Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Hooves, thrush and... lacerations... oh my!!! :(

 I have a lot to cover in this post.  I tried to do a post last night, but we were having random power outages for some reason and I didn't want to turn my computer back on... so you'll just get all my updates crammed into one.

First up, here are pictures of Rocky's hooves for anyone who is curious.  Sorry the lighting is bad.  I probably could have done a better job, but I was extremely hot, tired and still distressed about the laminitis.  These are from a couple of days ago when the news was still fresh.

His fronts.  You can see how he toes in.

 Right front.

 Left front.  Sorry for the shadow.

 Fronts from the side.

 Rear hooves from the side.

 Rear hooves.  Sorry for the shadow again.

 Right hind.  What is the hole?  Abscess?

 Left hind.  Another hole.  

The founder rings are more noticeable on the hinds strangely.  The trim isn't pretty.  She did the best she could, but he couldn't hold up his feet for more than a minute (or less) at a time because he was in so much pain.  I'm hoping the thrush treatments will alleviate the pain enough that I can keep his toes rasped back until his next trim in four weeks. Then hopefully he'll be able to stand long enough for a proper trim.

Okay on Monday we did Oxine soaks (same ingredient as White Lightning) on his front hooves.  I will do his rear hooves eventually, but his fronts are worse so I decided to start with them.  For the oxine soak we have to mix it with vinegar, then add a little water, then pour them in the baggie (reinforced with duct tape) that is over his hoof and seal the top so the gas created by the chemical reaction can't escape.  Then he has to soak for at least 20 minutes.

It was a NIGHTMARE!  He was horribly uncooperative because he was in so much pain.  He didn't want to pick up his hooves and then when he did he immediately tried to jerk them forward away from hubby (he's good at it too dang it).  He tore the bags and we had to make new ones.  We finally just did one hoof at a time because it was going so horribly.  He was freaked out by the liquid being poured in and by the bag being attached to his hoof.  It was absolutely awful.  In the end we managed to soak each hoof about thirty five minutes apiece.  Getting the bags off was almost as bad as getting them on.


We started with his bad hoof and managed to get the bag on and get the soak done. Then when we moved to his right front hoof he was having none of it!  I can't blame him because picking that one up forces him to hold his weight on the more painful hoof.  After he managed to bash my arm on a tree and had jerked my hubby around (not good on his bad back) I was totally desperate.  I grabbed the roll of duct tape and stuck a piece to Rocky's nose.


You know the video going around on Facebook where they use duct tape as a twitch?  Uhh... I was skeptical... but it actually works!!  It doesn't work as well as a twitch obviously, but he was so distracted by the tape that hubby was able to get the bag on and sealed in a quarter of the time he'd just spent attempting it without the tape.  I was blown away!!  I never expected it to actually work.  I have a feeling once the horse gets used to it, that it would lose it's effectiveness, but it got us through soaking that right front, so I don't care.

So today we did Rocky's second soak.  He was AMAZING!!!  No duct tape twitch required.  Hubby did it completely by himself (I was there, but busy with something else that you will see below) and managed to soak both feet at the same time!

 Such a good boy!!

Rocky is one of the smartest horses I've ever met.  It literally took ONE TIME fighting with him and this time he was an angel!  He stood perfectly for the full forty minute soak.  It may be that he was in less pain this time, but I really think mostly he just realized that we weren't going to hurt him and that we were actually helping so he let us do it.  Also I'm happy to say I heard hubby say "I love this horse."  That's a HUGE compliment from my non-expressive hubby!  :D


Here is a video showing Rocky walking two days after his trim and then one day after his first soak.  I don't have video of him walking after today's soak.  Can you see a difference??

I'm not very good at lameness evaluations but he looks much better to me.  Of course it's a vast difference to before the trim when he was limping so bad I thought he had an abscess.  The difference between the two videos is much more minor.  I'll get more video this weekend after his third soak (doing it again on Friday) and we can see how much of a difference there is then.  

While hubby was busy with Rocky I was busy freaking the **** out!!  Look at what Chrome did to his ear!!!!!!


I want to cry just looking at it again.... while waiting on the vet I looked everywhere and I can't figure out how he did this.  :(  The vet said it will heal up just fine.  I was so freaked out that I asked hubby to put the medicine on for me and Chrome actually reared up.  He's never done that before!!!  It is hurting him so bad.  :(  I hope this doesn't make him head shy since I have to put medicine on everyday.  Yeah... I'm not happy...

To make this post less depressing here's a picture of my cutie pie after his roach and before his laceration.

Love my handsome boy.

So it's been a roller coaster few days... I hope Chrome's ear heals up quickly...  I'm confident Rocky is going to be just fine, considering the improvements we've already seen with the trim and soaks.

26 comments:

  1. Any stitches needed for that war wound? Looks nasty.

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    1. Nope she said it didn't need any and that it would heal up fine. I think it looks worse than it is. Of course when it's Chrome everything looks worse than it is to me lol.

