Monday, December 14, 2009

Update On Misty's Progress


Well, it seems that we take 5 steps forward and 4 steps back sometimes. You can clearly see that the left front is still a little swollen with yesterday morning's poultice still hanging on. I took this picture this morning. Thursday brought more trouble and I set her back some. Misty had a frozen solid turd ball in her right front toe area, of course our high temp for that day was 4*F and she was literally standing on her right toe, putting more pressure on injured leg. I had to make the decision to try and wet it enough to chisel the turd flatter for her and when she realized that I needed to catch her, she gave chase, which I did not want her to do and when I did catch her it required her to stand with all weight on bad left leg to chisel out turd for about 10 minutes! I gave her a full dose of Banamine for that. All seemed well until I arrived home from work Saturday morning and found that entire leg much more swollen than this picture and her favoring it slightly, not nearly as bad as initial injury , but enough to really worry me, so before I went to sleep, I put a good layer of poultice on and another dose of Banamine and fed her where she stood. By Sunday when I got home from work, she was still swollen but it was considerably less, so more poultice and another dose of Banamine, Sunday evening and this morning finds her moving forward nicely, even though we are still a bit swollen. I'll watch her for now and give her skin a break from the poultice if I can. I think this is going to take months of healing, and as nice as it would be to pop her into the stall, she would not be a happy girl and I'm afraid we might end up with more injury.

11 comments:

Achieve1dream said...

Can you put Vaseline or something on her hooves to keep them from making snow/ice balls? I hope she gets better soon.

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Oh man, that sucks! Keep at it girl. You'll get Misty healed up, in spite of herself.;)

Jean said...

Owie...and the iceballs in the feet do not help at all. I forget...is she shod? Snow pads help a ton if the horse has shoes, but if she is barefoot, then that must be some potent snow/ice you guys have there.

Good luck and give Misty a kiss from me....make it all better. *sigh*

Callie said...

No, I keep them barefoot all year long as we really do not a lot of riding, just teetering around the farm, mostly or in the arena. And yes, Jeremiah, the farrier suggested some silocone spray, but at the moment I'm not willing to lift any leg to even spray it. Really do not want to aggrevate the injury more. And unfortuneately it was serious ice balls, however, it has warmed up conderably and now I'm sure her feet are relatively clear. We'll just have to take it one day at a time. I am encouraged by her forward movement as initial injury, she was doing the backwards three legged hop, so I know we are better now, but like I said, this will be a long recovery. I mean months, I'm sure.

Mrs. Mom said...

You'll get her there! Rehab is not an easy process. (Just as SONNY about that...)

Rubs to both the girls from me!

Jeni said...

Rehab is every so slow in horses.... I hope the weather gives you a break for a bit so she can get a good couple of days of no icy rutty ground, no frozen turd balls, and just rest.

Grey Horse Matters said...

Never a dull moment with these horses right? I can't believe how easily they can hurt themselves all the time. Yesterday, Sammi put his foot through some frozen snow and when he pulled it out he ripped the skin off down to the tendon. Nice. Hope she is feeling better soon.

Train Wreck said...

Oh good luck. I swear it is always something isn't it? Keep up the great care, you are doing a fine job.

Paint Girl said...

I sure hope she gets better real soon!! I always worry that my horses will injure themselves on the frozen mud!!
Hang in there, and give that girl a hug for me!

Michelle said...

Wow. Have to say, I'd never considered a frozen turd would aggravate an injury. Ahh, the joys of living in the north....lol.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Oh no! I hope she doesn't get any worse....and just keeps getting better instead. How frustrating, especially when you're dealing with all this in such cold and icy weather.


~Lisa