Emergency vet visit! Harv hurts his head

Harv stitched up with a smear of SWAT.
Well, it happened. The dreaded early morning phone call from the barn manager.

I was standing in the bathroom and had just turned on the shower. My cellphone was lying on the sink, and when it rang I lunged to pick it up before it woke Bob. It was Maureen, the barn manager. "Harvey has a pretty big gash on his forehead," she said. "It looks like there is exposed bone." Whether it was the heat from the shower or the news, I felt dizzy. We quickly determined that it could not wait until 8am -- an emergency call should be placed. Maureen offered to call the vet, since she could describe the injury. "Is he shaking his head? Is there blood in his nostrils? Is he walking normally? How do his eyes look?" I asked all of theses things right away. But aside from the deep scrape, he was behaving normally -- eating hay, bright, alert, responsive.

Duty calls
No chance of taking the day off work for a non-life-threatening issue -- I had phone interviews with job applicants scheduled all day. Maureen handled everything, and she called me at least eight times that morning with updates (God bless her). The vet knew the drill for head bumps. Harv got stitches, SMZs, and bute. I went out that evening and spent a few hours fussing over him. Later, he was turned out as usual.

How did it happen?
Harv whacked his head while being led in from the fields through a low barn door. It doesn't look particularly unsafe, and for over a year Harv has walked under it with no problem. This morning he must have thrown his head up at just the wrong moment. The owner stopped by to tell me that low entrance will be covered with foam to prevent another occurrence. I wondered if we should just cut to the chase and surround Harv with foam.

For those of you who can look at a cringe-worthy but mild injury (all stitched up), here is the video. If you're squeamish, consider yourself warned. Please note that right after shooting this footage I applied SWAT -- damned flies!

Harvey's head bump

A side note...
Here's an interesting thing. Harvey never has swelling in his hocks, even with arthritis. They're typically "dry" -- just bone and tendons and veins -- whenever I feel them. Today I looked and felt him over. He had a TON of swelling in his hocks and knees. I have to think that his body is reacting systemically to trauma? Just a thought.

Bob told me that when he got bumps on his head growing up, his mom told him he was "growing a pig's foot." I'll be going out to the barn for the next few days to check on Harv's pig's foot :-), but alls well that ends well.