King of the Dings: Bone Bruise Edition

Ugh, guys. Everyone is out here making goals and plans for the new year, legging back up and all the things. Meanwhile... We're just.... ya know... still doing what we were doing when I last posted.

pop quiz: who's really in charge here? 
hint: probably not me LOL

Generally speaking, Charlie's honestly had pretty good feet. Sure, they're a little small, a little shelly... Soles are a little thin. But by and large, they've been fine with thoughtful management.**

(**Not withstanding a few very important lessons I had to learn the hard way, mostly relating to working him on hard ground....) 

dramatic reenactment of the offending gravel 
(also the diagram i made for a friend who checked on chuck while i was out of town)

Except... Somehow we've managed to accumulate a history of fairly acute hoof trauma. 

flashback cafe to Episode #1: Roofing Nail Edition

As if anybody could forget, there was that time Charlie stepped on a god damn roofing nail right in the middle of a jumping lesson. Literally mid canter stride. 

and again, to Episode Oh My Fucking God Why Is This Happening Again: This Time with Mulch

And that other time when he somehow Punctured His Hoof Capsule on a Piece of Mulch WTF. Or... uh, that other time when he picked up a shoe nail while out in turnout, and carved a big ol' hole in his foot by carrying it around for a while. 

turns out when you compensate for one leg long enough, others start to get sore too.... chuck gave us a scare by standing on two legs for like... three days in a row. Sir! Stop!!

In each of those past cases, while Charlie escaped serious injury from the acute trauma itself -- no joint involvement from the punctures, no serious infections.... He ended up abscessing within ~2wks, and in some cases became sore or bruised on his other compensating limbs too. 

"haha just kidding i'm fine!" -- charlie, released for a brief wallow + wiggle

So recovery has always been a long and drawn out affair. And y'all don't need me to tell you: Charlie will milk any little ding for all it's worth. He feels everything at an 11, know what I mean?

wild animal lol, that stink eye <3

This most recent encounter involved a spiky bit of gravel wedged tightly between his frog and shoe, in what were already soft muddy conditions. It was there for an indeterminate amount of time, and the horse was significantly lame even after I got it unstuck.

actually well enough for some proper freedom too!
january 13

I should say, tho --- I am immensely grateful for this detail. I saw the rock, I pried it out myself. Saw the immediate effect. There was no guess work about WHY my horse was so critically lame in that moment. 

but, eh, not for long. peaks and valleys, y'all. thank god for Mikey lending us a hand!
for anybody interested: i opted to Ice-Vibe the support limbs vs the lame legs, figuring it's probably the weakest of my medicine, so i'd use it on the least affected limbs. all 3 non-abscessing feet also got magic cushion, while LF got wrapped in ichthammol 

Bc guys.... Acute hoof pain can make a horse look like it broke a friggin leg. It can be scary. A LOT of people have spent A LOT of money in the history of horses just to diagnose and learn -- ooch, ok, just a hoof bruise or abscess... 

"it burnssss :( "

We are also lucky in this case with Charlie that.... After the initial bruise calmed a bit, but *before* the abscess set in, the horse recovered enough to go out with his friends for a few days. During which time he did in fact trot and canter around like a sore, but basically ok horse. 

same characters, same place, different day...

So when he became significantly lame again, we didn't have to play the game of "Did we miss something? Could he have chipped or cracked off a piece of his coffin bone? Or somehow injured something in his soft tissue?"

mikey <3

Which... Again, if you've had to play that guessing game.... It's awful nice to just have answers. We know it was a rock, wedged deeply into his foot. We know he got better before getting worse again. Classic abscess yo-yo-ing symptoms. 

so helpful

Naturally I made a vet appt anyway bc.... Eh, my vet is immensely practical, but we both kinda have a shelf life for how long we'll let a horse be very lame without taking a closer looksie. For this case, that shelf life was about 3wks -- following multiple (3) targeted PEMF treatments and two separate multi-day courses of bute (while discontinuing the Equioxx). 

srsly tho, i've been told mikey is more popular than me, so here's your fill! 

So I made an appt, with the agreement that I would cancel if the horse was better. The horse *did* get better too, actually, plus a drainage hole appeared!! Yay!! 

I kept the appt anyway tho bc eh, the vet was already gonna be at our farm so... Why not. And -- in the interest of full disclosure:: it was basically $100 for an in-person consult. #CoolWithIt

houston, we have a hole! yay drainage! 

It was helpful too. Obviously -- yes, we already knew it was an abscess and the horse is improving... But he's still not better better. In fact, my vet suspects he has a deep contusion or bone bruise, and that it'll continue to be a slow recovery. 

So we made a plan for abscess treatment while still being realistic about accommodating the bone bruise, especially as it relates to a return to turn out and, eventually, ridden work.

just a little animalintex patch to keep it clean waiting for the vet. it'll be fully wrapped for a few more days with epsom salts + some variation of a strong iodine to keep clean. then it'll get wrapped with a hardener like, again, a strong iodine or keratex, to prepare for return to turnout. 
also--- you can literally see the indentation in the frog where the gravel was

Any of you who've had significant bruises knows what that's like. It'll just take the time it takes. But, as is often the case with my beloved King of the Dings, who loves to veer oh-so-close to the edge of catastrophe and calamity: full recovery is expected. 

I'll just have to be patient haha. Or go way off the deep end and buy a second horse.** Not very likely, mind you, but a bored girl can dream ;) 

**PS: Please don't tempt me with links to incredible unicorn sale ads ;P