I will never ever hesitate to recommend South Rangitikei Vet Services. It's such a good clinic and I have complete faith in them. It's certainly worth the 3 hour drive. Ok so the story with Butch is this. Super lame for four weeks with nil improvement. Sudden onset like overnight. No swelling or heat. Now I thought it was in the foot, and was mostly waiting for an abscess to rear its ugly head. But he never got a hot pulsing foot or had any sort of an abscess track. Having lived in the wettest place ever I can track an abscess like nobodies business. So yea I was pretty concerned going over there as to what we would find, and how much it was going to cost, but also relieved to finally know what was going on.
So we turned up there, the vet had me trot him on the tarmac and then lunge (briefly) on a small circle. So he was a 3/5 lame on the straightway and 4/5 on the circle. Normally I go there and they are like yea I can see the lameness but it's subtle, this time She was just like yea thats lame! She couldn't see anything either that jumped out, and he has no history. I knew it was unlikely to be an arthritis or a ligament/tendon issue because that tends to be an off on subtle sort of an issue or there is swelling and heat. Apparently he has lovely clean knees *preen*.
So we blocked the back of his foot and he was marginally better. So we let that sink in more and he was definitely better, and then we blocked the whole foot and voila it was gone. So then of course we are looking possibly at a fracture or something horrible :( Off for x-rays and he was of course being by His Royal Highness a bit of a tool despite the sedative. He was most offended when they twitched him to get the last shot! Poor Brother Butch! I can sort of read x-rays a little having been to hospital so many times, and of the base of his foot shot even I could see the big black spot, but no lines that indicated a fracture.
I thought possibly the black spot was an abscess that was trapped deep in his foot, which would have been a nightmare to fix, and so painful for him but it's good news really. The vets are very confident there is no fracture of his pedal or navicular bones, but that the pedal bone is badly bruised and he has a massive haematoma in it. He must have stood on a stone on a hard surface, or a spike sticking up out of a stump. Anything sharp and unforgiving where his whole weight has come down on the point with no give and none of his hoofwall touching the ground to protect him. Poor pony! He may even grow a new sole and shed this one over the next few shoeings. Basically, he is going to be very sore for the next couple of months until the haematoma and bruising resolve and there is very little I can do for him. It's just a freak sort of an accident.
So he is out on the hill at my parents place with Snail, my bosses broodmare, and Connie who is also on R and R, surrounded by sheep and grass. I have been a little worried because I don't think he has ever really been out on a hill that steep before and I hadn't seen him all morning. I was going to go check he hadn't fallen over at the bottom like the complete wuss he is but he has just popped up on the skyline and everyone looks happy and content. Though in saying that I had hoped Connie would be moving better by now, but she still looks a bit off. Still she needs her feet done and she has three months before she will be doing anything. It maybe too that my eye is out on her oddball washing machine movement after not seeing it for so long. If she isn't right I will put her in foal next spring and we can go from there.
