Quick question about a hoof injury! (UPDATE from good vet)

Well, I will let you guys know what the vet finds out. It will be a few weeks though. I am trying to wait as long as I can to do the ultrasound to give him as much time to heal as possible. But I am SO curious to see how much he has healed to 2 months. It was such a mild bow that I am hopeing that is all he needs.

Bowed tendon: 52 days down, minimum 8 days to go.

Ditto to squirting and soaking - Epsom salts and betadine, a couple times a day if possible. Definitely squirt some betadine up there - maybe diluted 1:1 with water. Keep the foot bandaged to keep gunk out.

It is the epididymis that is attached to the testicle that causes the horse to be proud cut.When the horse is gelded, the epididymis breaks from the testicle and pops back inside. Of course, it all depends on the vet doing the surgery. My grandfather( who passed away last fall) did all the castrations at our place, as well as anyone who needed a horse castrated. He was an old cowboy who worked magic with horses.He did our castrations until he was 80 years old, then my sister and I would not let him, in case he got hurt. We called and got the vet to castrate a horse for us. Gramps watched the procedure and declared that the vet had just proud cut him. True enough, Smokey is extremely studdy and must not be kept with other geldings. And of course my Gramps never let us forget the end result,since we would’nt let him castrate Smokey.In fact , we had to sell Smokey when we bought a Connemara stallion. He jumped the fence one time and went to the neighbors and beat the crap out of their own stud. sold him to an old cowboy who can handle the horse. great to ride but not around other male horses.Asked a vet the cost to go into surgery and it was very expensive and not a sure result.Smoky is doing great and I have a stallion I don’t have to worry that another will injure.and the neighbor was thankfully the horse was gone.I have found another vet who does great work with the horses and knows the proper procedure to castrate.She was even given approval by my Gramps.

His leg basically looks like it is ‘stocked up’. No heat. He had an abcess on that same hoof a few months ago and spent a week with it bandaged and his leg didn’t swell then. He is also in a turnout now and before he was in a stall so it is not like he is prone to stocking up or anything.

I put a call in to my regular vet but she may not call back till this evening or even tomorrow.

This sucks! I am freaking out. He is not even wrapped at all, just out there in the dirt. He didn’t even recommend soaking it. I think I am freaking out now.

Bowed tendon: 41 days down, minimum 19 days to go.

Another vet is coming out tomorrow and bringing the 4 way vaccine and will take another look at my horse. The barn manager said that his leg still looks the same as yesterday but agreed that soaking it in epsom salts sounds like a good idea. She really thinks that leaving it open to dry out is a good idea. I guess I kind of agree with her since it is already unwrapped and in the dirt. Having a second opinion will be nice, the vet coming out is THE best vet in the area and is flown all over the country to do prepurchases and is the owner of the practice that my regular vet works at. I think I will feel more comfortable with him looking at it too.

As for the epsom salts, how much salt and how much water? I have never had to do this before, luckily I have a bag of epsom salts from when one of my dogs had an abcessed anal gland, how handy.
Thanks

Bowed tendon: 42 days down, minimum 18 days to go.

The vet came out today and looked at my horse. I mean he really LOOKED at him and talked to me and was SO great. He said that the hole in the back of his heel was an abcess from the wire hole that had come out the back of his heel. He recomended soaking it maybe one more time and keeping it wrapped for two more days and said he would be fine. The swelling was down today so he didn’t recommend antibiotics and said that the swelling was probably down because of the abcess bursting. He also gave Chase the 4-way vaccine and said that he should be all set.

I really like the vet that came out who is the owner of the practice that my regular vet works with. They are really great there! The vet said that I had done a good job taking care of his foot up until today and that it was vety clean. I have to say that it was probably because of all the help I got from you guys so, thank you for all of your great suggestions and help!

Bowed tendon: 43 days down, minimum 17 days to go.

They do have supplies (not icthamol, just furacin which doesn’t draw out infection) but they also follow what their vets say and their vet was the first vet that came out. When he said to not do anything and watch it, that is what the barn manager wanted to do. She also said that all they normally do is watch that kind of thing anyway. I can not MAKE them wrap it or give me supplies. I personally thought that the swollen leg was the kind of thing that they watch FOR but that is just me.

I was trying to take care of my horse but not disrespect the professionals (vet and lay-up facility barn manager) who really should know more than me. I have never been in that kind of situation before. Usually when I call the vet they come out and DO SOMETHING. I had never dealt with a vet that didn’t do anything before. Like I said I was surprised and didn’t know what to do other than call my regular vet.

I did what I did and things are ok. I will NEVER use that first vet again, I know he is not the vet for me and my horse. I much prefer the ‘do something now vet’ to the ‘wait and see vet’ and now I am aware of which vet to use and which vet not to use. I had never used the first vet before and didn’t know he was that way. Lesson learned.

Now please, I did the best that I could, I don’t need you guys to ‘teach me a lesson’ by being harsh. I am a sensitive person and I have been in a difficult position in my life in the last couple months with stress and what results from stress. This board is where I come to help relieve my stress not add to it. My horse is not suffering in any way and is quite healthy. His foot is healing well and my vets are consulted during any questionable time. He is at a nice facility(except for the loose pieces of wire) with plenty of knowledgable people and I am there often to take care of him. I love him and I will never let anything bad happen to him.

Bowed tendon: 44 days down, minimum 16 days to go.

bravo Meander…

“Perfect practice makes perfect.”

The rather frequent posts about Chase have a consistently self righteous quality about them. They usually start with some sort of plea for help or information, followed by a detailed, blow by blow saga of how this person wronged the poster or her horse, how put upon she is, how she has made different decisions and finally, how upset she is that people have disagreed with her. It tends to get very dramatic, and it gets (my personal opinion only…)rather old.

