Ongoing Lameness

Last night, when I went to change Tanna's bandage/poultice, I decided to use some pliers to test his hoof for reaction. He did not react to pain. So I decided to leave the poultice off. The hoof had been bandaged (changed every evening) for 6 full days.

This is a picture of the bottom of his hoof just after removing the poultice. I was just about to remove the gauze from the heel bulbs. The red circle indicates the hole my vet made to allow the abscess to drain. Along the edge of the shoe, you can also see the black of the pad my farrier put on. When Tanna turned up lame on Wednesday, September 7, Daniel cut out the pad and the equi-thane that my farrier had applied on Tuesday morning.


However, because of putting the pad and equi-thane on the hoof, we closed up the abscess hole. This was not a good thing because the abscess apparently wasn't done draining. Sometime Wednesday night, the abscess blew out through the heel bulb. The following is a picture taken last night after removing the bandages.


After removing the poultice, I cleaned the hoof and took some ichthammol and stuffed it and a bit of a cotton ball into the hole on the sole in an effort to keep the hole clean and protected. Then I turned Tanna out.

This morning when I went to feed, I found Tanna was a bit off again on the left hind. The heel bulb seemed tender. I will be able to test the sole this afternoon after proper hoof testers arrive from UPS.