ROUND 2 OF MAGGOT THERAPY FOR MAMA TESS!
Today I will apply the new regiment of maggots into Mama Tess’ left front hoof.
They (the army of maggots) have arrived already… (1047 of them, counted by “MM”) in fact, they are ‘warming up’ in the laundry room as I type this.
I’m waiting for my new farrier friend, Mark, to come help. He is a gift. He drives this far (an hour) because he wants to learn from the Founder Warrior – free of charge to me. Except today, there is no Founder Warrior. Just Mark and myself.
The new regiment has arrived!
THE PROCEDURE
For me to administer the maggots – and for Tess to hold her foot up – I feel it is preferable to have a partner. Doing such an oogey thing as this – fast – can be problematic.
…I don’t mind doing oogey things… as long as I can be careful not to get the oogey things on myself. But, when I am working rapidly with 1047 microscopic, oogey, maggots, I like to have another set of eyes and hands, if you know what I mean…
You never know where those little buggers might drop.
(Time Lapse)
The maggots ARE IN! Mark and I worked like a well-oiled machine. Tess stood on her Theraplate so we had a very even surface. I had previously soaked her foot in warm water so her foot was clean and wrapped.
I fed Tess a bowl of soaked beet pulp to distract her.
Go Time!
We cut off her wraps, cleaned the surface of any errant material, slapped in the gauze full of approximately 1047 maggots (give or take the few we couldn’t corral), added a saline-filled new gauze, wrapped the foot with vet wrap and booted her in the Easy Boot we had prepped with the cut-out area in the toe for the maggots to breathe.
All in about 2 minutes.
Yippee Kai Yay!
The container of medical maggots. Very sterile. They come in a tiny piece of gauze, wrapped up in the bottom of this jar.
These are a few we missed… I put them on the outside of her hoof. They will migrate to where they need to be.
WHY ARE WE DOING THE MAGGOTS AGAIN?
The last round of Team Tess Maggots didn’t get all the necrotic tissue… Even though her foot smelled clean when we were done, the infection was still lingering.
So, this time, I have learned to get TWO regiments of 1000. One for the beginning of the week and then next set for the end of the week. In this way, whatever is missed can be cleaned up by the fresh, new crew.
And, if I this time I still think the maggots are too fat and happy after round 2, I’ll quickly overnight a 3rd team to keep up the good fight. (You want the maggots to be starving at the end…)
Tess’ laminar wedge is quite large at her toe. (This is the area of the hoof wall that has pulled away from the lamnina.) So, she has much damage and dead tissue in the crevices.
In fact, I wish I could have taken better photos, but when the maggots were done last time, the area looked like honeycomb. Caverns. Lots of little pathways.
So, I’m sure nasty tissue can hide in that kind of an environment. This time, I will be more vigilant.
This is her neatly wrapped hoof, full of Team Tess!
ST NICHOLAS ABBEY!
Small world.
The owner of Theraplate, Chip, checks in on Tess every now and then. Considering the (fabulous) piece of equipment is on loan, he is very, very lenient and kind with me…
Anyway, he called a few weeks ago and I told him of the incredible sole growth that I attribute largely to the Theraplate. And, I told him that we were using maggots to clean up her necrotic tissue.
We also spoke of how the Theraplate helped with abscesses (in my opinion) and that the Theraplate didn’t seem to kill the maggots although I didn’t want to test that too much…
Chip told me that he had just shipped a unit over to St. Nicholas Abbey and that he was going to be speaking to them all about our (and his other clients, for sure) successes with the Theraplate.
–St. Nicholas Abbey suffered a horrible pastern fracture… and has had laminitis issues as well as colic, etc… The specialists there are doing every single thing they can to help this very popular and valuable stud.–
Lo and Behold, St. Nicholas Abbey is using a Theraplate and maggots, too!
I tell ya, I think the Founder Warrior is golden. She is treating Tess the same way as equine Royalty.
Yah, baby!
Now we put both horses in the hands of Horsegod and pray that they make history.
ONE OF THE ARTICLES ABOUT ST. NICHOLAS ABBEY
There are a few articles out there about St. Nicholas Abbey, but I thought this one sent to me (Thank you, Leslie) was the easiest to comprehend. She talks about the maggot use and the ‘vibration’ plate – which is the Theraplate that Chip sent over.
Click here to read the entire article.
Click image to read entire article.
Click image to read more…
Go Maggots, Go! This is a real maggot – A microscopic view of a sterile bottle fly maggot of the type used in biotherapy for distal limb infections in horses. (Flickr.com image shared from Ackbar91)
HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!
DECEMBER BUCKET FUND HORSES! CLICK IMAGE! Look at this sweet, old pony who was dumped by his family after working for many years… Abandoned and starved after giving his entire life.
This is amazing and my heart goes out to you and Mama Tess and all your support system. On the other hand, the closeup of the maggot made the hair on my head stand straight up!
I love hearing about Mama Tess, your continuing support of her illness and all of the wonderful people you are meeting throughout this journey. However, I am not sure how I will ever forget the closeup picture of the maggot. They look bad enough to the naked eye, I didn’t need to know that my imagination is correct and they are truly flesh eating monsters! YUCK!
Horsegods smorsgods, YOU are a true angel for your devotion to Tess. She hit the horse lotto when she got you for a caretaker.