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    2. I just looked at the picture again... it is not as deep as it looks in the picture. It's really hard to take pictures of the back of his ear lol. It's a little swollen and that makes it look wider than it is too. *shudder* I hate when he hurts himself. Poor boy...

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  2. Wow, sounds like you have had an absolutely amazing week as far as horses go. They are absolute pros at getting injured, aren't they? That seems like a weird place to get a cut! I hope they both feel better soon.

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    1. Yes they are... so annoying lol. I have no idea how he cut his ear. Not knowing is almost as bad as the injury itself!

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  3. I'm so sorry you got walloped all at once with all of this. Every time I have fits over trying to soak my horses hooves when they have abscesses, someone always tells me to wrap a bag around the hoof, and I always shake my head and think, "How is that supposed to make things easier?" It takes a special horse to stay calm with a jellyfish attached to his leg. I'd still rather just deal with them tipping over the bucket of warm water and Epsom Salts every few minutes, although I finally did buy a draft-sized rubber boot for soaking since the one I originally had turned out to be too small for even a mini. The next time someone says, "One size fits all," I'm going to tell them to try it on.

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    1. I'm going to buy the dry bags that Frizzle told me about. They sound cheaper than soaking boots and easier than these stupid ziploc bags lol. I'm proud of Rocky for figuring it all out in one session, but that first go round was kind of rough... I'm glad hubby was able to do it because I'm just not strong enough to hold on when he jerks his feet away like that. I'm hoping his pain will get better really soon so we can start practicing polite hoof handling. :)

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  4. Oh my goodness!! Yes, looks like he had a few tiny abscesses in those hooves, but nothing major. Girl, do yourself a favor and get some heavy-duty dry bags for the soaks! SO much easier! You can get them on Amazon for something like $15 each, and they last forever. You put the liquid in, drop the hoof in, and secure the top with a Saratoga or standing wrap or Ace bandage.
    Poor Chrome, that cut looks nasty! Glad he doesn't need any stitches and will be okay. Go pour yourself a glass of wine and eat a brownie, lol--sounds like you deserve it!

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    1. I found the dry bags on Amazon. What size did you get?? I don't know what part they are referring to with the measurements...

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    2. I believe mine are 10L, like this one http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00NGF9RDW/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1436251529&sr=1-3&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_browse-bin%3A4580554011&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&dpPl=1&dpID=41fTdo6qUgL&ref=plSrch You just put the bag on, snap the clip around the leg, and secure with a wrap. Super easy!

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  5. aw what a crappy few days for you! hopefully both boys will be better soon! glad to hear Rocky's much more cooperative about the soaks too - that certainly helps!

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  6. Oh dear. I hope everyone is healing well. Yikes on Chrome's ear laceration. Hope Rocky is doing ok. I had to soak my mini mule's hoof last month. She had a bad thrush abscess. I dropped my smartphone in the bucket of Epsom salt water. That was an expensive soak. So I switched to a poultice wrap with the ole duct tape, then daily Kopertox for 2 full weeks. Ugh. Good luck; hang in there.

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    1. Oh no!!!! That was an expensive soak!! If I have to soak for an abscess again I'll remember to leave my phone inside lol. Thank you!

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  7. Oh dear. I hope everyone is healing well. Yikes on Chrome's ear laceration. Hope Rocky is doing ok. I had to soak my mini mule's hoof last month. She had a bad thrush abscess. I dropped my smartphone in the bucket of Epsom salt water. That was an expensive soak. So I switched to a poultice wrap with the ole duct tape, then daily Kopertox for 2 full weeks. Ugh. Good luck; hang in there.

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  8. Try ToMorrow for the thrush! Red's was awful and he hurt so bad when we used other treatments. ToMorrow is about $30 at Tractor Supply for a box of 12 syringes, I only used 2 syringes (probably only needed one but I'm cautious) and it works SUPER quick. My farrier was so happy with the progress and now carries it for thrush patients by the syringe. :)

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    1. I've heard of Tomorrow, but I've never used it. I'll have to look it up. It's in a syringe? Do you inject it??

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    2. It's in a syringe! The liquid just comes out of the syringe, it's nice because it can get in the tight places better!

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    3. Oh so it's in a syringe without a needle? So it can be squirted up in the foot? I'll look it up instead of bothering you hehe. Thanks for telling me about it!

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    4. Haha I keep seeing your replies too late! It's just a syringe with liquid, no needle! I'm a wimp so I couldn't handle a needle, lolol!

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    5. I've never used the Tomorrow, but have read good things about it, especially for central sulcus thrush. f you do the Oxine soaks every 2-3 days and then clean them well with something like chlorhexadine on the off days and then put the Tomorrow on, you should be good!

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  9. Oh, yikes, that laceration is ugly!! I hope both boys feel better soon.

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    1. Yeah it made me feel a little dizzy when I first saw it........ it looks much better now though!

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