Last week I noticed that Scatman, my elderly Tennessee Walker was toe touching when he walked. I became concerned and called the vet out. To my surprise, the vet I normally use was no longer with the clinic, so a different vet was sent out. I told him of Scatmans history and how the year before he had a steriod shot in the right hock and that we thought sometime in the future he would need one in the left hock. Since it was the left hoof that he was dragging, we assumed that it was time for the shot, so, the vet gave him one in the left hock.
For a couple days it seemed a bit better, and then, yesterday morning, disaster struck. Scatman was down. He didn’t have any desire to get up. He wasn’t thrashing or acting like he had any energy. I tried to get ahold of the clinic to no avail, and was instructed before to do a dex shot along with some bute and he would get up on his own time. Well, he didn’t, so after 4 hrs of struggling, 4 of us managed to get him to his feet. He walked extremely stiff and wouldn’t even put a bit of weight on his left hoof. We got him into his stall and I got ahold of the vet. I told them what had happened and they said they would send someone out that afternoon. I fed Scatman some hay and got him water and tied him up in the stall so he wouldn’t go down again. About 7 hours later the vet showed up. I had never met her before, she was yet even a different one. After about a 4 min examine, she determined that he had an abscess in hoof. It was quite obvious when she used her hoof tool and squeezed he pulled away like someone shot him and moaned.
This is good news and bad. You see, they don’t want to put weight on that hoof, so they will lay down, but since we can hardly get him up, I don’t want to let him lay. He isn’t eating his grain, just hay, so I’m sure his belly is upset too. So, I gave him Maalox for his belly and stayed in his stall with him all night to make sure he didn’t lay down, which he didn’t. We are doing the Epson Salt soaks as instructed and a little bute. We are hoping that the abscess breaks through quickly, that will make him feel so much better. So, now, its a wait and see game.
This morning I let him loose in his stall. He is not happy. He is hanging his head over the chains trying to get out. Of course, it doesn’t help that Cybil, his pasture buddy is over there too because she is so concerned about him. Later this afternoon I will turn him out, if it doesn’t rain. If he lays for a bit, thats ok, I just hope that we are able to get him up a lot more easily then yesterday. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome. I’m hoping its a quick recovery.
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