My days are currently quite tied up with Aero. His lameness has subsided enormously after two days of box rest, hot-tubbing and poulticing, but I haven't seen any traces of pus when I remove the poultice, so I doubt that I've gotten near the end of it yet.
There is still a lot of heat in his foot, and very slight filling along his tendons. I'm 90% convinced it's an infection in the foot - we call it a "drop" here in Ireland, I'm not sure why - so I'll continue poulticing and hot-tubbing.
Fortunately he's a good patient, and will stand happily with his foot in a bucket for ages, so long as he's got some haylage to munch. The bucket has got hot tap water with a couple of handfuls of Epsom Salts in it, and I usually top it up from a flask of boiling water after about ten minutes, giving him at least twenty minutes of hoof soaking.
Then it's time to inspect his foot and squeeze around the crack I can see :
Apply the Animalintex poultices, one on the sole and one along the coronet, and bandage it up
Aero is not at all impressed at being stabled on his own, and calls to Flurry and Lilly all day long - not great for the LSH and his business associate who are trying to work from the office in the yard!
Finally, for Annette, this is what the French call an American curry comb! I can't remember the word they used for "curry comb", but that's what it translates to. In Ireland and England, we just call it a metal curry comb. It's great for scraping thick muck off Flurry!
We call them a metal curry comb. They are great during shedding season.
ReplyDeleteIs the drop and abscess? When it breaks it busts through the hoof wall and relieves the pressure.
Hope Aero heals up soon.
Hi Allison, yes it's an abscess, he's never had one before as far as I remember.
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