Abcess

For some reason I'm not supposed to be riding lately. Mag is lame on three legs, and the one good leg doesn't seem to be happy about it.

I've always said there is no safe horse fence, unless you wanted to keep horses behind the Berlin Wall, that seems pretty safe. T posts in particular seem risky, but we did our best, and all these years I've been expecting an injury. Tuesday we had it.

Mag rolled against a T post, got in a fight with it, and lost, from the looks of his LH leg. It was not lacerated, exactly, but cut in a zig-zag pattern on 3 sides of the cannon bone. Thankfully no joint involvement, minimal bleeding, and not so deep I needed to call the vet. Not on that day anyway.

I cold hosed him several times and he seemed to appreciate the numbness, he acted at one point as if he'd fall down asleep like a narcoleptic. I poked him and reminded him to stand up.

I'd never cold hosed a horse so much in my life, but I was pretty worried. It bled a bit when he moved, but mostly froze up with the cells going into hibernation, and the body unable to send heat and edema. I noticed that he was resting his LF during the cold treatment. Ugh, why....he was obviously sore.....

(To jump ahead, his leg had no swelling or heat at all at anytime following. So I think that if you can catch the injury within an hour of its occurrence, you can prevent side effects. I would have expected a huge leg based on how it looked.)

After all this I realized it would be a good time to trim his fore hooves because they'd taken on some water too, and would be softer.

I went to work. I was happy to see his abscess in the LF had finally grown completely out. When I got Mag in January, the abscess was at the coronary band. I watched it descend for 6 months. In May, you might recall a blowout where I had to cut out the entire hoof wall at the site, because the wall was horizontal, and knife-sharp. All these months he was never lame, somehow.

I gave him my last dose of bute, and the next morning, Traumeel.

Last week on a walk I noticed that Mag was avoiding gravel and walking on the grassy sides of the trail, for the first time. Normally he does not notice gravel.

After the trim and cold hosing, I saw that he was still favoring the LF so I called the vet. He came the next day, palpated and the hoof tester got a response exactly where the abscess was (when it was still there, I thought it was completely grown out by now). I said, "That's amazing."

He cut into the area until he found blood and then bandaged it and gave me several doses of antiseptic (Rivanol) to use twice daily (you pour it into the bandage with a plant waterer).

When the vet was putting on the bandage, Mag got tired of holding himself on 3 legs and leaned heavily on both me and the vet. I complained, "Mag, stand up!" and the vet swiftly punched Mag in the belly, getting Mag to stand again.

The thing that surprised us most was when the bandage was finished and Mag saw it. He went skywards, and then in all directions rapidly, slamming his body into the wall, the other wall, and trying to hit the vet's van and me, but I was able to prevent those directions. Mag has obviously never had anything attached to his leg/hoof in his life. I kind of knew it, in the back of my mind, that someday I'd have to put a leg wrap on him and teach him about it. I knew that someday he'd have to wear an Easyboot....well.....

The vet saw Mag jumping around, from behind his own van,  and laughed at him, "You rabbit-heart!" That must be German for cowardly horse.

Yah, the vet was safe back there, he could laugh.

Now I must admit something I wish I didn't have to. I asked my husband to hold Mag as I went to get something. I had told him that Mag had jumped around due to the bandage. But J thought he would move Mag a little forward in our driveway. I was somewhere far away when it happened, but Mag shot up into the sky again, thrashing about, with my dear husband holding the lead line. I remember thinking "HMMM" as I left them. But it was too late, Mag had jumped around enough to totally surprise J, and he has never dealt with a fractious, dangerous horse before.

I went to him and he looked at me like I'd betrayed him. I said, "You did it right, because you still have the horse. You learned how to deal with this!" Oh man, I don't know.. but I thanked him a million times and told him he's good now he can handle an unruly Mag.

Sometimes I'm amazed by the holes I see in Mag's experience - clippers, spray bottles, bathing, hoses around his legs, all fine. A rope in the wrong place, a bandage, complete flip-out.

