A Christmas gift from Stampede

Stampede really knows how to celebrate the holidays!

Progression of cellulitis – left is just before noon with a temp of 101, right is just after 4 this afternoon with temp 101.5

I happened to have the day after Christmas off which is the only reason I was in the barn in the middle of the day. I came out and threw some alfalfa hay in the pasture to get the boys to leave me alone for stall cleaning and noticed stampede dragging his left hind a little bit. After about 10 minutes Stampede left the hay and came back into the barn where he stared at me and then proceeded to paw. Stampede only paws when he’s in pain. So I go check out his left hind and it’s a little puffy at the pastern and he will not let me touch the entire leg anywhere. Well not wanting his leg touched is one of his classic cellulitis is coming symptoms so I inwardly groan and proceed to keep an eye on him while finishing stalls.

After stalls are done I go get my thermometer – 101 temp, which is not his normal 99.8 but not horrible either. I call the vet because I know something is up. She tries to lean towards maybe an abscess but I’m telling her no its cellulitis coming. She agrees that I can start him on antibiotics (SMZ’s) but wants me to wait on the diuretic. I almost don’t listen because I just KNOW it’s cellulitis. I had to run off for a lesson on Maestro but I decide only to flat so I can get back and check on Stamp. I come out just before 4 and he’s irritated and his leg is clearly growing. I take his temp and we are at 101.5. I text the vet and include a picture and now we are on the same cellulitis page. I give him the diuretic.

Leg around 8 pm

Night time he gets another dose of antibiotic and I get him all wrapped up for the night. Temperature is up to 102.2 but vet says it’s okay since he’s on previcox (prep for farrier visit today) and it should head down. I go back out at 11 pm to take his temp and he’s back in the 101 range so I let him be.

All the wrapping skills

Yesterday the boys stayed in until around 10 am due to cold temperatures but had a pretty full day of turnout otherwise. Stampede’s leg shrunk quite a bit but no pictures because my phone decided it was too cold to function anymore. I wrapped him up again and put him away for the night.

The leg was down some more again this morning, most of the edema seems to be chilling around his hock at this point. My husband turned them out around 11 because it was even colder last night and then sent me this video.

I guess he’s not feeling too bad at this point!

PS For those interested on the current status of the Smartpak insulated bucket cover experiment, it really works well! This morning it was 3 degrees in my barn and there was only a super thin layer of ice on the water and that was with only about 1/3 of the water remaining. I’m also not filling it with all warm water. I fill a gallon jug with hot tap water before coming out to the barn, use some of that to soak P’s grain, then put the remaining amount in the bucket followed by water straight from the tap. I would have gotten a picture but my hands were frozen from taking care of Stamp!