Oh goodness! Looks like she is healing well, I hope that continues.

Let me know when the hog roast is, I'll bring potato salad.

 

Good grief! That poor thing. Those hogs need to be eradicated.

 

This might be a stupid question, but how do you know for sure it was a hog? Unless you saw the incident of course.

 

This might be a stupid question, but how do you know for sure it was a hog? Unless you saw the incident of course.

I was wondering that same thing. Looks like a classic chupacabra bite to me.

 

This might be a stupid question, but how do you know for sure it was a hog? Unless you saw the incident of course.

My husband found the site of impact, in a hog rut, with hogs running away from the area, including several huge boars. He went straight out to the pasture the horses had come in from while I was heading to the horse trailer. The is no other possible explanation, and from the existing evidence at the site, we know what it was. The game warden came out the next day and agreed, as did our vets who were on hand to tend the wound.

 

Good grief! That poor thing. Those hogs need to be eradicated.

We have such a huge hog problem here. We have shot, trapped, and tried everything else in between to get them off our ranch, but so far it hasn't happened. Our next endeavor is to cut out all of our woods except old grow trees for some cover for the horses. We will take out all underbrush, and raise all branches on remaining trees to 10 feet up and higher.

 

We have such a huge hog problem here. We have shot, trapped, and tried everything else in between to get them off our ranch, but so far it hasn't happened. Our next endeavor is to cut out all of our woods except old grow trees for some cover for the horses. We will take out all underbrush, and raise all branches on remaining trees to 10 feet up and higher.

I'll bet you just want to smack the jerks who introduced them. Thankful they aren't here. Grizzly bears and wolves are far less destructive.

 

This might be a stupid question, but how do you know for sure it was a hog? Unless you saw the incident of course.

Vets and game wardens can generally tell. Our cat was attacked and nearly killed by a raccoon last summer. One had been hanging around which was strange but the vet could tell from the wounds. He's a happy indoor cat now after 6 weeks at the vet and the wounds sloughing the flesh off to the bone. Raccoons also apparently have filthy mouths.

 

Vets and game wardens can generally tell. Our cat was attacked and nearly killed by a raccoon last summer. One had been hanging around which was strange but the vet could tell from the wounds. He's a happy indoor cat now after 6 weeks at the vet and the wounds sloughing the flesh off to the bone. Raccoons also apparently have filthy mouths.

I'm so glad your kitty survived that attack. Yes, vets and game wardens have a better idea about specific wounds than most of us, and I am very grateful for their immediate help when Shar was hurt....

 

The vets did a great job. Might I suggest putting http://www.equaide.com/ on it to close up the area. I've used that stuff with amazing results.

Had a horse with a similar injury (not a boar, fell and broke a post and ran it up in his shoulder), had a big hanging flap like that. The stitching was very similar, just a lot smaller, think about 30 stitches total. The equiade healed it so well I had to look hard to see the scar sometimes.

Hope your girl has an uneventful rest of recovery.

 

Oh my! Glad she is doing so well. That wound really looks good considering how it started out. Will she have to have skin grafts or do they think her skin will eventually cover it up?

We had a guy across the river that got the bright idea of having wild boar hunts on his property so he got a bunch from somewhere. After he found out about all the licensing, insurance, etc... that was required he turned them loose. So now we have wild hogs populating an area they were not in before. Supposedly the game wardens are going to start setting traps for them around here. I think the idiot that turned them loose should be responsible for all costs involved in their removal plus damages caused to land and crops.

 

Either you have very tall hogs or your horse is a sound sleeper. I still say chupacabra.

 

Oh, my word! Where do you live? I've never even heard of anything like that!

LuLu

 

It was an ugly mess but looks to be healing well.

I have to agree with basketti. I've dealt with wolves, bear and big cats and didn't find them to be anywhere near the problem that folks are having in areas that have hog problems and those that do are strongly encourage to kill them on sight.

 

Either you have very tall hogs or your horse is a sound sleeper.

I agree. It looks more like the horse simply ran into something. That hook on the wall at the vet's office is screaming for another fractious horse to jump up and cause a similar wound to the other side.

