The vet came out to the barn this morning to take care of many of the horses living there. One of our old friends, Whiskey, was put to sleep, another has pigeon fever and there are a few others with various lameness issues. Curly's hoof problems really have turned out to be pretty minor when placed in that company!
We all agreed that the frog sloughed off due to thrush. The amount that has come off is not usual (all the way down to tender regions of his hoof) but it will grow back. Curly is already moving around almost normally and the vet gave E. the go ahead to begin riding again. He also gave me a bottle of Coppertex to put on daily for the next 4 days or so. The stuff stains terribly and smells, but it will protect that tender region as he toughens up a bit.
I am now beginning to research various boots to use while riding the trails. The general consensus is that Curly will never have wonderful, hard hooves and riding out on anything other than a nice soft arena will require some sort of hoof protection.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Dr. Mom
After doing some research, I am wondering if perhaps Curly just had a bad case of thrush that infected his frog, causing it to fall off. Part of his run stays wet a lot of the year and he has also developed a nasty habit of pooping in his stall and then standing in the mess - both things that encourage poor hoof health. We have been battling what I thought was a minor case of thrush recently. My second guess is that there is still a bit of infection left in the hoof from that nasty abscess last year.
So we are now going out to the barn on a daily basis to clean Curly's back hoof, rinsing it with either bleach water or an idodine solution and mucking out his stall. I am hoping that by keeping everything as clean as possible we can take care of any infection that may be lurking in that hoof.
Curly was a little worried looking when he saw us walk up yesterday with the blue bucket and some towels. I'm sure he remembers the not-so-pleasant doctoring from last fall/winter! Hopefully this go-round will be less traumatic.
I'm calling the vet today to get his take on it all as well.
So we are now going out to the barn on a daily basis to clean Curly's back hoof, rinsing it with either bleach water or an idodine solution and mucking out his stall. I am hoping that by keeping everything as clean as possible we can take care of any infection that may be lurking in that hoof.
Curly was a little worried looking when he saw us walk up yesterday with the blue bucket and some towels. I'm sure he remembers the not-so-pleasant doctoring from last fall/winter! Hopefully this go-round will be less traumatic.
I'm calling the vet today to get his take on it all as well.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Recurring problems
Life with Curly has not been so smooth the past couple of weeks. He has not been ridden since Sept. 30 since it appears he is still having lameness issues with his rear right hoof. (And when E did ride him, he tried his darnedest to buck her off! We all came out of our chairs when he started hopping around...)
E and I are pretty religious about picking out his hooves every time we touch him. And eight times out of ten, we find a pebble or stick stuck in the yuck. Yesterday during this routine the barn manager was chatting with us. She noticed that he pulled his hoof away when I started working on that back one, so she asked to take a look. She was able to pull away pretty much his whole frog - it was all detached, just sorta hanging there. And then he was really tender-footed! He wouldn't do more than tip-toe on it.
The barn manager took Curly into the round pen after this - he was having some issues with ignoring us and being very disrespectful (He continually refused to do as asked, ignored personal space and was constantly turning away from us - not good!). He was able to get around on the lame foot, and would put weight on it eventually, but it was definitely tender.
I had been taught that the frog is supposed to slough off sometimes - maybe not as extremely as Curly's did yesterday, but still shed some. But his reaction to our ministrations makes me think there is more going on. Perhaps another abscess? Some other (hopefully not permanent!) problem? The vet will be coming out to the barn this week for another horse, so the barn manager will ask him to take a look at Curly as well.
All of this started conversations about if we can afford to keep a horse who is not ride-able....E was pretty upset by the end of the afternoon. Understandable, really.
E and I are pretty religious about picking out his hooves every time we touch him. And eight times out of ten, we find a pebble or stick stuck in the yuck. Yesterday during this routine the barn manager was chatting with us. She noticed that he pulled his hoof away when I started working on that back one, so she asked to take a look. She was able to pull away pretty much his whole frog - it was all detached, just sorta hanging there. And then he was really tender-footed! He wouldn't do more than tip-toe on it.
The barn manager took Curly into the round pen after this - he was having some issues with ignoring us and being very disrespectful (He continually refused to do as asked, ignored personal space and was constantly turning away from us - not good!). He was able to get around on the lame foot, and would put weight on it eventually, but it was definitely tender.
I had been taught that the frog is supposed to slough off sometimes - maybe not as extremely as Curly's did yesterday, but still shed some. But his reaction to our ministrations makes me think there is more going on. Perhaps another abscess? Some other (hopefully not permanent!) problem? The vet will be coming out to the barn this week for another horse, so the barn manager will ask him to take a look at Curly as well.
All of this started conversations about if we can afford to keep a horse who is not ride-able....E was pretty upset by the end of the afternoon. Understandable, really.
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