Friday, August 28, 2015

everyone's favorite: scratches!!!

I've already briefly mentioned the wound on Isabel's RH from interfering in a lesson a couple weeks ago. The wound was busy minding its own business not bothering anybody for just over a week, until Izzy came in from the field for her chiro appt with a fat leg the day after our last xc schooling.

but izzy you're too pretty for fat legs!!
This naturally freaked me out bc why was the leg suddenly angry? Esp right after schooling? The mare was sound, the leg had localized warmth but wasn't really hot. Plus, the wound actually looked pretty great. And yet I could not for the life of me totally get rid of the fill.

We iced. Buted. Worked (with light intensity bc chiro...). Left in over night in standing wraps (much to princess's dismay). Slathered with all variations of tinctures and tonics (up to and including ivermectin at the recommendation of my chiro in the off chance that she might have pests in the wound preventing it from healing).

And there was much panicky texting (thanks Alli and Austen for tolerating the barrage!!).

We finally just sorta concluded that the mare was a delicate hothouse flower who would probably take a couple days for the swelling to go down while the wound finished healing.

left: angry raging scratches (and itty bitty wound). right: covered in magical healing desitin mixture
So imagine my surprise when, after her requisite two days off following the horse trial, I discovered that the entire area of her leg beneath the Alushield spray was lumpy bumpy scabby. Poor mare.

The wound was just a distraction - disguising the ugly truth. Mare was brewing up a raging case of scratches all along. Ugh.

makes her socks look bright white!! (whereas the mtg on the unaffected sock makes it look disgusting haha)
She had scratches pretty badly when I met her three years ago (right around this same time of year!), so it shouldn't really have come as such a surprise. I've actually been pretty diligent about proactively slathering her legs in MTG to keep the funk at bay... but I guess I've been slacking the past few weeks.

So now that we finally know the source of the mystery swelling, hopefully we'll get it under control in short order. Scratches is pretty common at our barn so the BM keeps a homemade desitin-based remedy on hand at all times. Izzy will get treated with that once a day on her affected leg, and meanwhile I'm hitting the so-far-scratches-free leg with MTG like it's going out of style.

23 comments:

  1. Hopefully you'll get rid of the scratches soon! At least you know the reason for the swelling. Poor girly <3

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  2. Ugh! I used to lease a gelding that got scratches all. the. time. Bane of my existence. Hope Izzy's clears up fast.

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    1. ugh i hope so too!! it's such a persistent little problem!

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  3. Rascal has a massive case too and he's so bad about letting me clean it. Copper and Vit E help them heal from the inside. Since I put Twister on a supplement he doesn't get them anymore.

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    1. hm interesting! i don't have a ton of control over izzy's supps (since i only lease) but it might be good to think about

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  4. BOO, SCRATCHES!! In addition to the various remedies I have been texting you over the past day... keep that leg DRY DRY DRY. Like, dry with a blow dryer if she will let you. Without moisture, the little nasties can't thrive! Scratches are THE WORST and I will be sending healing vibes!

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    1. yep The. Worst. we have a pretty bomb has home remedy that my BM concocts - so that's what we're using for now. and yes izzy actually will tolerate my drying her legs - with the vacuum switched to exhaust actually haha

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  5. Scratches suck! Lots of horses at our barn get funk on their legs, and I'm a total crazy-person about getting off ASAP. I'm always the one picking and washing and putting on ointment....

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    1. ugh yea i feel the intense need to pick at them too!!

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  6. Glad that the mystery of the sweeling has been solved!

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  7. Desitin is magic. Stupid scratches. Ain't nobody got time for that!

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    1. seriously!! this was definitely NOT was i was hoping for lol

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  8. Oh yuck! Those can be so frustrating.

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    1. super frustrating.... but certainly better than some alternatives!

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  9. Ugh, bummer, scratches suck! Desitin does work wonders though ..

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  10. Desitin is my new bff. Bobby's leg keeps blowing up with skin funk the second I I think I've fixed it and leave it alone. Scratches are soo annoying!

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  11. Knight had scratches when I bought him almost a year ago. My trainer also had a homemade remedy that did the trick. To this day I'm still not sure what was in it. Glad her white is oh so bright!

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  12. Knight had scratches when I bought him almost a year ago. My trainer also had a homemade remedy that did the trick. To this day I'm still not sure what was in it. Glad her white is oh so bright!

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    1. hopefully these homemade remedies work out!! (and the white is deceptive - that's actually desitin making it look so bright! of course after a day or two... well, it looks a little different lol)

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