The news is bad. It could've been a hell of a lot worse.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

That's Cree in the blanket, about 4:15 PM this afternoon.

We spent more than two hours straight on her today with the vet, and the news is bad.

It could've been a hell of a lot worse.

She's "almost through" her left sole. In actuality, she is through it; you can feel the tip of the coffin bone, if you know precisely where to press.

Time was, not very long ago, either, that that was an immediate death sentence.

Her right has rotated, too, but nowhere near that level.

More over the jump:

First, I just need a moment to myself here:

GGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

Can I just say how frustrating it is to have been right about EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN THING ALL THESE YEARS, and have no one listen because "the farrier knows what he's doing"? I was right every step of the way, and we might (MIGHT) not be here now, but it's all, as they say, water under the fucking bridge now.

Okay, back to where we are:

It is possible to rebuild sole, IF everything works in concert in just the right ways. We won't know whether that's possible for Cree for at least a couple of weeks yet, and not really even then; that's just the initial threshold.  But she has been trimmed seriously short, and beveled; she will get another 1/8" to 3/8" taken off the toe in about a week. In the meantime, it's a return to the clogs I favored years ago.  Except that someone seems to have thrown them out, and so we had to come up with a solution. It turns out to be a better one, because this clog will have to come off every day or two and then be put back on, and the plastic ones require screws (impossible for this protocol), and the plastic holds in moisture (a serious drawback with infection present as it is). So Wings made a wooden two-layered clog on the fly while the vet was here, one that looks very much the heel on an old-fashioned tap-dancer's shoe. Where the coffin both is threatening to fall through (and where there is infection present), she's getting SMZ/water paste covered with gauze, bandaged, then clogged and taped. For now, every other day. Plus SMZ orals, Bute, ProBios, Banamine, and, as of tomorrow, if it's in, Tramadol and Prascend.

Two weeks, and we assess where we are. If she's regressed, the options are probably limited to the worst one. If she's stable, we give her another couple of weeks and re-evaluate. if she's improved, we fucking celebrate (and then work our asses off in this process of rebuilding sole and hoof wall and trying to get the coffin bone to reattach via scar tissue buildup). It's a long, hellishly involved process, but it might just be doable.

The vet's sending me the films tonight so that I can see the degree of rotation in both forefeet. We'll be trimming and booting her right, too, and it will also require work. 

But about 4PM, she began demanding to be let out of her stall. Fifteen minutes later, harried by Miskwaki (who worries when she's down), she bolted through the  north gate, hauled ass at a good clip around the north and east side of the pens, and re-entered at the southeast gate. It's that trip you see in the photo above.

So fingers crossed. We have a hell of a lot of work to do. [And a lot of expense; fortunately, we made a small sale today that might mostly cover today's visit.] And prayers, energy, good vibes, all of that? She can still use it.


All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.