Abscess update

I kept the poultice pad on her foot, changing it every 2-3 days, from May 17-May 24. Every time I changed it there was grey matter in the pad.  The vet said in the beginning it could be just thrush but it kept producing grey matter for a week-every time I changed it. So the vet said it was the abscess opening up. I had no obvious hole in her foot. It was just coming thru a crack by the inside left heel-possibly just under the frog. Her lameness remained the same.

On the 24th I took off the poultice and continued to soak in epsom salts and water. After the first soak I noticed a red line on the inside heel. Not sure what that was. The area wasn't tender to pushing on it. Maybe the abscess was around that area and the poultice pad drained it? The vet thought so. The farrier wanted a boot put on her to help keep her hoof walls ok. I have 2 types of easy boots-one that goes up over the heel bulbs and one that someone trimmed down and is below the heel bulbs. I chose the later thinking that the other one would irritate something that was looking "angry" in the heel bulb area. The only problem with that choice was that the boot would only stay on about 1/2 a day. The lameness was improving however her hoof was chipping some-farrier wouldn't like that. I soaked once a day thru Wednesday the 28th.
On the 28th and 29th I put her in the arena to "self-exercise". She loved it, ran, bucked, kicked up her heels-you could tell she was feeling better.

On the 29th the farrier came again. We put the hoof testers on her and she wasn't as sore. She was walking better. So we decided to put a shoe on her. Only enough good hoof to have 2 nails on each side. She is still a little bit off at the trot. She will only be going in the arena until she is 100% sound, so the 2 nails should be just fine.  

So I have a vet that thinks the abscess was caused by the fourth nail on the inside of the foot.  I have a farrier that thinks it wasn't the fourth nail but was a bruise that caused an abscess. I'm caught between the vet and the farrier-both have more knowledge than me in their fields. I have to make a choice what to do in the future. The past is done and we may never know the answer as to what caused the abscess. I think I will err on the side of caution and request no fourth nails on my horses shoes. I'd rather have the horse pull a shoe than to go thru an abscess again. It took a good 3 weeks to get to the worst of this and it will probably take 3 weeks to get better. So I guess I have some more waiting to do. Another update will be coming. 

Abscess watch

Monday has come and gone. I had Zoe's shoe pulled on Thursday because she was getting worse not better after having the nail pulled. I was soaking with warm water & epsom salt. Once on Thursday, twice on Friday, twice on Saturday. But there was no change. Finally I talked to a vet at work and starting using a poultice pad on Saturday evening. Poultice pad, diaper, elasticon, ductape. Keep it on until Monday when the farrier can come out and take a look. Sunday she was moving better, but Monday wasn't moving better.

Monday came and so did the farrier. We took off the bandage...a bit stinky by now. But still no abscess has broken thru. Farrier even dug some but no abscess. We did discover that the heel area on the inside of her foot is tender to the hoof testers.

Now it's rebandaged with the poultice pad for 3 more days.  Hopefully we will see some results.

Lameness and waiting

So my horse is lame. I'm not sure why. It's her left front. Hope I didn't break my horse. I have a few theories.

She's been somewhat off since her last shoeing but nothing definite. Off for a few days, okay for a few days, off for a few days...etc. But now she's off all the time. So maybe she's too short or maybe it's a nail in the wrong place. I had my farrier look at her a few days ago. He put the hoof testers on her and she did flinch at one nail. Not a major flinch but it was obvious that it bothered her. So he pulled that nail and said give her 4-5 days. If she's not better he will remove her front shoes. We'll see. So on Monday we hopefully see some improvement.

Could be an abcess. So I started soaking her foot. I've never soaked her foot before. She let me put the medicine boot on her and put the epsom salt water in it. She only moved once to test out what was on her foot but she didn't panic and stood still the rest of the time. So I guess I'll soak her foot for a while and see if an abcess shows up.

She has a new habit. She has started putting her front feet, usually her left front foot, in her feeder. She just started this earlier this year. In order to get the foot out of the feeder, she drags her leg out of it. I suppose after a while it would start to bother her. Must be the Foxtrotter in her-they tend to put their feet in everything. So I'm having our barn handyman lower the feeder. I know that won't stop her from putting her feet in the feeder, but at least she'll be able to get it out with greater ease. She also has a habit of scratching her belly on the corner of the feeder and she rubs all the hair off her belly. Then she's bother by the flys even more. Then she scratches more...then...well it's a vicious cycle. So even if the lameness problem turns out to have nothing to do with the feeder, it will be nice to get rid of the belly scratcher.

So my horse has some time off. I do have another horse to ride. Her mom, Skippy. Skippy is so different from Zoe. She has more "go" and is really sensitive to a rider's legs on her. I haven't ridden her consistently for many years, just off an on over the years. My husband or a friend rides her only on the trail. She gets ridden maybe 8 times a month at the most. She is 20 years old and you'd never know it by the way she loves to go. So I rode Skippy and I noticed something. Years ago when I rode both Skippy and Zoe, I remembered Skippy as being the better of the two. She was more responsive and I felt like she had more experience so I could trust her more. Memories are good for then, but I found out that things are different now. I tried to ride Skippy like I ride Zoe in my lessons and it wasn't working out so well. Zoe understands more than Skippy! Sure Skippy is still responsive but it only goes so far. Zoe responds to far more commands than Skippy. Sure Zoe is still slower than Skippy, but speed isn't everything. So I was proud of my little Zoe coming so far along. And I decided to ride Skippy like I used to ride-I wasn't going to change her in one ride so I might has well make it pleasurable for both of us.

Now to just wait and see what's up with Zoe.

Zoe's got another rider

Zeke is now big enough to ride a horse by himself. He can keep his balance and follow directions. So I asked him if he wanted to ride a horse and he said yes. We kept it short the first time and we forgot his helmet. The second time was a little bit longer and we remembered the helmet. He didn't mind having the helmet on his head. Each time he wants to stay on longer. He also gets so excited that he will talk to anyone out at the barn about riding his horse. He just rambles on and on. Usually he is on the quiet side but he's so excited that all the words just bubble out. So now he calls Zoe is his horse and the old saddle that I use he says is his saddle. I wonder what Zoe thinks of all of this. She probably likes it since it doesn't involve work.