The other shoe drops....

I think I now have a more literal understanding of the phrase "then the other shoe dropped." When E. and I visited the barn today to do our usual cleaning chores and to check on Curly's healing hoof, we discovered that he is no longer putting any weight on the other hind hoof. I did a thorough cleaning of the now-painful hoof and found his ankle (sorry, not the correct technical term but it's the best I can do!) to be warm and swollen. He was very sensitive on the outer portion of the hoof. I freaked out a bit when I cleaned it because there appeared to be a hole next to the frog, plus lots of extra bits sloughing off. This prompted me to run to the barn manager's house and disturb her quiet Sunday afternoon.

After graciously taking a look at Curly's hoof, she educated me on what is normal for a horse (which the bottom of his hoof, "big" hole, sloughing off frog-bits and all, is). But she did agree that his tenderness has definitely increased and we need to keep an extra close eye on it now. Curly is acting with this left hoof exactly the way he acted with the right one just before the abscess came through.

On a positive note, he was using his right hind just fine. I couldn't clean it (since he couldn't put any weight on the other one) so I don't know what it looks like at the moment but I'll happily assume that it's healing right up. :-)