I feel sorry for my Horse...rather, I DID feel sorry for him...I will explain.
This morning I was out super early because our wonderful farrier made quick trip out (after begging, pleading and the promise of a Double-Double) and along with one trim and replacing a shoe that had come off, he was able to pull Chester's shoe.
Once the shoe was pulled, he scraped his sole and broke out the hoof testers...and, found nothing. FML. After I let out a several words which should not be repeated, he told me the same thing that DVME had told me: If is actually is an abscess, then it can move around. Keep your eye on how he is standing in the crossties. If it IS an abscess, then he will be standing with his front left leg forward.
Why do I not feel sorry for my horse?! --> Before our farrier got there, I checked out his legs and pulled the poultice pad/boot. He was still stocked up, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. There was some heat in his hoof, but that was more then likely from the poultice pad and boot. As I pulled the boot off and looked at the pad I kept repeating : Please let me see black stuff, please let me see black stuff, please let me....No dice. Ugh...
I put him into the arena for a second to let him *walk* around and stretch his legs...ha - he had none of this 'walking' business and had ideas of his own....rather, he turned into a raging lunatic, bucked, galloped and trot/pranced around...and it took me a couple minutes to get near enough to catch him...the jackass. He didn't take a frigging lame step.
So, the plan now, is to keep up with the poultice pad/boot, epsom salt soak (which was a whole OTHER fiasco yesterday) until Sunday. At which point I will flex him and see how he reacts. Updated DVME and she said, sounds like everything is progressing as it should, keep on it. What I am STILL having a very hard time understanding, is how he can be lame one day, off the next. But, he is clear through his shoulder and leg (as confirmed by Dr. Cove). I am thinking that not every hoof abscess is treatable and may sometimes just need to run its course. From what I can gather, this usually involves off and on lame symptoms ranging from a couple of weeks to a few months; Until the foreign material "blows" it's way out of the hoof wall near the coronet band.
This is completely unnerving to me and probably one of the most frustrating things EVER.
I can tell you this much - he feels good enough to be able to make
snow angels when we are walking...
He was a little stiff yesterday morning, but by the time we were back from our walk, he was fine and as I explained today - he didn't take a lame step. As for the epsom salt soak, let's hope this afternoon it goes much better then it did yesterday when I ended up getting soaked and had to refill the bucket 3 times....
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