Today I am taking Baylee to the Vet. Last year at this time she was sore in front. it would come and go. In October we finally decided to treat it as some type of laminitis. And she did need to lose weight. So we put her on a diet of grass hay. a little bit of dry alfalfa to help her through the cold part of the year. Volunteer Bridget began to ride her two or three times a week once she got over her soreness. Baylee lost weight, she was 100% sound, she was back to her old self. All winter long. We kept her on her diet but began to let her graze for 15 minutes. we would increase that every few days. We stopped increasing when we got up to 2 hours of grazing. She continued to stay 100% sound. On June 1 she had her hooves trimmed. The very next morning she was very sore. And she has been sore off and on, mostly on, since then. The hot and humid days seem to make it worse. Needless to say, Baylee gets no more grazing. She is on a diet of last year's grass hay. I don't know how much of her problem has to do with what she eats. I suspect a big part of it. But I also know it has something to do with the hoof trims.
I have used the same farrier for more than 20 years and I don't mean it has something to do with "his" hoof trims. I mean it has something to do with Baylee's feet when she gets her hooves trimmed. She has always been very tender on gravel. And sometimes does get sore for a few days after her hooves are trimmed. Until the last couple of years she has had shoes on during the summer. So maybe nothing has changed except that she doesn't have shoes on. Maybe if she had shoes on she wouldn't be sore.
It is hard to know. But I suspect we will do Xrays today to see what kind of damage has been done. And I suspect we will put shoes, and maybe pads on.
I also suspect she will be ordered to stay on her last year's grass hay diet.
I hate to do that to her. But I dont' want to have her sore either.
Wish us luck.
I am also taking Hero in. mostly just for a trip to town in the trailer. But he does have this lump on his shoulder area. It's been there for more than a month. I did think it was a bite mark. But someone suggested that it may be a sarcoid. So I think I'll have the Vet take a look at it. It doesn't seem to bother him any. But it is pretty noticeable.
I'm going to make a note about something else here too.
Hoof abscesses!
We have had one here and there over the 17 years we have been here. But this spring we had three! We treated Flicka for 2 months. She is now back to riding and is 100%. We treated Butterscotch for 2 weeks. By now I am really good with abscesses. So, when we noticed Prince walking on tiptoe, I immediately did a sweat wrap overnight. The next morning, just like magic, the abscess had blown out along the coronary band. So, we did not have to have a hole dug into his foot. We treated him for a few days. Soaked, tried to keep it clean. His abscess did not come back. Another thing I noticed is that Butterscotch's abscess was on her foot that she favors anyway. Her back left, where she has an OCD lesion in her stifle joint. And Prince's abscess was on his right back, where his arthritis bothers him the most. In his hock.
I am just making these notes so I can go back and look at them next year at this time.
