Wednesday, August 10, 2022

the schmoo

Alternate Title:   Oops, he did it again!

the animal himself. and, uh, ahem, cough cough, the sorry state of some of this farm's fencing.... (no it is not hot wire....)
Gosh it's been so boring around here, guys. Poor Charlie is such a baby about all the scabs and whatnot on his hock... Plus it's just been so hot...

every wound goes through an ugly stage during healing. this was quite literally the worst of it, which really wasn't that bad
I figured I'd give him all the downtime he needed to rid himself of the swelling and let the worst of it close up... And then we'd get back in gear this week for a fun little fix-a-test clinic being hosted at our barn this evening!!!!

cute cat interruption bc more gross is coming
Alas, twasn't to be!

well goodness gracious, if it ain't the same leg with new jewelry
left side: those higher marks are new, plus everything was basically rubbed freshly raw
right side: new little fingernail-sized skin flap above existing cannon laceration
I showed up on Monday in my riding pants, determined to swing a leg over for the first time in two weeks (first time since that little jumper show at Elkridge Harford, to be specific....).

somebody was not happy about being all alone in a new field and worked up a major lather running the fence lines....
Only to discover a new note on The Board regarding a recently down fence in Charlie's pasture. Not the pasture of his last incident, mind you (that fence is still down to my knowledge). But the new different pasture his herd group moved into following, ahem, last time.

most of these new marks are just bald spots, tho some on the right side pic (back of his left hock) got a little scabby
Obviously, I knew before I even checked him over that he was involved... And, indeed, there was a collection of new wire marks all over his legs.... Blargh, wtf Charlie. 

cleaned up close up of the new skin flap
At least this time, the barn mgmt knew it was Charlie bc... uh, my sweet dopey gelding managed to get himself through a dividing fence between two pastures --- but none of his friends followed! And then they all went down for breakfast, leaving him as the very last horse in the whole wide world!!

in better news, the summer sore is healing!
Much sadness ensued, obviously, and he told me ALL ABOUT IT by the time I showed up that evening. But, luckily, not much in the way of new wounds. In fact, the barn mgmt didn't really see anything new ("no blood" was the report I got), tho obviously it's kinda impossible to distinguish one bald spot from another unless you study Charlie's legs as obsessively as I do. 

this was a dumb "band-aid" idea, but treating with the moxidectin (Quest Plus) seems to work great even without a bandage!
Really, the only problem was that the leg blew up again, and all those little crisscross hatch marks covering the hock are hot sore and itchy, all at the same time. Poor Charles!

hey, i'm sure everybody has tried this at least once LOL
After evaluating everything and getting him nicely cleaned up, I opted to swing a leg over anyway. Bc... Eh, Charlie's been a bit of a sass monster lately -- boredom, I suppose. Ooooh and also, dear lord he is getting fat tho, wow omg. Like, more than normal.

leg got all swollen and hot again from the new trauma, but vet isn't concerned -- no new drugs
Such a good feeling, too, to be back on my favorite horse! He seemed to enjoy it too, striding right on down the driveway and into the big fields all happy and relaxed and maybe even relieved to get out of his little 2wk rut. 

another cute cat intermission, bc....
It's a tough balancing act knowing when to ride and when not to, tho. Bc.... We all know Charlie can be a stubborn sullen slug at times, and it's really in my best interest to get after it whenever needed. BUT.... If he's legitimately sore, that's not exactly super fair, right?

let's get up close and personal with everything as of 8/9, yes? the laceration is about 2wks old, and the skin flap is about ~1 day old
At least as far as I can tell, he's not actually mechanically lame or anything -- his skin just hurts (sorta like a skinned knee, ya know?). But he's bored enough right now that he's happy to get out to wander and explore (as long as the bugs don't bite too hard!). So we'll keep at it, I guess. 

most of these scabs are 2 weeks old, but a few were roughed up a bit in the latest catastrophe
I shot a text off to my vet about the updated situation anyway, just to be safe -- and to see if there was anything else we could do to control his itchiness. 

the schmoo!! my vet's in-house universal topical concoction, safe for literally everything including the full thickness skin lacerations
She suggested I pick up a tub of their in-house "schmoo" -- a cream they developed for skin funk around the feet, etc, that's also safe and effective for wounds. Basically a universal "cover all."

