Jingles for Evil Burrito: 10 years later, gimpy but good!

[TheJenners]

Yesterday was a rough day. I’m on a night schedule, so I had my phone silenced and didn’t get the text from my trainer at 8am that Odie, the infamous Evil Burrito and ultimate snuggle-donk, was completely three-legged lame. She called DH, who went out and caught him and looked at him, and was concerned that his right hind pastern or fetlock had sustained a major injury. Totally not weight-bearing, warm, and one angry little burro if you try to touch it, but hopping around grazing.

Anyways, I cried all the way to the barn to meet with the vet on an emergency call. Odie’s attitude was normal, and once the vet showed up, he was very willing to hop away from the vet and came down out of the paddock. Vet was able to examine everything (after happy drugs for grumpy donkey) and doesn’t feel there is a fracture, thinks abscess. We’re treating it as an abscess right now. The vet and I picked Odie up and put him my 2H with hay and water, for DH to transport later to where he boards, as they had an empty stall they were going to let us use.

So, jingles for my little guy. He is apparently very angry, tried to kick DH with his good foot and as DH said, “when I slid his halter on in the trailer and it flattened his ears, once I got the halter on…the ears didn’t come back up.”

Also, anyone experienced this with a rear foot abscess? I have never had to deal with one, just on the fronts, and that can definitely make them non-weight-bearing. Vet stuck a needle in to hopefully make a track near a little crusty spot that may have been where it had popped and then closed (barf, I didn’t watch), and wrapped the crap out of the foot and gave him a long-lasting antibiotic. Hopefully he’ll be fine in a few days, if not we can either try another antibiotic shot or knock him all the way down for some pictures :(.

[katarine]

he’ll be fine. Mine is toting one around in his LH right now- he’s aggravated but can hobble about in the pasture. He’ll be fine- they are very sore on them, almost moreso than horses, seems like.

[saffire_100]

My 4 year old just went through a right hind abcess. It started out on the sole. Farrier opened it up a bit and it was draining. I wrapped and poulticed and about 5 days later it seemed better. Rode him a few times. Then it blew up with a vengence and became horribly infected. He was 3 legged lame and we had to get the vet out. It blew right out of his heel bulbs and was infected with gram positive and negative bacteria (I was very happy my vet took a culture to find this out).

Under vet advice, he wrapped/poulticed it and we booted it for 3 days at a time. The double antibiotics did the trick and he was mostly better about 10 days after the second blow up.
Best of luck with your boy and I hope it doesn’t go south like mine did.

[TheJenners]

Well, hopefully not! And I’m glad that this is normal for a rear foot. Seeing my little guy hopping around like that was scary!!

[Juliette]

Our donkey is prone to horrible abscesses…she just has terrible feet in general and is very difficult to catch and treat which doesn’t help. Donkeys are tough little boogers though, hope your guy gets to feeling better soon!

[Bluey]

Abscesses have a mind of their own.
As long as that is all there is to it, treating as symptoms appear is all we can do until they go away.

Jingles to now really put out Burrito.

[Sir_Alec_s_Mom]

Jingles to Odie! I just realized that he must be Argus’ brother I so enjoyed the Saving Argus blog and wanted to thank you not only for making his last years happy but also for sharing his story.

[twotrudoc]

Jingles for the Evil Burrito! (but isn’t it a good sign he tried to kick your DH? Spunky?)

[tikihorse2]

Aw, so sorry your guy is feeling bad! Jingles for poor Odie!

[TheJenners]

[QUOTE=Sir Alec’s Mom;7194855]
Jingles to Odie! I just realized that he must be Argus’ brother I so enjoyed the Saving Argus blog and wanted to thank you not only for making his last years happy but also for sharing his story.[/QUOTE]
You might have me confused with someone else, I only have Odie the mini burro. No Argus.

[BabyGoose]

Oh no! Jingles that Odie will be feeling better in no time.

[DeeThbd]

Hugs to your little donk!
If he is amenable to it, moistening a square of Animalintex and vetwrapping it to his hoof might help draw it out faster - am sure your vet is already on top of it, but just thought I’d put it out there.
Good luck!
D.

[PRS]

Jingles for Odie, I hope he starts feeling better soon. Hank, my own little donk, has had abscesses on all four of his feet at one time or another (not all at the same time though). He is currently sound…knock on wood.

[Zu_Zu]

Jingles & AO for Odie and his family ~

Jingles & AO for Odie and his family ~

[trubandloki]

Jingles for the little cutie.

Rear hoof abscesses are just like front hoof abscesses, just in a rear hoof. My abscess prone horse liked to spread out the fun to all four feet.

[betsyk]

BTDT. Hind foot absesses are even less fun to treat if they realize that kicking the human makes the human go away. My guy used to kick out like he was trying to remove his own foot, because it hurt - put me a little in awe of how much power they have when they choose to use it! Mine (horse, not donkey) was a sucker for a bucket of feed and if I had someone else stand in front of him with the goodies, he was a lot better about letting me mess with his foot.

[Oberon13]

Poor little guy. Jingles that this will resolve quickly and easily…for everyone’s sanity!

[TheJenners]

Thanks everyone. He’s still hobbling on three legs, so he has another appointment at 230 today.

I have so many concerns. What’s his pain level, should I bute?? Or? What about ulcers from being in and being unhappy? Before, he was out all day and then in an enclosed run with Rory at night, doesn’t get grain or his own hay, but eats the bits of alfalfa that Rory drops. Where he is feeds a grass or grass/alf mixture that he apparently isn’t hoovering down like he normally does. Colic? Laminitis in the other hoof? Should I get some alfalfa from the other barn for him? Or is that too much? Weighing ulcers/colic against colic/laminitis from not eating versus getting more than he normally gets.

My poor vet. I should just print out the above and hand it to him.

And of course the Big Question: what if it isn’t an abscess at all.

[sublimequine]

Take a deep breath. How many days has he been 3 legged now? Will he allow you to soak the foot?

[Heinz_57]

Oh, I dealt with the epic hind foot abscess of 2012. Biggest hole my farrier has ever seen once it completely cleared out, but it took nearly 12 weeks (yes, I said WEEKS) for him to be sound again. Dead, hopping lame for a solid 8 weeks, but I am grateful that the big old man has enough manners not to try to kill me while I was trying to keep him diapered and duct taped. He was pretty pathetic looking, dropped a bunch of weight and moped around like Eeyore until he was feeling better.

Good luck!