The vet left me no bute, saying that it might impede healing, but he gave me Quadrisol 100 for an emergency.

The vet told me turnout was fine.

Our hay had been mowed and taken away the day before, and I was anxious to get them on the entire 5 acre pasture because we still have no hay, so I'd been supplementing our grass strips with beet pulp.

Finally I turned them out. I had no idea but Mag decided it was too much fun to have 5 acres again (last time was April) and he went crazy. He ripped around the entire pasture and with each pass of the donkey, kicked out at her to ply her into his fun. When he wasn't galloping, he was prancing, tail over his back, looking for the most part sound, from perhaps forgetting he was in pain.

I said "Easy" every time he passed me. He was so joyous, it was hard to discourage him. He rolled and rolled and rolled and snorted and played. Yah Mag, you guys get the pasture until we have hay again and need to make a second cutting.

Two days later, Friday, my trimmer came. She saw his bandage and said it needs to be replaced. I'm not gonna argue, if she wants to make him a new one. She used Absorbine Magic Cushion, with hemp fibers for more padding underneath a black tape as bandage. She scolded me for saying the hoof should be cleaned before bandaging (her idea being the Magic Cushion is enough).

She also scolded me about a lot of things (sigh) - that I'm too strict, that I turned him to quickly in our "walk out" and she got actually angry when I offered her a garden cushion for her knees as she knelt on our sharp plastic geotiles, she tossed it angrily away and said, "I don't need this!"

When Mag leaned on her like he had the vet, and even worse, it looked as if his entire body was leaning on her and he was near collapse, she just cooed to him and told me he doesn't know how to balance. I said, "It's cuz of the pain?" She said no, it's because he doesn't know how to balance himself on three legs. I've never seen anyone let a horse lean completely on him/her and not react in some way. I told her that the vet had whacked Mag in the belly when he did this and she said, "I can't believe it, that he could be so horrible to Mag! No one should hit him!"  I said, "It was only his backhand, not a hoof rasp, no worries!"

She said it's important that I constantly ask him where exactly he would like us to hold his hooves, to make it easier on him, because he's so young. She, like many, is very patient and respectful of horses, but apparently not people. I felt belittled. Unfortunately she is the only good trimmer I know of. Fortunately, I can trim his hooves myself, with some help from my husband because he's still inconsistent about his hind legs. With his new T post injury, I understand that he doesn't want to give me his LH. Thankfully today he gave me all the others easily, twice, when I asked.

Her hoof bandage, this morning was ripped though. Probably from unruly galloping again. Oh well, I know the area is exposed now, and it's not too wet out lately.

I forgot to mention the other feet. The RF has just the slightest black area in the white line that suggests a problem. The LH also has a potential abscess so he now has a deep quarter cut-out. That leaves one hoof with nothing special done to it.

Poor Mag seems to limp around when he's not playing. But I trust that he'll be much better soon.

It's just especially discouraging because I'd just found a trainer and an arena to work in with her....but that will have to wait.

The donkey, after her xrays, had a wonderful deep trim, making her feet look normal again. For a long time none of us were sure where her P3 was. Now we know.  Now we can trim away. Bellis was not thrilled. But her resistance isn't so bad. I had her face against Mag's stall door, with Mag inside waiting, as the trimmer worked. I eventually shifted so that Mag's chin was on my shoulder, and I let him hang his face there. He was so careful, he never pushed or moved, just gently rested it there, lightly.

Now they're on the entire pasture (although they keep coming in and there is an occasional bray saying "BUCKET!?" ). I cleaned all 8 hooves today and hope we'll be recovering soon.

In the meantime, my husband and I discovered our town's outdoor pool and we've gone swimming three times so far! J even bought a Summer pass (it's only open July-Sept, if we're lucky). I feel refreshed right now, full of chlorine, and exhausted from doing laps trying to catch my man. Swimming isn't convenient, but in this hot humid weather, it is the best way to move. Except....can you believe, there are horse flies at the pool landing on us as we swim!