Well This Sucks

Today was the big day to go back to riding - I religiously followed the vets instructions not to ride for two weeks. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Late last Thursday I got the biopsy results - the most recent growth wasn't proud flesh it was the return, very quickly, of the sarcoid. That left me reeling to be honest, even though I knew it was a likely result. I was hopeful too though. The surgery site was looking really good all along, better than the first time. It was clean and dry, just a little seam in his skin. I continued waiting patiently for the appointed day, then went to the barn today to resume our lessons and training. (As an aside, I had expected because of lack of room at the barn to have to take Rogo home the end of Dec., but an opening came up so we were able to stay and continue out three times a week lessons - huge for us.)

I got my tack and grooming tools from the tack room, got my riding boots on, put Rogo in the cross ties, took off his blanket, looked at the surgery site - and my heart dropped. A large piece of skin, about 1.5 in. in diameter, had broken away from covering the surgery site and under it was angry, bubbled, bleeding flesh. This looks much, much worse and much, much bigger than before the surgery two weeks ago. This is what it looks like:

Rogo had antibiotics for five days after surgery and in addition to really deeply bedded straw the barn owner had her working students add a layer of peat under the straw, to keep pressure off of the wound. They watched it when I wasn't there and I'm told it continued to look good.

The vet is coming Thur. morning. The dry, fairly quiet kind of sarcoid Rogo had can sometimes turn into the angry, aggressive kind if they are disturbed. The vet tells me this may be what happened, or it may be that the skin broke down.

I can't really think right now. I'm blind sided. I had no idea this could even happen so fast. When the surgery was done I thought two weeks off was being generous for a small incision. Now I don't see riding in the near future. The last lesson we had, a couple of hours before the surgery, was our best ever. It didn't cross my mind that it was our last for awhile...

Readers have been very kind and helpful. More on that later.