Horse impaled by branch has Facebook page

By Justine Thompson

General news

16 February 2010 09:35

An endurance horse from Tennessee who was impaled by a thick branch now has a Facebook page so well-wishers can follow his progress.

Chestnut Arab Amigo suffered a terrible injury in January when, during a night of storm-force winds, he was impaled by a branch 5cm thick and 90cms long.

The branch had entered his leftt side, broken two ribs and come to rest against a lung.

Amigo’s owner Gary Sanderson was advised to have the horse put to sleep, but Gary wanted to give him a chance of life, so the horse was driven 45 minutes away to the Large Animal Clinic at the University of Tennessee.

Amigo was seriously ill but miraculously survived the journey, so vets set about an hour-long operation to remove the stick and damaged tissue around the wound. The degree of decomposed tissue led them to believe the injury may have happened 12 hours before the horse was found.

Amigo's lung collapsed during surgery and, with the threat of bacterial infection, he was given only a two per cent chance of survival.

When he was stitiched up he was left with two drainage tubes from his lungs and an open wound that has to be regularly packed with gauze.

Laminitis resulting from bacterial infection is also an ever-present danger and the horse suffered an attack just two days ago – though once again he now appears to be on the mend.

Amigo’s road to recovery is being watched by more than 3,000 fans on Facebook. To catch up with his progress click here