. Here are pictures of his leg at the vet's.
Not a pretty picture, but it could have been so much worse.
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