it's like déjà vu all over again

Alternate titles:

***

Oops, he did it again!

*

That takes talent!

*

I guess lightning does strike twice.....

*

Why, tho? Why??

*

Maybe I should have just left him out in the woods....

*

That's it. Time to break out the titanium hoof pads!

***

my phone refused to focus on this gruesome bloodied chunk of wood. apparently even my technology is in denial

Ahem. Cough cough. So.

Charlie punctured his right hind hoof AGAIN. On a piece of WOOD. While WALKING. On the TRAILS.

it takes real talent to weaponize this thing

One second we were ambling along amid the monarchs and dragonflies, and the next we were reeeeeeally fucking crippled. A quick look down behind me confirmed that Charlie was suddenly not weight bearing on that leg, so I hopped off to investigate.

sad charles is sad

After convincing him to maybe not kick my face in, he allowed me to grab the hoof -- at which point I observed what looked like a chunk of mulch stuck in his shoe. Nbd, it was probably uncomfortable and maybe even a little poke-y on his delicate little tootsie-wootsies, so I just yanked it out.

yup... life sucks, buddy

Except uh..... While basically the entirety of this chunk-o-wood looked innocent, somehow there was one curved dagger-like splinter jutting out of it that Charlie had stepped on just perfectly (we're talking one-in-a-million odds here folks, wtf) such that it embedded about an inch into his frog. Complete with insta-blood spurt.

two hooves, one bucket?

Is it weird to admit I kinda felt nothing? Like, not the sudden rush of ice cold fear from last winter when the same fucking thing happened with a roofing nail. And not even really anger, either. Just like.... this slow-spreading numb feeling of, "Ok this is happening now."

evidence of shenanigans afoot

We happened to be at a convenient point following the pasture fence lines around the property - there was a nearby gate wherein I could lead Charlie in hand on a direct route back to the barn, so that was nice at least.

Also nice was that he seemed relatively ok. Whereas last winter it had taken us forever (and a couple hand tools) to get the nail out of his hoof during which time Charlie started looking stressed and I worried about shock.... This time around I got the thing out quickly and he returned to weight bearing immediately.

honestly i'm not sure exactly where it went... somewhere in here.

It looked like it maybe stung tho. Like Charlie would stop every few feet to shake and stamp the leg a bit. And seemed maybe a little extra reactive and sensitive to all the biting flies, tho I guess that could have just been my imagination.

epsom salts and betadine to pack in there

Otherwise tho he was walking pretty normally and we made it back to the barn without incident (despite having to cut through the mares field, filled naturally with extreme drama queens lol).

Based on my experiences last time this happened, I knew there wouldn't really be much a vet could do at that exact moment. So I opted to move forward with treating myself, with the plan to take a "wait and see" approach over the next few days. This plan of attack was aided by knowing Charlie was on the schedule to see the farrier the next day, so I figured the farrier could triage the situation as well as anyone else.

wrapped up nice and snug with pretty blue vet wrap

I let my barn manager know what was up, and set about caring for the hoof. Soaked for about ~10-15 minutes with hot hot hot water treated with epsom salts and betadine solution. Then went to pack with the same type of concoction.

Last winter, my vet had recommended I pack the hoof with poultice. The idea being that it was wet and muddy out and poultice would at least protect the hoof from anything nastier getting up into the puncture. Tho, depending on who you ask, I was a fool for listening to the vet and obviously am bad at horse care for following those directions. Idk. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

charlie is insisting that i get more practice in learning how to wrap a hoof

Charlie *did* end up abscessing last time tho. Actually.... He went full drama queen bc after getting so sore on that hoof, he over compensated on his other hoof -- but then somehow took that hoof's shoe off in turnout, then got uber sore on that one, and abscessed again. It was... an ordeal.

I'd love to avoid an abscess this time around (feels futile tho, tbh) plus the ground is pretty dry right now, so I figured there's less of a risk of other junk getting up into the hoof. So I packed it with drawing agents like epsom salts and betadine, then wrapped it all up carefully as could be.

Seriously, I keep trying to get better and better at this whole hoof wrapping thing. Certainly I'm getting lots of practice! This latest effort tho was a total flop and Charlie walked out of it before he even reached the pasture. Sigh. I guess I needed to go higher over his heel, but there's other ouchies and skin funk there that I had been trying to avoid irritating.... Idk. Oh well. I threw him out anyway. He'll live, probably. Maybe.

apparently i still need more work tho.... womp.

So we'll see what happens, I guess. Last time he seemed perfectly normal for about ~4 days before brewing the abscess. Then we spent about 2 wks dealing with the fallout from that. Ultimately tho, there was no lasting damage from the nail. I can only hope we'll be so lucky this time around. I'd be shocked if that splintery thing managed to get close to the joint, tho I guess it could have gone into the bursa too. It's hard to tell.

It's a real bummer tho, even if we get "lucky" and all that comes of it is an abscess or whatever. Charlie and I were supposed to go on our annual group hunter pace next weekend, complete with very exciting team costumes. And naturally I had just sent in the nonrefundable payment for our first ever 2 day clinic the weekend after.

Who knows tho, maybe we'll get even luckier than last time and he'll be totally fine and won't abscess?? Maybe?? Pretty pretty pretty please?!? Sigh...