Rocky's 1st clicker session+Chrome's ear+Rocky lameness update+lots of videos!

 So handsome!!  His dapples seem to disappear sometimes lol.

Chrome first.  I had to braid his forelock because the hair kept getting stuck in his wound and then I'd rip it back open pulling the hair out.  I hope he doesn't rub his forelock braid out....  The wound is gaping open again, but it's not swollen and it's a lot less red.  We cleaned it today and put more powder on (the rain has made using the powder very difficult grr).

Here is a cute video of Chrome being a goofball.  It also shows a closeup of the wound.  The pictures didn't turn out very good, so the video will have to be good enough.

Direct link here.

Now Rocky.  First of all this is only his third Oxine soak and the improvement is amazing.  I'm a believer in this stuff.

He should dress up as the tin man for Halloween...

he already has the boots!!

Aren't we done with this yet??

Check out these pictures I got of the bottles that I mix the Oxine and vinegar in...

See the gas inside of it?

How about now?

That's the chemical reaction taking place.  That's what happens inside of his boots.  I can't imagine how it must feel, but it does not damage live tissue.  He's a saint to put up with all of this.

It's making a big difference too!  I'll let you see for yourself.  First up is a walking video showing him walking after his trim last weekend and then today.

Direct link.

Then here's a trotting video.  The before clip is short, because it never crossed my mind to get a video of him trotting when he was lame.  He had a huge head bob!  I'm talking he bobbed his head a foot easily.  So the after video is awesome!!

Direct link.

Can you believe that's just from his thrush treatments??  The before clip was taken after his trim.  He was way worse than that before his trim.

He stands under himself.  We're going to start soaking his rear hooves this week too, now that he's so good with his fronts.  I'm going to practice with an empty plastic bag and then a plastic bag with water in it before I use the Oxine.  I have no clue how he's going to react to having something on his rear hooves... I'll update when that happens (and I might get video haha).

Next up is a video of Rocky's introduction to clicker training!  He's never done any clicker training before so this is all new for him.  Sorry the video is kind of long (about 6 minutes I think), but I didn't want to cut anything out.  I had to trim out a couple of sections where I was walking around them (would have made you motion sick) and where I was talking about someone I know by name.

Direct link.

He did such a great job!!!!!!!  Hubby did too hehe.  I don't think it will take long before Rocky moves on to other things.  We are going to do short target training sessions for a few days and introduce following it.  Then we will do the grownups are talking game to keep him from mugging.  After that we will finally be able to work on his hooves.  He's been in so much pain that we can barely clean his feet, much less rasp them.  I'm hoping in another week he will be comfortable enough to at least let us clean them out, do some clicker training to reinforce holding his feet up nicely (and not jerking them away violently like he does now) and then we can start rasping his toe and flares between trims.  :)

I hope everyone had a fantastic fourth of July!  I spent it helping repair a toilet and sink that broke and cabinets that were sagging.  Didn't see a single firework!  We were invited to go see a show, but when we walked outside our tire was flat and it was the only vehicle we would drive that far.  We didn't feel comfortable driving that far on the spare so we didn't go.  Oh well.  We got a lot done around the house and the weather was crappy anyway.  Why did the rain have to come back?????

Sorry, I'll stop whining.  I hope you enjoy the videos.  I'm so excited because hubby is so excited about clicker training Rocky.  I think I'm going to get back into it with Chrome too.  He loves it and I miss it.  :)  I'll update again soon (hopefully tomorrow, but if not it will probably be next week because I just don't have time during the work week).

Van Gogh Update

Sorry no pictures.  Just wanted to let everyone know that Chrome's... err I mean Van Gogh's ear is looking much better today.  The swelling went down so the skin is touching again instead of gaping apart like it was.  I got a NFZ puffer at work today and it worked so much better than trying to touch it to put ointment on.  While he was eating supper I just puffed the powder all over the cut and he never even lifted his head.  :D  When the pain isn't so bad I'll go back to using Corona and tea tree oil.  So I just wanted to let you know he still has his ear.

I'll update again tomorrow after Rocky's third Oxine soak.

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??

If you can't see embedded videos click here.

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.