Instincts

You would think I would know better by now. I have been taught the lesson of following my instincts so many times from my horses, but sometimes I just fail to do it.

In this case, the lameness vet had come out to see Stampede, declared his hoof fine, and diagnosed cellulitis. I was happy with that. The leg was big and he looked sound again at the time, BUT I knew his hoof had been warm for over a week and I hadn’t see anything come out. Ugh. I should have pressed for the x-ray…

So I wrote my optimistic post after my ride on Saturday, go to ride Sunday and he’s not as sound. Sure he’s fine on the straight long side of the arena, but he takes ouchy steps in the corner.

Strange spot that appeared Thursday night after vet was gone

Monday I ask the farrier to look at him. He proclaims that the spot on his coronet band that’s been there since the past Thursday evening is the abscess and my horse is better now. Sigh. He also digs a finger sized hole in the bottom of his hoof which I haven’t seen anything come out of. Anyways, he also says I should soak the foot not wrap it, so I do that even though the wrapping make more sense since the horse gets treatment for 24 hours not 20 minutes…

Hole the farrier dug

I ride Stampede Tuesday night to see where we are. His trot once again feels pretty good, better than it had on Sunday. I attempt to canter and I had an angry beast who didn’t feel right. So that’s fine, we trot a little more then quit. Go soak the foot.

Hoof in a bucket

Stampede gets his last dose of diuretic Wednesday (helps make the edema go down) and by Thursday the leg is getting bigger again, and now the right rear in joining in…

Friday I talk to my regular vet in the morning, she’s headed out of town for a conference in the afternoon and can’t come out so she wants me to call the lameness vet who already saw him. I call the lameness vet’s office, and he’s out of town until Tuesday. His assistant tells me we should put Stampede back on the diuretic and extend the antibiotics, but he doesn’t have any diuretic in stock.

Here I proceed to call three vets offices (regular vet, lameness vet, vet rest of barn uses for regular items) multiple times trying to orchestrate these two meds. Turns out I cannot get both meds in one location. Sigh.

Well I have to work 50 hours this week because I do taxes for a living so I can’t go anywhere. My husband drives 2 hours round trip on valentine’s day to get the diuretic from my regular vet’s office (he’s amazing). My parents drive to the vet the rest of my barn uses (actually we use them for our dogs) to get Reilly’s meds and the antibiotics for Stampede (they are awesome too).

Except they get there and the lameness vet’s office never faxed in the prescription. I was in a meeting, my mom texting me about it, and I wanted to beat someone. I spent almost an hour on the phone in the morning orchestrating all of it and there I was with no antibiotics! I proceed to call my regular vet to see if her office can send the prescription since the lameness vet’s office is already closed. Her assistant proceeds to be snotty with me, so I hang up on her and call my vet’s cell phone directly. Regular vet is willing to call in different antibiotics to a pharmacy. Call my parents back and they have managed to convince the vet there to sell the antibiotics to us and let me get a prescription on Monday. Problem solved but I seriously almost cried a few times throughout the day in intense frustration. Why is this so difficult!

Mom this sucks

So currently I’m just following the cellulitis protocol and waiting. The earliest I can get a vet out is Thursday, and that’s the lameness guy who has a $125 farm call if no one is in with me like they were last time. I’m going to see if my regular vet can come out on Friday since she gets back from her conference Thursday night, but I’m not too optimistic there. So I’m in a holding pattern and currently annoyed and frustrated at my bad luck that seems to be spilling over into the rest of my life this week too.

I’m asking him if he wants a carrot here and he’s trying to decide if he wants to put his ears forward.

So here’s hoping that tomorrow is a new week and my luck will change!