Sorry folks, but vets and game wardens almost never can tell what kind of animal caused a wound for sure. Often they'll humor people by going along with their already preconceived notions, which usually involve a heightened emotional state of anger or revenge against the complainant's particular animal villan of choice, but since there is little to be gained by knowing, and the vet has more pressing issues to attend to at the moment (duh), often he'll just nod or "uh uh" in agreement so he can get along with his work. Many clients love a story, and how much more exciting to say that your horse got ravaged by wild hogs than he just ran into a tree. I've seen some astute veterinarians cultivate that need and give them what they want, letting them leave happy to be madder at the imaginary culprit than at the bill. Really the only people who can tell for sure what kind of animal caused a wound are forensic pathologists, and there aren't many of those on staff in many veterinary hospitals that I've seen. If one does come out and make a claim about which species caused a wound, in most cases it would be pure speculation. I would be very cautious about any professional who resorts to that kind of thinking.

 

Will she need further surgery for the open area?

All the best.

 

I agree. It looks more like the horse simply ran into something. That hook on the wall at the vet's office is screaming for another fractious horse to jump up and cause a similar wound to the other side.

Sorry folks, but vets and game wardens almost never can tell what kind of animal caused a wound for sure. Often they'll humor people by going along with their already preconceived notions, which usually involve a heightened emotional state of anger or revenge against the complainant's particular animal villan of choice, but since there is little to be gained by knowing, and the vet has more pressing issues to attend to at the moment (duh), often he'll just nod or "uh uh" in agreement so he can get along with his work. Many clients love a story, and how much more exciting to say that your horse got ravaged by wild hogs than he just ran into a tree. I've seen some astute veterinarians cultivate that need and give them what they want, letting them leave happy to be madder at the imaginary culprit than at the bill. Really the only people who can tell for sure what kind of animal caused a wound are forensic pathologists, and there aren't many of those on staff in many veterinary hospitals that I've seen. If one does come out and make a claim about which species caused a wound, in most cases it would be pure speculation. I would be very cautious about any professional who resorts to that kind of thinking.

Sorry, but I'm going with the vets and game wardens opinion over yours. I know some of them and have reason to believe them. Don't know much about you and your level of expertise, but you do enjoy posting like an expert. With a lot of preconceived notions of your own.

 

Oh my! Glad she is doing so well. That wound really looks good considering how it started out. Will she have to have skin grafts or do they think her skin will eventually cover it up?

We had a guy across the river that got the bright idea of having wild boar hunts on his property so he got a bunch from somewhere. After he found out about all the licensing, insurance, etc... that was required he turned them loose. So now we have wild hogs populating an area they were not in before. Supposedly the game wardens are going to start setting traps for them around here. I think the idiot that turned them loose should be responsible for all costs involved in their removal plus damages caused to land and crops.

This is how feral hogs have spread so fast. Some idiots decides they want to hunt feral hogs and go buy a trailer load and turn them loose.

Aoconor1 Glad your horse is doing better.

 

I agree. It looks more like the horse simply ran into something. That hook on the wall at the vet's office is screaming for another fractious horse to jump up and cause a similar wound to the other side.

Sorry folks, but vets and game wardens almost never can tell what kind of animal caused a wound for sure. Often they'll humor people by going along with their already preconceived notions, which usually involve a heightened emotional state of anger or revenge against the complainant's particular animal villan of choice, but since there is little to be gained by knowing, and the vet has more pressing issues to attend to at the moment (duh), often he'll just nod or "uh uh" in agreement so he can get along with his work. Many clients love a story, and how much more exciting to say that your horse got ravaged by wild hogs than he just ran into a tree. I've seen some astute veterinarians cultivate that need and give them what they want, letting them leave happy to be madder at the imaginary culprit than at the bill. Really the only people who can tell for sure what kind of animal caused a wound are forensic pathologists, and there aren't many of those on staff in many veterinary hospitals that I've seen. If one does come out and make a claim about which species caused a wound, in most cases it would be pure speculation. I would be very cautious about any professional who resorts to that kind of thinking.

