Yay! Tonight things are much better with Miss Mocha. Last night was pretty depressing, but I’m not surprised, in retrospect. Last night, Mocha wouldn’t touch more than the toe of her left fore to the ground, was horrendously camped under herself and would not put much weight on the right hind.
I had visions of Neurological Stuff. It took Gregg supporting her on the right hind for me to be able to do the diaper/vetwrap/duct tape whamdoodle on the left fore, and even at that she had to pull back on one cross-tie with Gregg steadying her to get it wrapped. Yeah. Scary thoughts last night. With another friend having to put down her mare, I wasn’t in any mood to share. OTOH, I took a look at the cavity in the left fore and…yeah. I’m thinking abscess plus dirt packed into it.
Tonight, though, while she was low in spirits (I think she was hurting), still, she came out of the stall weighting most of her left fore and….weighting her right hind. A little wobbly, but it got better after I gave her the grain with Bute powder (OMG, handful of plain oats, molasses, bute and a wee bit of water–she slurps it right up. MUCH better than the paste!) and then took her for a short hand walk in the arena. She lined right out in the soft footing but after four rounds was ready to call it enough. Getting out really helped her mood, and thankfully she’s a sane horse, so I just let the lead rope swing and had her pick her own pace.
Afterward, she was much more cheerful (I’m sure the Bute was also kicking in by then!). Of course, she wasn’t refusing treats, either. She did her usual thing of hanging out at the open door while I swept the alley, then got her typical three cookies before I went to flip the grass hay stuck behind her salt block where she could reach it.
Did not rewrap tonight. I plan to do that every other day. I put enough duct tape on that the wrap is holding solid, and she’s not coming out of the stall unless I do it right now. The less I muck with things at this point, my sense is, the better. She just needs time to heal up. Whew. That, I can handle.
She was a wee bit stiff in that right hind when first walking out in the alleyway, but loosened up as we walked in the soft arena. That had me more worried than the left fore–the heel crack in the left fore makes that pretty obvious. The farrier can work with one bad leg, but two? Not gonna ask that of any farrier except in the direst of straits. So I was very relieved tonight when she came out of the stall bearing weight on that right hind and not being ouchy about it. She was tight walking down the alley to the arena but walked out of it, so that’s good.
Currently, the plan is to hold steady until the farrier gets by on his regular schedule. I want to get that right hind more time to heal up. K is pretty good with her stiffnesses, but still…I can stick the diaper/vetwrap/duct tape on her until he gets here in a week and a half, it gives that heel time to mend, and it gets whatever she did to that hind leg time to settle down more.
