Setbacks

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Is Mercury still retrograde? 'Cause I've about had enough of this ish.

Today was clog-change day for Cree. She's been doing well: relatively mobile; getting accustomed to the oddness of the clog and its small central "heel"; putting weight on the foot semi-regularly; not rocking back on her hind end; eyes clear and body language relatively free of pain.

But . . . .

We are having April days and February nights. Soon, once again, to be January on both counts, even if we do move into February at midnight tonight. And this sort of weather is bad for horses, particularly those prone to founder, in a couple of ways.

First, there's the systemic upset that the rapid-fire fluctuations in temperature, barometric pressure, and weather cause. For horses prone to colic, laminitis, and full-blown founder, it can be a disaster. It's why horse people don't talk so much about "spring," but about "colic season," especially in places like this where the weather tends to be extreme even without any help from climate change.

After al whole month of two feet of snow frozen solid on the ground, it's been getting up near fifty all week, and we now have two inches of mud everywhere that doesn't still have snow cover. In other words, the horses' pens are a bog, and that's problematic for other reasons. Like thrush.

Cree's been off the antibiotics, both internally and the poultice on her hoof, for over a week now. She's been doing well, with no drainage, seepage, or infection of the hoof, and there's even seemed to be some slight hardening where the coffin bone has rotated. Hardening is good, because it it's happening, it likely means that she's very slowly beginning to build tiny bits of new sole and hoof wall. If she's going to survive this, that's what absolutely has to happen.

Unfortunately, today, for the very first time since we began the treatment protocol nearly a month ago, when we unwrapped the clog, the sole was slightly damp. For me to explain this properly, especially for non-horse people, I'll have to show you some images.

Now, see that U-shaped indentation near the front curve of the hoof, below? The one that's deeper on the left than on the right?

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

That's the area of concern (and "concern" is the understatement of the year). That is the area of the sole that needs rebuilding, because the coffin bone — the bone that links the end of the leg into the hoof, and therefore is the weight-bearing part of the limb — only functions if it remains at a very specific angle, without much room for movement. When the horse develops laminitis, the inflammation can affect the positioning of the bone. If the bone rotates (which is not actually a full 360-degree turn; "rotation" is simply the term applied to it once it reaches a certain degree of movement out of place), it send the coffin bone out of position in a way that cannot support the horse. When I've said, before, that a horse can rotate right through its feet? This is what I meant — and, yes, the bone does, in extreme case, literally come right through the sole.

Cree is almost to that point, and that's what we're trying desperately to reverse. 

Now, about that "U" shape . . . .

As you can see, it's recessed from the rest of the sole, creating a cavity of sorts. As you can also see, that recession is worse on the left than on the right by a fairly substantial margin. 

This is the right side:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

It's not good, but I've seen much worse. There are a couple of dynamic at play here that create this problem.

One of them is the result of the constant inflammation that accompanies laminitis. In extremely acute or severely chronic cases (or both, like Cree's case), the inflammation gets so bad that it creates abscesses within the hoof wall. This is why I've talked so much over the years about foot soaks in apple-cider vinegar, about really close short trims, about literally opening the abscesses to allow them to bleed out so she gets some relief. 

When they get bad enough, they can cause other problems entirely apart from the infection itself: Horses' lower limbs are very slender and compact, without much room, and yet their hooves are a tightly-nested tangle of blood vessels large and small. Keeping those clear is crucial for proper circulation; without it, the blood literally begins to back up, pooling where it shouldn't, spiking blood pressure, and causing all sorts of circulatory problems. And just as with humans, when there's limited circulation to an inflamed and/or infected area of tissue, you get very, very bad things happening (think, e.g., the result of limited foot circulation in a diabetic). 

Now, part of what's happened with Cree's sole is the rotation, which is clearly worse on the left side . . . but part of it is also the tissue damage from the abscesses. This two recessed areas that form a "U" were two sets of abscesses that grew and grew until they pooled together. The result is that the sole gets softened from the constant state of infection and presence of bacteria, as well as from the increased pressure from the rotation. 

And then, you get what she has on the left — a crater-like cavity:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

In addition to the damage from the infection, all of this also makes her more prone to thrush (which horses are prone to developing anyway). Now, with the mud and muck and warm days? It's everywhere out there. But the result is that all of this has progressively eaten away at her sole, cracking it, weakening it, softening it, until you get what you see above.

Now, there's also another factor at play here: We've kept her foot dry, wrapped, and clogged repeatedly, but there are still at least remnants of those pesky abscesses up in the hoof wall. We're under no illusions that the SMZ poultices and internal doses dried them up and destroyed them completely; there was far too much infection, and it was too widespread, for it to have healed completely so fast. Given the slight darkening of the sole on that left side (and in natural light, it has a slight dark-reddish tinge to it, even though you can't see that in the photo), it makes me wonder whether it's not renewed infection, but simply the natural progression of the remnants of the abscess moving down her hoof as the hoof grows out and as her system heals and forces it out. If so, that's probably the best scenario we could hope for right now. We do know that the sole has resoftened, at least a bit (we know this from pressing on it), and we also know that pressing on it caused her more pain than a few days ago.

The alternatives are not good. At best, it means a setback from just days ago. Not insurmountable, but it will need careful watching and management. But more worrisome are the other alternatives: renewed infection, which means more antibiotics, etc.; or more rotation, or at least more softening of the sole.

All the photos and a detailed explanation are, of course, going to the vet; she was planning on another visit soon to take new X-rays anyway. But I can't deny that this is frightening, under the circumstances. She has thrush in the other three feet (not surprising; they all will have it right now, given the circumstances), and so I've added half a dozen units of the Cornucrescine tea-tree oil hoof paint that we sue to treat it to our Amazon wish list. 

We're hanging onto the positive signs right now: her degree of movement; her balance and weight-bearing ability; her relative comfort and seeming freedom from pain, at least compared to a few weeks ago; her mood, which is good. But she will need all the help she can get, and that means good vibes from wherever she can get it. [On a practical level, it also means that we need to make some sales, because all of this costs — and not just in dollars, but in terms of a huge investment of our own time and labor.]

So, once again: Please, share the link to Wings's Web site with all of your networks. Testimonials help. And please, whatever good vibes you've got to spare right now, throw 'em Cree's way.

Thanks.



P.S. For those wondering, no, we haven't heard from the appliance repairman. No working washer, and probably no dryer. [Sigh] more $$$$.



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.