I agree with you to a point but there are cases where I'm pretty confident in drawing conclusions based on experience and type of injury.

I have no experience with hogs but the same sort of injury in my specific location would lead me to fairly confidently conclude I had a cat problem, simply by process of elimination. Since there is no mention of injury to the lower body, I'd be pretty confident in believing that the attack came from above and the only predator in my area that attacks in that manner is cats.

Perhaps you feel this is foolish but it is my responsibility to protect my livestock even if that means I need to draw conclusions and do a bit of research.

 

I lived in Florida for 14 years. When I was out riding in the woods, the possible lunatics out there didn't scare me, the wild hogs did.

They will attack anything, and they are vicious. That wasn't a run-in with a tree.

 

That must be really painful right over the withers. Every step a big ouch, poor girl.

I wonder if the hogs knocked her down and she got ripped before she could get up and run. I've been knocked over by both sheep and (domestic) hogs, and they hit you like a bowling ball to the knees.

 

For those who doubt the origin of the injury, I am the owner and know what happened to her. There is NO object in or on that pasture that could have caused the injury. it is a tree bare 40 acre grazing pasture. We have a huge hog problem, and they are everywhere day and night. The hogs had made ruts and were laying in them where my MARE WAS LAYING down, unbeknownst to us. A boar attacked her, he had females with him and will protect his females against any conceived threat. My husband saw the hogs running from the place my mare was laying down, and we found the blood spatter evidence of the attack location.

I don't know what those of you who are questioning me about what happened to her have in mind, but you are out of line and way off course. I investigated the wound cause as did my husband and the game warden. Our vet agreed with that conclusion due to the furrows the tusks made in the flesh which was rolled up and back with the tusks, and underlying muscle and tissue damage caused by tusks ripping through it. The boar hit her and bore down once, then up once. Have you never seen a boar or a bull when it gores? It shoves down with the horns, then up with the horns, or up and then turned down in a head shake gesture. She was able to get up pretty quickly but was in shock and hadn't come far from where she got injured when I got to her. It had just happened, we weren't trying to piece together a days old injury location, it had JUST HAPPENED. I'll stick to the professional opinion given as well as our own findings.

To those who wish her a good recovery, thank you guys! It looks better each day.

 

That must be really painful right over the withers. Every step a big ouch, poor girl.

I wonder if the hogs knocked her down and she got ripped before she could get up and run. I've been knocked over by both sheep and (domestic) hogs, and they hit you like a bowling ball to the knees.

Hi Alder. Our mare was already laying down, I believe she had just gotten down when she got hit.

The hogs are a HUGE problem here in north central Texas. We got ours because about 3 years ago, a hog hunting group had dogs on a herd and they ran them across our small county road and right into our woods. The hunters offered to go get them back out, but they never returned to do so. One female hog can produce up to 90 piglets a season, so it's easy to get a huge population in a very short period of time from even a small herd. We have so far trapped two HUGE boars in our hog trap, but once the hogs figure it out they won't go in it. We have to actually shoot them now, trapping will have to wait again for a month or two.

 

Oh my stars! That looks SO awful and I'm so glad she is healing well!!! I think this would be a great time to ask what you are doing for the care of the wound and what kind of care the vet gave her? I find it fascinating to go through wound care posts to see what sorts of things people do to get their horses back to full health. That one looks like it's healing exceptionally well so I'd love to know what has been done and what still needs to be done.

 

I lived in Florida for 14 years. When I was out riding in the woods, the possible lunatics out there didn't scare me, the wild hogs did.

They will attack anything, and they are vicious. That wasn't a run-in with a tree.

I have no ability to judge what a hog attack would look like but I have seen a few horses torn up by trees but I haven't seen one like the injury presented.

Typically, you see puncture wounds from dead branches but even the larger gaping wounds tend to leave twigs, bark or general debris within the wound area.

While I did comment that injuries from above would make me think big cats in my country, I would still have expected to see claw marks as well as puncture type injuries on the neck but I was only speaking to the concept that one can draw conclusions based on certain evidence presented.