LITTLE ROCK — The barn stall wasn't the sterile, well-equipped hospital operating room Dr. Pamela Howard was used to, and the 680-pound patient on the floor was a long stretch from her usual patients in the burn center at Arkansas Children's Hospital.
But the wounds were familiar. As a burn and trauma surgery specialist, she knows them well.
"I've been doing these kind of wounds and burns for 12 years now," Howard said.
She sees similar injuries all the time on people who have road rash from scraping against concrete in motorcycle accidents. So even though this was her first major surgery on a horse, she knew just what had to be done.
Three-year-old Lucky Chance had his first surgery Saturday and his second surgery Monday night. He's under the temporary care of the Humane Society of Pulaski County, as authorities in Independence County investigate the circumstances surrounding his Sept. 13 injuries.
He was in good spirits Wednesday, happily eating hay in his stall on a farm in Jefferson County.
Bandages cover the majority of his wounds, which extend over about 40 percent of his right side. He has at least two broken ribs and deep scrapes scattered over much of his body, said veterinarian Teresa Medlock of the Pulaski County Humane Society.
The shanks of three legs are wrapped in bandages, but his stance is sturdy, with his weight evenly distributed on all four legs.
"We're all really, really pleased with where this is going," Howard said.
She first heard about Lucky Chance last week, when a nurse at the hospital showed her a photo of the badly injured horse. As a lifelong animal lover, she didn't want to see it at first. But when she looked, she realized she could help.
"I just kind of saw the picture, and I couldn't ignore that," Howard said.
So after a full day of caring for human patients at the hospital, she packed up some surgical supplies that she keeps in her garage for mission trips overseas and drove down to meet Lucky Chance.
"I just threw a bunch of stuff in a bag that I thought might work and headed out there to see the horse," Howard said.
Once there, she surveyed her new patient and on the back of her pickup pieced together makeshift bandages big enough for him. Before long, she was crouched on the ground beside the sleeping horse, with Medlock by her side.
For two hours, Howard worked cleaning Lucky Chance's wounds, while Medlock tended to his leg injuries.
Thick, dead tissue covered many of his wounds and had to be removed. If left untended, it could cause serious infection, Howard said. Tissue was torn down to the muscle in some areas.
It was almost a week since a couple found the injured, bleeding animal alongside a road in Independence County.
Witnesses told authorities that they saw the horse being tossed around in the back of a trailer hauled by a truck. The driver was reportedly driving erratically, slamming on the brakes and then lurching the truck quickly forward down the road, according to the police report.
Danny Ferguson, 49, of Batesville is charged with driving while intoxicated, driving without a license and refusal to submit to a bloodalcohol test. His court date is set for Oct. 14.
Independence County Sheriff Keith Bowers said Wednesday that the prosecuting attorney won't pursue felony charges in the case.
"We anticipate misdemeanor charges of cruelty to animals," Bowers said.
Prosecuting Attorney Donald McSpadden declined to comment because the case is still under investigation.
Kay Simpson, director of the Humane Society of Pulaski County, said Lucky Chance is a "miracle horse." She's gotten calls from people throughout Arkansas and many from other states.
"He just loves people. He likes attention and affection," Simpson said. "He has just been amazing. He got our hearts immediately. We're animal people, but sometimes one touches you specially."
Medlock said the costs for his medication and supplies will be substantial.
"The financial need is going to be a big thing for this little guy to get well because it is going to be extremely expensive to rehab him," she said.
For now, Lucky Chance spends his days in his stall eating hay, playing with his toy ball and listening to country music on the radio his keepers leave on throughout the day to keep him company.
He can't leave the barn yet for fear he'll hurt himself, Medlock said.
Each day she arrives and spends about an hour changing his bandages and dressing his wounds. He takes antibiotics and painkillers twice a day.
"We try to reduce the pain level as much as we can," Medlock said. "He's got an excellent attitude. He just tolerates anything we do to him. He's been an excellent patient."
For his second surgery Monday night, Howard spent 90 minutes cleaning his wounds.
Howard and Medlock said they're holding their breaths for a smooth recovery and are monitoring him closely in hopes of evading infection. They're taking it day by day.
"We've seen steady improvement, but we're still looking at probably four to six months of healing at the earliest," Medlock said. "It just depends on how he heals and if we have any complications that come up."
"I don't know really what we're looking at. We've never dealt with anything this severe."
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11, 12 on 09/24/2009