charlie liked how it smelled, mikey actually tried to lick it off my fingers LOL
apparently contains ingredients like desitin, hydrocortisone, chlorhexidine, etc
I've been slathering Swat on everything to keep the flies off, and honestly that's been fine -- and seems to facilitate the healing process. But... Idk if it's doing anything for the itchiness. 

schmoo'd
So we'll give the schmoo a try these next few days and will compare notes. The summer sore is still getting its Moxidectin treatment bc that seems to really stick in place with just a pearl-sized squirt of the stuff, so I'll leave well-enough alone there. 

and omg, saddled too!! <3 <3 <3
And I guess I'll keep going on quick little hacks too. Might as well, the pony seems to enjoy the added attention and expansion of his daily world lol. Tho we did scratch the fix-a-test, bc, again, I'm not gonna get after him for being protective of that sore leg right now. 

just walkies with friends to get the swelling down... but damn i love this view!
So ya know. It's hot and buggy out. The horse keeps tying himself up in tensile wire fence. And there isn't really a whole heckuva a lot else goin on. 

In a way, tho, it's good enough. And maybe it'll be a little cooler by the time the horse is more healed up??? 



22 comments:

  1. Sweet JFC Charlie! I'm glad it is relatively minor, because it looks more serious than it is! Holy cow, Emma! I admire your Sang Froid! Glad you are getting back on. Sometimes they need a little job to keep their sanity.

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    1. lolz thanks -- it's easier to put on a gloss of composure when writing a (heavily) edited post days after the fact.... this horse, i swear. it really was fun getting back on tho -- i always forget how silly spooky fresh he can get (in his own quiet gentle way, obvi)!

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    2. Well if it makes you feel any better (doubt it) my horse just cost me $3,000 in ulcer treatment and then stopped sweating. Yay!!! All the fun!!!

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    3. ughhhhhhhhh misery loves company, tho, doesn't it :'( sometimes i wonder if there's like some sort of mysterious depressive tendency that draws people into horses in the first place? lol...?

      for real, tho, the anhidrosis thing really freaks me out, not gonna lie. there are a million things out there and different solutions work for different horses. my friend's horse (Royal!) has seen the best results with acupuncture, fwiw

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    4. We have our 1st acupuncture session scheduled for next week, and the heat wave finally broke, so hopefully headed in the right direction.

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    5. ooooh let me know how it goes! the funny (sob) thing about anhidrosis is it can seem to sorta come and go, at least with some horses. hope you get it sorted!

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  2. Blergh Charlie! It's always gotta be something, doesn't it? Really hope he quits with the shenanigans and finally heals up!

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    1. thanks i really hope so too!! i swear he'll be the end of me lol

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  3. I, too, have gotten more fat than normal. Obviously Charlie is my spirit animal lol

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    1. LOL relatable! but hey, at least we'll have great food at the tailgate :D !!!!!!!!

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  4. Ugh!! WHY do you have to do that Charles?!?!? I hope the schmoo is magical and itch curing! So weird the cat wanted to eat it too...

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    1. dude all our animals around here are weirdos lol. like... the one year the horses have SO MUCH GRASS and charlie suddenly starts testing fences, wtf

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  5. Ugh Charlie, at war with the fencing because you have a truce with your shoes!

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    1. it's always something with this clown, i swear ugh lol

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  6. Charlie!
    I finally catch up on your blog and Charlie is being Charlie!?!?

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    1. lolol true story, you could probably come back in 5 years, and god willing, all our posts would be either :
      1 -- jumping around some novice jumps!
      2 -- recovering from some random minor catastrophe!
      or
      3 -- somewhere in between!!

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  7. Oh Charlie. You are too old for this crap. I’m glad it wasn’t worse.

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    1. i'm hoping that the shock of being abandoned by his friends will have more of an impact than the actual injuries appear to have in keeping him from doing this again!

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  8. Charlie, learn from past experiences buddy! Especially when those experiences haven't finished healing yet! Sheesh. Glad it wasn't worse though. I guess he just really didn't want to work during the heat wave...

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    1. i really don't know what he's thinking haha, bc he loves all the attention and gets mad if i don't spend enough time with him... but like, bro, if we aren't riding that basically right away cuts 2hrs of time right off the time ya know?

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