For the record, I don’t think Chanda is an uncaring or negligent horse owner. If anything, I think she goes overboard making sure her horse is well taken care of.

It just seems like the sky is falling a lot.


“It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that
matters, in the end.”
-Ursula K. Le Guin

I’m not even going to touch the whole vet issue because I tend to go into rampages pretty quickly, but I just have to sympathize about the pain threshold thing. I have 2 horses and a pony-the pony and one of the horses could be dying before you would know anything was wrong. The pony foundered for 3 months before he even looked off, and the horse would try to do upper level dressage stuff on 3 legs if you asked him to. However, the other horse, if you look at him cross-eyed, thinks that he is dying and in pain, and needs to be fully wrapped and put in a stall with lots of drugs for the pain. It’s amazing-I have to very consciously think of who I’m dealing with before treating them for anything-drives me crazy!

“The only thing you will ever get two horsepeople to agree on is that the third one is wrong” -Author Unknown

I, too, like Chef’s comment. But my horse never seems to have such good timing–he generally waits until he’s just back in work before self-destructing again.

Should be interesting to see if the dental work makes Chase easier to ride once you start him back. Maybe some of the resistance you noticed was teeth problems.

BUT it is very interesting to me. My wonderful, rather quiet ottb (6yr old) has gone wild. I was hunting him quietly a couple of months ago and now that the mares have started to go into heat he has become a monster. HE rears when you go to turn him out, will attack any gelding in sight if given half a chance ( I think he would actually kill one if loose). On the way to the show the other day I felt the trailer bump, stoped and opened the escape door and he was bitting my big ISH on the cheek and would not let go until I hit him really hard ( we have a 6 horse head to head)so I had to tie him so tight on both sides so he could not move. He will start showing at the A’s in a month and I was saying to the barn help that I will have to treat him like a stud ( he is good once in the ring, but I must be careful in the warmup ring if a horse come too close). He is so talented, scopey and brave I would be really happy if Regumate would stop this insanity, the vet comes tomorrow so I will get her to do a blood test and put him on hormones.I’ll let you know how it works. I wonder why he was not like this last year, though he has matured a lot.

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Robby Johnson:
p.s. My little cousin is coming to SB for spring break to tour The Cate School. Do you know anything about it?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Robby,

My brother (and Uncle,sister-in-law, Grandfather and cousin!) went to Cate. They refer to it as the “country club” for its beautiful campus and it has a drop-dead gorgeous view from the mesa. There is a huge “success rate” as far as graduates who go on to four year colleges. I almost went there myself, but there weren’t any horses…

CWP

Sure, he may tell you that all you need is do is slap and wrap, but, invasive hoof injuries like this can be conduits for infection. Also, even though your horse is vaccinated for tetenus, he may want to give a booster.

Also, the next time you find something like that in the hoof, your best bet is to call the vet immediately and DO NOT pull it out. In some cases you can do serious damage, if you do. You don’t know how far into the hoof such a thing may have pushed.

I would also do a complete lookover of the paddock he is in, where there is one piece of wire, there may be others.


“We ride and never worry about the fall.
I guess that’s just the cowboy in us all.”
Tim McGraw

You are right that when the epididymis is left the horse is considered proud cut but the epididymis does not produce male hormones. It is merely a storage area for sperm. The testicles produce male hormones and my guess is that it would be a fairly incompetent vet indeed who would manage to only remove part of a testicle.

Here is a link that I found which gives a pretty nice explanation of why some geldings act studdy.
Proud cut geldings

Nina

[I]“We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own, live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached. Unable to accept its awful gaps, we still would live no other way. We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan.”

Irving Townsend. [/I]

sounds like cellulitis to me,if it is stocked up and he is not lame…means that perhaps infection entered at the puncture site and migrated into the tissues. Will got this last august, and it seems to happen every time now.
Interestingly, the first vet didn’t treat Will’s properly-he hosed and iced and wrapped…duh. I called in vet number two and we got antibiotics and knocked it down.

I would at least soak it again and wrap the hoof to keep it clean if I were you…until the next vet can come look at it (this is an “if I were you” kind of thing)…jmho

“Perfect practice makes perfect.”

AH!!! My regular vet just called and told me to do all the things you guys have been saying. Soak in Epsom salts and betadine, keep really clean, wrap with ichthamol.

I am so pissed at this other vet. I am definitely NOT paying him for anything. If my horse gets really infected or something it will totally be his fault for not doing ANYTHING and leaving his foot IN THE DIRT.

I am going over there RIGHT NOW to take care of my poor horse.

Bowed tendon: 42 days down, minimum 18 days to go.

As far as how much Epsoms to water, I keep pouring Espoms in until it starts to not dissolve anymore - then you have saturated water. Ditto to the temp thing - hot when you start.

Jeez, everyone lay off!

Chanda as we all know is a caring horse owner who puts Chase’s welfare first. I don’t think she did anything life threatening, or for that matter, any different from what the majority of horse owners would do.

I don’t think there is a single person out there who has not questioned their instincts when faced with a professional opinion that is different than what they would do (and, I’m sure out there there is a thread called “I hate people who second-guess their vet”). It has happened to me in my OWN health care.

Those of you who possess super-human resolve and an instinct for diagnosis that excedes that of professional veterinarians, I applaud you.

Everyone else, lay off Chanda!

Enough! Let it go. For crying out loud, if lynching was permitted, it would be prevelent on this bb.

From the posts I have read written by Chanda, she is a very nice, knowledgeable HUMAN BEING!

I happily share what I know with hopes that someone/anyone benefits. At no time (except one time which need not be mentioned) have I personally attacked anyone. I DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO THAT! Nobody does.

The day we stop listening and taking advice is the day we become a loser.