A Chilling Discovery
A call came one morning in late February that a client’s horse was stuck in a well. The temperature on that cold morning read -28C. Growing up on an acreage, I envisioned a 6-inch pipe that extends many feet underground, unsure how a horse would get stuck in one of these. When I arrived at the farm, I found a group of people huddled around a manhole in the middle of a field. There were some old fenceposts and a wooden lid nearby. It turns out that this little two-year-old gelding likely backed through the partially fallen-down fence and then broke through the rotten wood of the lid.
The good news was that he went back end first into the hole, so when we looked down, we saw his head and knees sticking out of the water. Given the temperature outside, the fact that the water had not frozen was likely the best place for him until we could figure out what to do.
A Race Against Time
Quick planning and collaboration resulted in a tow truck being called. There was no way to reach the horse safely without also ending up in the hole. I took sedatives from my vehicle, but it was so cold they froze in my syringe. I had to place them on the dash with the engine running to keep them from freezing.
In the meantime, neighbours ran to get a trailer and blankets to keep him as warm as possible once he was out of the well. Being submerged in water was not ideal given the outdoor temperature. On a funny sidenote, the trailer that arrived seemed perfect until we opened the back door and found out that it had been used to store various appliances! A washing machine and dryer had to be unloaded quickly, but there were lots of hands available to do this.
The Rescue
Once the tow truck showed up, I attached ropes to myself and was lowered down the hole slowly, head first. The little guy was pretty tired and tolerated things well overall. I was able to administer an intramuscular sedative through the cheek muscle and, once this took effect, was able to get a halter on him. Once we had a hold of his head, we were able to gently lift him enough to pass ropes around his knees, which allowed me to access his neck to give him a brief anesthetic agent. The last thing we needed was for him to fight or panic as we lifted him from the hole.
A Warm Recovery
Our patient was lifted from the hole with no further hitches. Various comforters were placed over him, and he recovered relatively quickly from his anesthesia. We loaded him on the trailer and brought him indoors at the clinic to treat him for hypothermia and other possible complications.
He managed to come away from his experience with only a very small wound on his front fetlock, which was quickly sutured and bandaged. After some warm IV fluids, pain medications, and time to dry, he was good as new—and also way cleaner than his pasture mates! Being a young herd animal, he did not appreciate being kept alone in a stall, so he went back to live with his friends outdoors later that same day.
Needless to say, this appointment threw off the entire day, and all other appointments had to be rescheduled. But it was all worth it. The little gelding, whose name was Justice but was changed to Just Ice after the excitement, grew up to become a fully functional riding horse and never looked back. My only regret is that no one felt it was appropriate to take pictures, as everyone assumed a different outcome, but the images in my head are there forever. Definitely one of my most memorable cases!