Ex-professional
carriage driver Debbie Wicks (née Cowdery) lives in rural north Cumbria and these
days has just three horses, which she enjoys in her leisure time alongside a
busy career as an online marketing consultant.
Overwater
Kestrel is an eyecatching, athletic yearling colt, part bred Hanoverian and
currently standing at 15.2hh, although he is expected to mature at an imposing
16.2hh-17.0hh. Debbie bought him from his Cumbrian breeder in early spring and
he has been happily enjoying the company of her 7-year-old sport horse stallion
Prince of Durness out in the paddock, whilst getting on with the serious
business of growing up.
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| Kestrel on the day of injury, May 6th, 2017 |
However
boys do play rough, sometimes too rough and it’s nearly always the little
fella’ who comes off worst. So when Debbie went out to check her horses on May
6th, all looked fine from a distance, but as she got closer, she
could see blood running down Kestrel’s neck and that he had sustained a
puncture wound on one side of it. “It was probably caused by his field
companion, my stallion Prince, as they do get hold of each other’s necks when
they play, but Kestrel has so little muscle as yet, hence the injury.”
Debbie
brought him into a stable for a closer look, then called out her vet, who
flushed the wound and removed some muscle that had been bitten through, before
stitching the tissues together very neatly. “He had to stay in his stable, on
box rest”, explains Debbie, “so I immediately started to use my ArcEquine
microcurrent unit on him for a three hour daily treatment.”
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| The day the wound burst open May 12th, 2017 |
“For
a few days, things looked good, but on May 12th, the wound burst
open due to necrotic muscle tissue. My vet came out again and at that point,
there were two significant holes into which the vet could put his fingers! This
time, he rinsed out the wound with an iodine solution and left it open to
drain, without any further stitches. I was left to flush it four times a day
with a weak iodine solution in a squeezy bottle.
“He
told me that it was going to take months to heal and warned that it could
develop into a case of fistulous withers, which didn’t sound good. However I’ve
had very significant success with microcurrent therapy and continued his daily
treatments with my ArcEquine unit, as Kestrel still had to be kept inside. I
also started using Manuka honey, but that was all.
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| Kestrel on May 26th, 2017 with trouble-free healing well advanced |
“Initially
Kestrel had been on antibiotics, because of the chance of infection, along with
an anti-inflammatory, but I know the ArcEquine is also very good at relieving
pain and he didn’t even have to finish the course of ‘bute prescribed. However
I did have to give him feed and water at a raised level, as he wouldn’t bend
his neck down to the floor in the early stages of healing.”
Debbie
kept in touch with her vet by email and text, sending regular photographs of Kestrel’s
neck,, but it wasn’t until June 7th that the vet visited again, for
the purpose of routine vaccinations. “He couldn’t believe how well it had healed”,
remembers Debbie with a smile. “He said – oh it has to be eight weeks since it
happened - but I said no, it’s only been a month!”
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| June 23rd, 2017 and Kestrel is back out in the field having forgotten all about his injury |
Explaining
about her use of the ArcEquine microcurrent unit, Debbie said; “I’ve been
involved with a lot of horses all of my life and I have never encountered a
piece of equipment like the ArcEquine. It achieves such amazing healing results
with the wide variety of injuries and traumatic accidents that happen all too
regularly to horses and ponies. Anyone considering buying one needs to just
evaluate the purchase cost against potential savings in ongoing equine healthcare
costs – and the amazingly positive effect it has on wellbeing. I think it’s an
essential piece of kit for every horse owner to have in their arsenal.”
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| Debbie Wicks and Overwater Kestrel, now back to full health |
As
for Kestrel, well he’s already forgotten all about it and is back out again
grazing in the paddock and just being a healthy, happy yearling colt again.
To
find out more about ArcEquine microcurrent technology, visit www.arcequine.com or contact 01580 755504.
Find
out more about microcurrent technology for human use at www.arc4health.com and www.arc4sports.com
