When the vet came last Friday she took x-rays so we could see what had changed in Stampede’s hoof since we last x-rayed him two weeks ago. We made the tentative plans to try to get him in shoes on Monday, pending x-rays. Well we all know Stampede loves a plot twist, and the vet found that he had a large gas pocket in the foot that was most likely the cause of his continued soreness after moving around. So we made plans for her to come out and do some excavating to relieve the pressure yesterday.
After we found the pocket
After some more digging
Otherwise his coffin bone looked good in the x-rays, although maybe just ever so slightly moved. Nothing to worry about as is though. His medial lateral balance was off as I had suspected from looking at his feet with my own eyes. The outside of his hoof is about a quarter of an inch higher than the inside on this bad foot. It has left me with some continued concerns about my barn’s farrier in addition to the ones I have voiced previously. Of course no one will tell me what they think because they don’t want to start drama, so I’m feeling a bit alone in my angst.
So Stampede’s foot is all wrapped up and I will be removing the current wrap, applying fresh gauze soaked in iodine to the hole, and rewrapping it as needed until everything hardens up enough to be covered by a shoe. Vet was guessing a couple of weeks. We may do another set of x-rays before we shoe just to be safe. I would actually be interested in x-raying the other front as well to have a baseline for cleaning up his angles there too.
Hoping we are at least headed in a good healing direction!
yikes that’s quite the excavation!! bummer about the persisting farrier issues – hopefully everything will be resolved to your satisfaction soon and Stampede will be happy and sound!
Thanks, it’s been a frustrating and expensive situation that’s for sure!
Whoa, you sure did do a lot of digging! I hope it helps Stampy feel better
Yeah, I kept asking the vet how much more she had to dig out, lol. Didn’t help that the actual spot was to the left of the hole at his toe where we started, created a wider opening overall!
The farrier situation is hard. I’ve been there!
I just hate feeling like I’m being looked at like a whiner! I probably need to put my big girl pants on and just stand up for myself and my horses…
I feel your pain. We had an abscess once that, no matter what our vet and farrier did, would not resolve. Ended up going to see the vets and farrier at the New Bolton clinic in PA and ended up with a huge resection and regional perfusion before we saw daylight. Total time poor horse was affected was a fun filled 15 weeks. As an aside…does your barn not allow owner’s to use other farriers?
Yikes, I hope I don’t have to go that far! Sometimes the issues horses have are just so overwhelming.
They do allow other farriers, but the pot of options in my area is not incredibly diverse as far as I can tell, plus you don’t have the weekly option for farrier care (although I guess I don’t use that often). I’ll send you a message, then I can say more details.
Ugh, what a tough situation, but at least you have some more answers now.
Answers for now at least, lol. Vet still thinks we could have something else crop up in this foot as it heals since we don’t really know why this started in the first place but let’s hope not!
Ouch! Hope things get better soon 🙂
Thanks!
Oh wow. I hope it means he’s on the road to recovery now 🙂
Crossing my fingers and toes!
Fingers crossed this is the jumpstart you needed to get him feeling better!
Thanks! So far so good…
Fingers crossed things get better from here on out
Let’s hope so!