Haven't We Been Here Before?

Before we'd gotten together to do some flexions and trot-ups, Kate had let me know the other day that Quadi was sometimes nodding in walk in the paddock :(

There were still no external indicators of a soft tissue injury (swelling, heat) and because he'd been sound coming off the Danilon, I opted to leave him be. Plus he has wrecked his stable door for the third time so clearly it will do him no good to be cooped up.

Sometimes he's perfectly sound walking and he can put weight on that leg correctly. Sensible money is on an abscess right now. We cold-hosed the offending hoof and leg up to the fetlock, and had a good feel for heat, which was detected around the inside heel bulb. This corresponds with the separation in the hoof wall being worst on the inside of that hoof. Turning him around in the yard he looked three-legged, yet trotting him back across the paddock he never took a bum step!

After a quick chat with the vet today, we're going to try more hot-tubbing and then using Red Horse Hoof Stuff to pack the area and hopefully get on top of this. If he's not improved by the end of the week then perhaps we'll need the vet to take x-rays and resect part of the hoof wall as per the last infection Quadi had, the one in the off fore that had him laid off for weeks. He's happy for us to try this method of approach for a few days, as long as the lameness remains intermittent.

The snag is that I am due offshore again by the end of the week, but on the bright side it's more money for a car, which I still haven't been able to buy!

I'm a little annoyed with myself that this separation has potentially allowed in an infection, but the vet said he'd seen a lot of horses with similar complaints this year. The good news is that the new growth is very tight and the hoof horn is very tough. I was despondent about this but the good thing about hooves is that they keep growing and this is hopefully just a blip on the road to much better feet.