Wednesday, Day 14 of Abscessing

Today is day number 14 of the second round of abscessing. I guess if you were to count from day one, back in August, we're on day number 36. Yikes. That's depressing, when counting from the day it was first diagnosed. Anyways, here's the abscess photos from today. Like ususal, I did a 15 minute espom salt soak followed by a hot pad of Animalintex, cotton, vet wrap and finally topped off with some duct tape.

Gus was a bit embarrassed by the hot pink name tag. Haha. 

I did take some new body conformation shots as well. Just for comparison sake, here's Gus from today:

And here are photos from May 2010. Granted he's in his spring coat - clipped, but weight wise, he was still pretty dang skinny. Just comparing his neck muscles... it's amazing. And the above photos, taken today, show Gus about 6 weeks out of work. He looked a bit better at the end of July, muscle-tone wise.  

Wish Gus still had his mane. Sadly he decided to rub a chunk of it out and it just never grew back right. So we'll see how it grows over the winter. 

I also took new photos of Gus's hooves in general. As usual, they are taken left front to hinds, ending with the right front. 

I already posted this photo above, but note to the left of the abscess - the hoof wall. Doesn't it it look odd? In the pictures posted above (the abscess ones) you can see the odd separation. I'm not entirely sure what's up with that - I plan on leaving a note for J. Then again, why should I even bother when I never get any answers?

 Ugg. Note the flaring of the hoof wall. Yikes. 

And the quarter crack... sheesh, when will it end?

This hind (right) hoof is also flaring badly. For whatever reason this hind has been having more issues flaring then the left, but regardless, IMO, both hinds are flaring badly - and they shouldn't be. Again, the hooves are only at 6 weeks out - Monday when Gus is retrimmed, it'll be 6.5 weeks. 

God, the bottom of his RH looks like a dinner plate. Sheesh!

Underrun heels much? 

Anyways, I think there is not a lot to be desired with these hooves. No telling what I can get the farrier to do. But I'm thinking something needs to change again. Maybe I should run things by the vet? 

Abscess Updates... Long Overdue

I've been horrible about updating the blog this past week. My bad... life just got in the way, you know how that goes. Anyways, as I type, we are into day number 12 of dealing with this latest round of abscessing. Sheesh. Still no end in sight as it's still draining. Go figure. I was out this past Wednesday (the 14th), Friday (the 16th) and Saturday (the 17th). Nothing seems to have changed much. Here's the photos from the past three trips to the barn.

Wednesday, 14th (Day 7)

Friday, 16th (Day 9)

Saturday, 17th (Day 10)

It's obviously looking a lot better, as evident from the last couple of photos I took on Saturday, but still no where near healed. Farrier won't be out until next Monday, so hopefully everything will stay together until then. I'm still a bit concerned about the hoof wall that seems to be separating a bit - it's to the "northwest" of the abscess - left side of hoof if looking at the photos posted above. Not sure if the white line is separating or if the hoof wall is just seriously chipping. Gus will be at 6.5 weeks when he's trimmed again on Monday... not sure if we need to bump up the timing or just keep up what we are doing.

Anyways, I wasn't able to make it to the barn yesterday or today. Tomorrow isn't looking so hot either (due to my work schedule), so I asked the BO to see to Gus and make sure his hoof stays wrapped. I had kept his Soft Rides off for the past few days, just to give his hooves a break... but with the little bit of rain we got yesterday, I'm not sure if the duct tape boot is enough. I suppose I'll have more information and photos again by Wednesday or Thursday (I'll be out to the barn Wednesday night to soak/rewrap).

Gringo - Video At Last

Well, today I was finally able to get half-way decent video of Gringo on the lunge. We were supposed to have the farrier out at 9am but somewhere along the lines, the time was changed to 11am. I never got the memo. Oh well, so with a whole hour and a half to kill (I had already done everything that I needed to do with Gringo prior to the original 9am appointment), I decided to work with Gringo on the lunge line. He was a good boy.

We ended up working on w/t/whoa again. The couple times I asked for the canter, I got the wrong lead and a very resistant horse. Just not worth it. So instead it was forward and obedient. Please ignore my obnoxious voice... still haven't figured out the whole "music" thing on Youtube yet. 

Lunge w/o side reins

Lunge w/ side reins

And I wished to get photos of Gringo's hooves post-trim, but my cellphone had died... so hopefully I can make it out the barn here in the next few days to get photos. I did talk to L about bringing back Gringo's toes. He said he trims by the white line and always addresses any flares. Gringo definitely needed this trim as he was flaring badly... sheesh it's amazing how fast his hooves grew in 8 weeks. I guess the next trim will be at 6 weeks and we'll go from there.