Tuesday, May 24, 2016

I'm a hoof surgeon

Mag's abscess is finally down near the ground but instead of the chunk of hoof chipping off on its own, it stuck out in a dangerous way. Of course it's the rock hard black hoof.

I asked J to help me comfort Mag so I could try to get it off, with whatever tool might work. (I don't own nippers.) J said instead I should call a farrier on an emergency basis. No one answered. J was worried I'd hurt Mag but I convinced him there is only one option for such a thing - get it off.

Mag pushed his head against J's chest and stood politely as I took wire cutters to his hoof and snipped off the jagged hoof wall. Then I very carefully rasped it smooth, because the edges of the hole were so jagged they still seemed dangerous. The rasp made such an awful noise going over that hole *shudder* but J kept Mag calm and Mag was polite about giving me his hoof out front of him so I could work on it from above (the hoof on my knee).

The donkey joined us even though I said, "This stall is not a 4-person stall!" She wanted attention too.

All done, Mag has a smooth but open hole at the bottom of his hoof instead of a crack that has been filling with debris all this time.

That he's sound on such a hoof is surprising. Then again it's not dissimilar from a hoof that has lost a shoe and torn off wall up to the nail holes. We'll see what happens.


Somehow that's not ouchy.





It coincides with the event line that I believe is from taking antibiotics in December.

4 comments:

AareneX said...

do you not own nippers because you can't buy them in Germany (restricted, perhaps, like wormer, etc) or because you are like me and just haven't gotten 'round to getting any?

lytha said...

I just haven't gotten around to learning to use them, and I rasp regularly enough that I feel I don't need to remove a lot at once. Maybe someday I will learn.

Crystal said...

It doesn't look that bad, you did a good job with what you have. Be glad it was the hard hoof that's probly why hes still sound on it and not much more has broken off.

Achieve1dream said...

You did a great job! I'm glad it's not painful.