Wounds, Swellings and Abscesses, Oh my!

It always seems to be that I don't have good luck with keeping horses sound. I do wonder if I'm doing something wrong, but in the latest run of bad luck there hasn't been much I can do. No wonder I have so many horses, I need them to have a singular sound horse to ride.

So the bad luck started with Bill when she had a swollen front leg to go with her big back leg. The back leg is however healing incredibly well. I couldn't be more happy with it. It really is hardly going to scar. Anyway, I dragged her back to the house and cleaned her foreleg in hopes of discovering what the problem was. I went over her sole with a hoof knife and was happy to see that her sole was unmarked, because abscesses have been bad this year I am told by the vet. Eventually I found a tiny puncture wound in the front of her fetlock, that was the apparent cause of her huge leg. So some huge doses of antibiotics for her and an animalintex which was changed for a couple of days and she is looking good. Still a little residual swelling around her fetlock which I'm keeping a close eye on but she is moving soundly and appears to be on the mend.

Next to go down was Kate. Sound on Monday and then dead lame on Wednesday. I tubbed her foot in epsom salts. Incidently the smallest bag I could find of epsom salts was 25kg so I'm good for the next few abscesses no doubt! I was lucky enough that the farrier came out today and had a look at her foot. So her shoe is off, and after much searching and pondering he found a track in the bar of her foot and followed that down to the worldest smallest, but also very deep abscess. Kate is obviously a huge wuss, but at least I got it early. I still have some hope of making my clinic in a weeks time now that I have found the cause of her lameness. She walked away much sounder, after having her foot packed with epsom salts and covered in two nappies, a pink vetwrap and some lovely red tape. My friend who is visiting from England says she thinks Kate is embarrassed by the colour clash but I'm sure Kate finds it invigorating. Fingers crossed it holds for 24 hours in the mud.

Finally Rascal came in on the Wednesday with some swelling on the outside of her leg, but she was sound so I rode her anyway and that reduced the swelling somewhat so I think it's probably just a knock. I am meant to be riding three horses in each of the clinic days so I need for them to all get sound for that. Calving starts soon and so this will be the last clinic I will get to for a while.