An Abscess, Some Training, and a Duct Tape Bootie

Freedom

Shadow

 

So I had a different week than I planned :) For one it was just very warm. Each day it was at least 90 + degrees which of course made riding or anything else out of the question. Tuesday evening Daisy came in lame on back right hoof. She hadn't been lame the evening before and it was a very noticeable lameness. Right away by the symptoms she was showing it seemed very much like an abscess. I did quite a bit of research on how I wanted to treat it. I knew some people call the vet/farrier out to test for the abscess and then some people dig for it and others don't. Well I opted to test for it and then let it burst on its own. I bought some Animalintex pads from Ace Hardware. Here is a link: http://www.smartpakequine.com/animalintex-614p.aspx. I heard they are great at drawing out abscesses. I decided it was worth trying it to see if it works, having read so many good reviews. I also had gotten ichthammol drawing salve having heard some people used that as well.

 

First I rinsed Daisy's hoof off with cold water and dried it. While I was hosing off Daisy's hoof, I made the Animalintex pad wet with as hot water as I could stand, squeezed the excess water out of the pad, and applied it to Daisy's hoof. The first three times (Wednesday morning and evening, and Thursday morning) I applied the poultice, then wrapped it with vet wrap. I didn't think to do it any differently. Well then on Thursday evening Alyson was at the barn and she saw me struggling a bit with the vet wrap and poultice and she suggested using a diaper (which she had) and putting that over the hoof to hold the poultice in place, then instead of wrapping with vet wrap (which isn't as durable as most of you fellow horse people know) wrapping the diaper with duct tape. We did that and it worked like a charm. All the times the poultice had stayed on before but now her hoof didn't cut thru at the one place. Friday I didn't change the poultice twice due to how late in the day I got to the barn. But when I did change it there was drainage on the poultice pad and a little drain hole that hadn't been there before. I was so happy to see that. Daisy was also walking so much better.  I had been told by a few people that if you soak the hoof in Epson salt that helps draw it out. So Friday I had done that as well. I was so proud of Daisy because I made the water nice and warm and put the Epson salt in the water and then stuck her hoof in the water. No fuss or anything. She kept her hoof in the water the entire time all except for lifting it out once. I was pleased because I had never done something like that with her before.

 

This morning (Saturday), there was a bit more drainage but not near the extent there was Friday afternoon. Also when I changed the poultice this morning I just cleaned the hoof with warm water (had run out of Epson salt :D) and then rewrapped it with the poultice and diaper but with the duct tape I did it slightly different. I had read on the Horse and Man blog, which I get in my email inbox, that there is an easy way to wrap the hoof with duct tape. I did it the way I thought I had remembered which was about 5 or six long pieces of duct tape side by side one way and then the same amount the other way, and in the way making a bootie. Well it worked, although I had to tape around the top to make sure it stayed on. I had planned before I headed to the barn to read up on how to make the bootie but then I didn't get the chance to. Well once I got home I reread it and I saw what I had done that I should have done differently :) Here is the link if you would ever need to make a duct tape bootie: http://horseandman.com/handy-tips/duct-tape-booties-and-quick-and-easy-to-fit-ice-packs/.  I plan to change everything tonight again but probably not make a wet poultice like I have for the last few days. We shall see. Although tonight we will make the duct tape bootie the way it was mean to be made ;) And that was my week with Daisy :) So glad to see her feeling better again.

 

Not sure what Freedom thought of this week with it being so warm and me not doing much with him but Thursday evening it was cooler so I decided to work with him for a bit. I roundpenned him again. He is so getting the hang of it. I love how quickly he picks up on what I want him to do and if he does something wrong you can almost see him think: Oh so that is what I am supposed to do. After he did everything exactly how I wanted him to, which was not very long at all, he came and followed me. I hosed him off afterwards which he really enjoyed.

 

So I am hoping next week is cooler and Daisy is back to normal so that I can get back into the groove of working with the horses and riding again. Feels like its been a while. Been living a hectic schedule or so it feels like anyway. Have a wonderful weekend. Stay cool!