So that left hind just wasn’t healing. Due to the location of this cut, it kept getting irritated and opening every time Jewel would step down on it. In fact, proud flesh (seen in the photo below) was starting to take over. Boo.
Part of the problem is that we’ve had a really wet fall. In fact, this fall has been much more “spring like” in regards to weather than most falls we’ve had. With the ground staying so damp, this has never really had the chance to dry and heal properly. I did start leaving Jewel in during the night and treating the area with Cefadri (topical antibiotic), Wonder Dust and AlumiSpray. This helped, but it still wasn’t where I wanted it to be. It was time to involved the farrier again.
I had been keeping Sharon (my farrier) up to date via text message (gotta love technology!) on this injury. She was going to be out to the farm in a few days, so I asked if she would look at Jewel’s foot and decide if she thought a bar shoe might be a good idea. She did take a look and decided that an egg bar shoe would be the best option. This would provide stability to the bulb area of Jewel’s heel and allow the cut and wound to heal. Sharon was a bit concerned that the cut could have gone through the bulb and into the digital cushion, which would be a bad thing (provides support and cushion to the coffin bone). However, all the reading that I have done about such injuries suggest that a horse is quiet lame when the digital cushion is exposed. And while she’s been a little sore, Jewel has never really been lame. In fact, this was on Oct 12th (before the shoe) and I’d say she was feeling pretty good. 🙂
So on October 15th, for economics sake, we only put a shoe on the one side.
I figured I wouldn’t be riding her anyways until it healed (no sense in that really), so she would be just fine with one hind shoe on. Its been a really long time since she had any hind shoes on and I could tell that it must have felt weird to her. She carried herself a little funky (although still not lame) with the shoe on.
And the treatments continued. And it seems the extra support combined with drying the area is doing the job. Here it is on October 28. Its pretty obvious how much smaller the proud flesh area is. The slice is still there. I’m not sure how long it will take her to regrow the bulb of the heel. Could be a while.
I will be out to check on her tomorrow and will get some updated pictures of the foot again. Especially since its been a couple weeks now since the last comparison photo (again…gotta love technology!!). I may even get to start riding again soon. Woohoo!!
Confessions of a Horse Addict 