Monday, September 14, 2009

Liniment and Polo Wraps

My birthday is this week. Friday actually. I had planned a trail ride for Saturday with some friends and have been really really really looking forward to it. Really. My husband even offered to watch Xavier all day so I could have a nice relaxing time. This last Friday evening I received a call from Susan. She had gone out to ride Summer, pulled her out of the field and noticed something was off. She checked her over and saw that Summer's right front shoe was missing. She had a slight limp and was swollen just above her coronet band to just below her fetlock. The back of her pastern had some small cuts on it as well. I was worried but stuck at home with the baby so instructed her to cold hose her leg for 10 to 15 minutes, spray some Schreiner's Herbal Solution on the cuts and put liniment on the swollen area.
I went out the next morning (Saturday) and pulled Summer out of the pasture. She only had a slight limp and the swelling didn't look bad at all. I did the same thing that Susan had the night before but left out the liniment. She was in a good mood and enjoyed the attention, except for the Schreiner's because it stings a bit and she hates spray bottles of any kind. I put her back out to pasture and sent Susan a text updating her on the situation and asked her to repeat the process again that night. Before I left I even walked the fenceline of her pasture thinking that maybe she got caught up in some wire or something but couldn't find anything to confirm my suspicion.
Susan made it out yesterday (Sunday) morning to check her over again and sent me a text saying she seemed to be worse and the swelling had increased. Her limp was more pronounced so we decided stall rest for the time being would be best. I went out last night and managed to catch our barn owner Kristy and ask her advice. She suggested we do what we had been but thought too much stall rest might make her stock up and not help the injury circulate. She let me borrow some polo wraps and I wrapped her legs for the night. Not well since I'd never done it before but it was better than nothing. Poor Summer had a really hard time walking and seemed like every step was agonizing. I felt so bad for her. Gave her some hay and tucked her in for the night. This morning I made it back out and when I walked into the barn Summer's head popped up in her stall and she whinnied excitedly at me. Its been a long time since she's done that so it made me feel better about the situation. Leading her out of the stall was a little slow but I was pleased to see the wraps had stayed on. They looked like crap but at least hadn't fallen off and been trampled in the shavings. I unwrapped her legs and felt the injured one for heat. It didn't feel any hotter than the day before but the heat went farther up her leg than previously. She was still limping but it didn't seem to be as agonizing as last night although she was a little more hesitant to take that first step.
Here are a few pics of her legs first thing this morning. The scratches aren't too bad but they do seem to be slightly painful.




Its not really noticable in this picture but the inside of her right leg is definitely more swollen than her left.
Kristy suggested scraping the scabs off of her scratches so I spent a good 20 or 30 minutes doing this. I clipped the hair around her wounds and then cold hosed her for a while longer. She was SUCH a good girl. It definitely hurt but she was very patient the whole time. I did find a small thorn in her frog while I was doing this that I pulled out as well. Hopefully that was part of the issue and is now relieved.

You can see quite a bit of swelling in the pic on the inside of her pastern as well as the bulb of her heel.

Not thrilled at all with having her legs wrapped but at least Kristy showed me the correct way to do it. Looks MUCH better this time!




At this point I'm still trying to get ahold of my farrier and either have him replace the shoe or pull the one on her left so that she can at least stand evenly. I've left 3 messages since Friday and haven't heard back. She was just shod a few weeks ago in anticipation of my trail ride and he guarantees shoes for 6 weeks. This is driving me crazy. He's always really good about calling me back.
So basically my birthday plans may be on hold. It sucks but I feel even worse that she's hurt. Is it my fault for putting shoes on her? Would she have gotten hurt with or without them? I can't help but feel guilty but at he same time I know its kind of a freak accident. She'll probably be fine in a week or two and maybe the weather will still be nice. I'm sure it'll work out.....

UPDATE: My farrier called back and will be out tomorrow at 1ish to fix Summer's shoe! He is so awesome. Cross your fingers that it'll help her feel better.

3 comments:

shortstack said...

horses will be horses... darren is an awesome farrier!
how is summers foot? and leg?

KD said...

kacy! all you ever do is get my hopes up and then shoot me down. I'm like wow, kacy has been writing reallly regularly! How Exciting! now i will know stuff about her again! Then i check back in and no updates.

j/k! but seriously. . .

autumnblaze said...

Oh man... you have luck about like me! My boy got kicked in the hock the morning after my new saddle arrived. I still haven't gotten to ride in it. Oh well.

I hope your girl heals up quickly and your farrier gets back to you SOON! Good luck. :)