The wonderful Founder Warrior took it upon herself to make the 5 hour commute (rt) again today to tend to Tess.
Mama Tess has continued to abscess on her left front and we wanted to open up that toe area so it could all drain faster.
The odd thing that I must say here is that previously when Tess abscessed, she was totally lame and very painful… but, since she has been using the Theraplate, her abscess incidents seem to be less painful. I don’t know why. But, she walks around with her abscesses now whereas before, she was not willing to move. I don’t know if the centrifugal draws the abscesses out sooner? I really have no idea how it may be helping but I know for sure that she is less painful during the abscess process since she has been on the Theraplate. (No affiliation)
This is her ‘good’ right foot. It has grown tremendous sole thanks to the Theraplate and the Hoof Supplement from Enzion.
XRAYS FIRST, THEN TRIM…
We took Xrays of both fronts before trimming.
All looked good – lots of sole to work with – so we trimmed as much as we could of the excess sole. WE FOUND THE FROGS on both hooves! Wahoo!
(We have not been able to trim her much, so the sole that would normally slough off during normal wear and tear, doesn’t. So, the sole essentially overgrows and disguises the frog. It becomes almost a hard, glossy surface. So odd. The sole no longer looks like a sole. It looks like a shiny, horn colored surface.)
We also opened up some pockets so the abscesses could drain more quickly.
After Xrays to make sure how much we could trim, the FW and Mark (local trimmer) and MT prepared for the trim process.
MT wanted her bowl of goodies that I was holding at her head.
They went to work, alternating hooves depending upon which one MT wanted to hold up at the time… they were very gentle.
THE GOOD NEWS
The good news was that she didn’t seem to mind having her feet trimmed. She was a good girl and offered her feet (switching between the two often).
Her Xrays showed continued sole growth.
The right Xray was particularly nice in that the lamina looked almost normal.
The left Xray had nice sole growth but didn’t have as nice of adhesion in the new growth as we’d like. The lamina was still pulled away from the new hoof wall. But, she didn’t seem particularly ouchy so we were OK with that for now.
Since I was at her head, I couldn’t see what they were doing, but I did manage to get this shot of what is starting to look like a regular hoof – at last!
This was my view…
Here it today’s Xray of her left. She still has plenty of sole. And, you can see the necrotic tissue and pockets at the toe that we hope to have opened up to drain today. Her new wall is not adhered to the lamina as closely as we would like – but she isn’t very sore on the left so we are crossing our fingers.
THE UNCERTAIN NEWS
The uncertain news was the front view Xray of the left. That view has never been taken before so we have nothing to compare.
But, there is irregularity on one side. We don’t know if this is older show mare wear and tear, or if there is an infection in her bone. We then Xrayed the right foot and it looked irregular in a different way, yet we know it has no infection. So, we have no idea.
If there was an infection, I would have to give up. From what I’ve been told, only surgery can fix that. And she isn’t a good candidate for surgery because her other foot is compromised and she wouldn’t have enough support to stand on after the surgery.
But, we cross that bridge if we have to. For now, I choose to believe that since she is not really ouchy on the left, what we are seeing on the Xray is wear from a horse who pronates in that direction and was worked really, really hard when she showed.
This area is irregular. It doesn’t look like a big infection circle, but it does look odd. I am hoping it is bone breakdown from a horse who pronates that direction and had a very strenuous show career… Crossing my fingers.
MOVING ONWARD
MT will wear a poultice wrap on her left for the next several days to draw out the abscesses. As you can see, we put a slipper on over it. Easy.
Next week, the Founder Warrior is going to bring sterile maggots to the rescue. They will happily eat away her necrotic tissue and hopefully prevent infection from going anywhere.
This should be interesting, eh?
I get to change that bandage daily.
Yum!
But, I don’t care. If they are helping my girl, so be it.
Resting afterwards . I so love this girl. She was very good today. Very good indeed!
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I swear she knows you are doing everything to help her–just look at her face! I think of you and MT almost every day, and am really pulling for a complete recovery.
It’s probably a good thing that you didn’t get that front view xray until now… with all of her other problems, the vet very well could have diagnosed that as a bone infection in addition to her founder, making it harder for you to hang in there with Tess. Sounds like the Theraplate is a winner.
I am following MT’s progress closely. As a horse owner one never knows what we’ll face.
Year’s ago when I learned how important maggots were to healing I started to look at them differently. I’m no longer as repulsed as I used to be as they are truly one of nature’s miracles. (Just disguised in a really, really gross and disgusting package.)
Keeping my finger’s crossed for MT!
Keeping positive thoughts for MT. The x-rays and use of the maggots are interesting. Do you think her new insensitivity to pain could have anything to do with the necrotic tissue?
Also. could we have an update on Betsy Rose?