...He was barefoot. Left front (lame foot) he ripped off his shoe, clean. Just holes in his hoof wall where the nails once were. Oh Joy. What's miraculous is that his hoof last night was packed with poultice, wrapped in magazine papers, wrapped in duct tape...and wrapped in duct tape again. Yet, somehow he clean ripped off the whole shoe.
Upon further investigation I did not find the shoe in the field, but DID find that his right front shoe was loose enough that it was shifting sideways, which was enough for me to say "enough" and make him stay in the rest of tonight & tomorrow.
Soon as I got home I saw my amazing brother Dan was home and I went in to blubber to him about it, and his response was "How far is the barn? Let's go. I'll take the shoe off myself". Dan knows a little bit about absolutely everything there is to know about horses. He's incredible. So in the car we jumped, onward to Farm & Fleet in search of bell boots. We didn't find any, but we did get to the farm and pull off the shoe. Well, Dan did. I held Jimmy.
When Dan "pulled off the shoe" really all he had to do was wiggle out the nails. They were so loose, Dan just plucked them out like eyebrows. One by one. Pluck. Pluck. Pluck. Pluck. Pluck. Pluck...until the last one. He tried to wiggle the shoe a bit to loosen the nail and when he put any pressure on the hoof wall, Jimmy wiggled. He was obviously 1. Very uncomfortable from the get-go to have all of that weight on his left front and 2. Not at all happy having his hoof pinched at. Dan said he barely had any pressure on the "nippers" and Jimmy flinched at that. So, he's foot sore. Really foot sore.
I put him in the round pen to distinguish how sore really foot sore is....and found that he is, in fact, really body sore.
So here is my conclusion:
- Jimmy over-reaches and nicks himself in the heels with the front of his back hooves - leaving no scratches, scrapes or marks to the eye, but sufficiently bruising past the point of reasonable pain.
- This is what's made him foot sore in the left front, and from compensating with the right, consequently he is sore in both in the heels....from over reaching.
- The shoes only added to the whole "OUCH MY FEET ARE KILLING ME" thing, and he's got such a solid wall, he really doesn't need them for support. He's got it naturally.
- While playing today (which I'm thrilled he felt well enough to do) he probably torqued himself so hard while he got that shoe off, that his entire body is just aching. Not to mention the rest of the however-long he was out there, he was one-shoed and lopsided.
- I will not put shoes back on him.
- I will get over-reach boots (the nice Professional's Choice ones that don't flip around and have lots of support in the bulbs)
- I will pack and wrap his hooves/heels with poultice while I need to since he is so foot sore it hurts and he needs the soothing comfort to heal.
- I will give him a little swallow of bute at night before bedtime if he is hurting.
- I will wait 8 weeks until he needs another trim and have Trent or whomever come and take a look at his hooves, see how he's doing with the growth.
- Pending severity of discomfort throughout this process, I will talk to John. Really, regardless, I will talk to John.
- I will continue to search for abscesses and any degree of discomfort in his hooves, legs, shoulders, back.
- I will be the best damn mom I can possibly be - within reason. I love him, and I want him to feel better. And I'll do what I need to (again, within reason) to make that happen.
3 comments:
Sounds like a plan. Any feeding/grazing changes that could be contributing to foot soreness? A foot sore horse will often have a lot of body pain due to holding themselves and moving oh so carefully.
He was out in a dry lot for 30 days with hay, now he's out in a field with hay & some natural grazing, but same motion. No nets or anything like that.
I think that's a sound plan, with nothing to lose and everything to gain!
Bella went through a phase where her feet were really bad and making her body-sore. I had a chiro/massage therapist come out and work on her, and not only did Bella almost FALL OVER on her out of complete relaxation, she showed me some exercises I could do to mimic the techniques she was using. I think that could definitely be worth your time/money, and she was only $80 for an hour's session, really not as bad as I expected. Plus, it's great feeling to see your horse so thoroughly enjoying themselves:)
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