Episode #867: King of the Dings

Series #3: Fun with Hoof Punctures!!

Episode #2: Nail Impalement Edition....

Subsection #1: Hoo Boy, but He Really Did It This Time.

changin it up with a front hoof this time. at least that poor beleaguered RH finally caught a break!

Ahem. Cough cough. So. Charlie appears to have stepped on another nail.

you may feel like you've already seen enough shitty 'Fraidy Cat Eventing wrap jobs to last a life time

The story, as I understand it, was that the evening feeder on Sunday observed Charlie to be quite fucking lame while casually chillin at the round bale with his best bud Iggy.

Said feeder fully expected to find a rock or something after investigating further, but instead was greeted by a farrier's shoe nail stuck inside Charlie's hoof. Presumably from some other poor horse's lost shoe, considering all of Charlie's nails are accounted for.

too bad, so sad, bc this wrap actually stayed on for a full 24hrs! so obvi it gets its 15min of fame haha

Up to this point, the story doesn't seem so very different from the previous two instances in which Charlie has punctured his hoof (first with a roofing nail during a lesson, and second with a piece of god forsaken mulch during a hack through the pasture lines).

"excuse me i was told there would be cookies" - charlie, probably

Those last two times, Charlie went from being 3-legged lame to more or less normal after the foreign object was removed from his hoof. Sure, he was sore both times. But generally speaking, his degree of soundness post-object-removal was considered a strong sign that any important structures had been missed.

proof!! finally, a wrap i actually had to cut off!! on purpose!!!!

This time we've gotten no such reassurances: The horse remains, as of this writing some days later, very lame. Tho of course just because he's lame doesn't mean that there *is* some degree of damage to some critical structure or whatever. Ya know. It could just mean that his hoof really fucking hurts bc he was hangin out with a nail in it for god knows how long.

tho yea the toe was a bit busted. oh well.

Still, tho. His persistent lameness makes me a little worried. And has changed how we've approached treatment this time around. In past instances he's returned to relatively normal turnout schedules quickly. Not this time, tho. Not until he either comes sound on his own or we can medically rule out something more serious like an injury to the coffin bone.

some seepage thru the toe into the poultice pad

Realistically speaking, the likelihood is that Charlie will be fine. If history is any guide, we can expect an abscess after some indefinite period, but eventually not much else.

arrow is approximately where the puncture would be under this pad. you can see what seems to be drainage

And obviously a small puncture to a horse's hoof pales in comparison to something as gruesome and catastrophic as KC's Pilgrim's recent injury, as one example. Ugh. Talk about horrifying :(

and there it be. the big bad puncture itself.... ugh. 

Still tho. The lameness. It concerns me a little bit. Based on the location of the injury, the vet doesn't think the joint would be involved, and also thinks it unlikely that the nail reached the bursa. If it did injure the coffin bone, there isn't much risk in continuing with stall rest for another day or two before pursuing further diagnostics.

mad pony is foot-stompin mad.

Basically the vet thinks that either the horse's soreness will diminish and the drainage from the puncture will abate shortly. Unless it doesn't, in which case we'll schedule an appointment and probably do x-rays.

gosh his injuries and my tack locker pharmacy take up a lot of space tho....

Charlie, for his part, is not behaving like a sick or critically injured horse. He's annoyed at the stall rest and has been just a touch feisty with the barn staff...

base layer of the new wrap: wet animalintex pad roughly cut to size

He's also impatient with my slow, clumsy and ham-fisted attempts at wrangling his hoof into something resembling a semi-respectable wrap.

vet wrap layer. must remember that it doesn't need to be stretched to 100% tension, emma! 

Since we've got active drainage (vs the last two punctures that sealed up almost immediately), I'm following the same soaking protocol as before (epsom salts + betadine). But now am wrapping with animalintex poultice pads instead of an epsom salt + betadine drawing pack.

probably unnecessary but i still have oodles of elastikon from his surgery, so i did a little layer around the shoe to hold the vet wrap in place

The idea here being: We want to be able to tell at least in some small way whether there continues to be drainage. Since again, at this stage the drainage isn't exactly abnormal. But if it continues for very long it could be indicating something more serious.

lol @ charlie's twinkle toes.... plus one little snip to relieve any excess pressure over the coronet band

We're also keeping an eye out for any spiking temperatures or fevers. In the past it's taken something like ~8 days for an abscess to brew. And probably by this point we would have already seen indications of any sort of acute infection to the injury. But ya know. Gotta stay vigilant, just in case.

then all wrapped up in duck tape, avoiding taping above the vet wrap, and extra coverage at the toe

Charlie, again, certainly isn't acting like a feverish or lethargic horse. He's still a good boy tho. And while I bet he wishes my 3hrs with him involved burning off some of his energy.... Well. He'll take what he can get haha.

i'm always nervous about going over the heel bulbs but am hopefully finding the right balance of coverage vs tension

So idk. I guess we'll see what happens. It's crazy to me that I'm writing this post again. I don't understand why this keeps happening to Charlie. Like. I guess it's not the most uncommon thing in the world to step on a nail from a shoe in turnout. Horses lose shoes all the time, after all. But still... Three times in one year feels ridiculously excessive.

dis how charlie feels about the fact that i'm still a crappy wrapper all these years later....

We've been lucky so far, tho. so here's hoping that lucky streak lasts...